I had a vertical type window A/C many years ago when I was still living in rental units, and don’t remember it being especially expensive. The real problem is casement windows, where you can’t put in any kind of A/C at all. Fortunately modern houses with casement windows generally have central A/C.
I think they are using your location information to try to make the ad seem personalized. It is fun to see the location change as you travel. When I stayed near the Grand Canyon, all the many residents of Grand Canyon Village loved the product.
I see these ads in the US also. They seem to be stick on the all units with no venting, so junk. I checked out real ACs before I got central air put in. Our windows don’t support window units (I’ve used them since 1962) and the put the hose through the window portable units in Costco would have no doubt leaked hot air in like crazy. But they don’t break the laws of physics, at least.
I never volunteer my location information but Google and ChatGPT, among many others, have it anyway based on my IP address. At one time before rampant spam came somewhat under control, I was informed about dozens of gorgeous women extremely anxious to meet me, and by golly, every single one of them was conveniently in the immediate area associated with my IP address! Which is where my ISP’s gateway is located, but not where I actually live. The horny women would have had to drive a little farther to experience the pleasure of my company! 
Those work great in a dry climate but they need outside access. Best is outside a screen door, blowing in, or just inside a screen door.
I have seen little fan/cooler (say 16" high) units where you put ice cubes and cold water in and the fan blows across that. They work okay for a small area, but the rest of the room gets a bit warmer and more humid. In other words, blowing on you in bed or at your desk- sure. I got a couple of these from Amazon quite cheaply, for a friend. If you are working outside, they work pretty good- in a small area only of course.
Now a block of ice in a pan and a powerful fan will work also- for a while. In a smallish area.
Indeed, back in my day, the joke was that “the only people who actually understand thermodynamics are over 40 or British.” Which makes the currency of AC scams in the UK bemusing.
I thought I was oh so clever buying a portable A/C unit in the winter but turns out the one I bought is a bit undersized for my living room. However it at least still makes it bearable in here.
I discovered a good hack however, which is to attach a second pipe leading from the outside to one of the intakes. This stops the unit from creating a negative air pressure in the room and pulling in too much external hot air into the room itself.
By magic and belief, I suppose. Them ‘perfessers’ what have all that book-larnin, ain’t no match for the canny down-to-earth boy who comes from the neighbourhood and has just horse-sense. It’s a common meme. Rather more common in the US, I think?
Yes, I have one just like that for my backyard shed ( storage and workshop for garden railroad) the unit is basically a window ac that is on wheels so it is easy to move around from room to room, the hose is the only exhaust heat from the condenser coil. It uses the same air intake and splits it up to go to the condenser to cool the condenser and one side to the expansion coil and back into the space you are cooling. It is not very efficient but it does cool a 12’x 8’ shed decent enough to keep from getting heat stroke in Texas Summers… it works just like a p-tac unit in a motel room.
Garden railroad? Pardon my digression, but are you one of those LGB enthusiasts? I absolutely love the “G” scale (22.5:1) and LGB is one of the very few manufacturers who rate their tracks and trains for outdoor use. When he was little, my son had an LGB trainset running through several rooms of the upstairs of our house, much to the consternation of my wife!
It is certainly possible to construct various devices— I do not know about ‘use little electricity’— that blow cold air out one end and hot air out the other. I have even seen them. That might help you if you sit right in front of it, but not if the goal is to cool an entire room. That is what the external piping is for.
Like the vortex tube, for example.
But if you want to cool a room, you can’t have the hot stream exhausting into the same room.
It has no moving parts, but has poor energy efficiency.[2]
It looks like it would use a lot of electricity.
After living in a poorly designed apartment that despite being on the ground floor, would be 94 degrees inside when it was 82 outside, I’m living in an amazing place in which I have not yet turned on the AC this year.
Freaking amazing. I have a couple of little fans in the living room, and ceiling fan in the bedroom, and the ventilation fan on to move the air around the place in general, but without any climate control.
It’s been raining all day, so it’s only about 75F out, and I’m actually a bit chilly. Thinking of putting on socks.
My electric bills are about $100 lower per month than that were last year.
Anyway, for years, I’ve used a free-standing radiator to keep just on or two rooms warm in the winter while the thermostat in set to 60F. Saves a lot, and the radiators cost about $60 per 25 years ago.
So recently, I thought “Are there free-standing AC units?” Not wall units-- I have central air. Something I can move into whatever room I am in.
Turns out there are.
There are two things: one costs between $14 and $60, and does not deserve to be called AC. It’s basically a mister. It either blows over ice, or blows ice water over you.
The second thing really is a wall unit on wheels, and comes with a hose that looks like dryer duct, and fits a thing you block into a window, which probably doesn’t move easily. They cost $150 to $500, and the very smallest ones are barely cheaper to run than the central AC.
I’m sure by August, I’ll be running the AC, but I’ll just have to be judicious in closing vents and doors to rooms that aren’t being used for several hours, and remembering to turn the thermostat up when no one (but the pets) are there. The dog has a cooling pad on the floor (which she doesn’t even always use), and the cat likes it hot.
In houses with central AC, it’s actually better to leave the vents and doors open. It’s a common misconception that closing the vents will route that air to other rooms, but that’s not really the case. What happens is that you end up reducing the airflow through the system and creating back pressure in the ducts. That puts more stress on the blower motor. It’s designed to push a certain amount of air through the system. When you close off vents, there’s less place for the air to go and it’s harder for the blower motor to push the air through the system.
As an experiment, compare the airflow and cooling ability of your car with all the vents open versus just one open. If you have them all open, lots of air is flowing through the car. If you close all the vents but one, there will be a bit more air going through that one open vent than before, but the overall airflow in the car will be much less. That same sort of thing happens with your house when you close off vents or rooms. A bit more air will go through the open vents than before, but your overall airflow in your house will be much less.
What you should do in the summer is try to prevent heat from entering the room in the first place. The most common way heat gets in is through the windows. Keep the blinds and curtains closed. Feel your ceiling. If it’s warm, it’s radiating heat into your house. Adding insulation to your attic will help. Long term, planting trees to shade the house can help keep your house cooler.
If you don’t have AC and want to flush the hot air out of your house when it cools down in the evening, open up your attic stairs (assuming you have the drop-down attic stairs inside your house). I recently learned that trick when our AC went out. When I went up into the attic to check on the unit, I could stand on the stairs and literally feel the air rushing up around me from the inside the house and into the attic. I think that’s because the very hot air in the attic is escaping through the ridge vents, and that ends up pulling air from inside the house into the attic. Having windows open with the attic stairs open acted like a passive, whole-house fan.
Yes I am, I tried to post a couple of pictures but, the system used by the dope would not let me.
The Dope doesn’t have a system. Direct upload is disabled.
Upload to an anonymous image hosting site like ImgBB and then link to the image URL on its own line in your mesasge.
These work- kinda- in a very limited space. Like if you are watching TV, they will keep you space cooler.
I wouldn’t be surprised, depending on what makes you feel comfortable. Personally, dampness doesn’t make me very comfortable, no matter how hot it is. I’m comfortable going for a walk in 100F heat if the humidity is low, and I have something to drink with me. But I wilt when it’s in the mid-80s if the humidity is high.
The only time dampness ever helped was when I had to spend the summer in a 3rd floor apartment without AC, just a box fan, and there was a drought and a heatwave, so it was in the 100s all day, and the 90s all night for over a week. That’s when I wrung a tank top in cold water, and put it on before I lay down on my bed, with the fan beside me. Only way I could fall asleep.
I’m still marveling at the engineering of this apartment. It was in the high 60s last night, so I had a couple of windows open, and actually had to put on yoga pants, I got a little chilled. It’s still 68F out, but have closed the windows, because the thermostat in the living room says 70F, and it’s always the warmest room in the place (and I think it reads high, besides).
I’m wearing fuzzy socks.
The ceilings here at 9’ high, and the floor is sunk about 1’ below ground (it’s on a low-sloping hill, so no flooding, but I still get the benefit of the below-ground chill.
I have seriously left this place for 8 hours with blinds drawn (except at one isolated window for the cat), and nothing but the fan on to move the air, and it has gotten ton 98F according to the thermostat in my car (which mean probably really about 96F), and I come home to a rush of cool air, and a thermostat that reads 75F in the living room, which means the real feel is about 72F.
All other things being equal, I would pick 70F as a constant temp, but to save $100/month, I am quite comfortable. Last weekend was a little warmer, and I wore a tank top. This weekend, I’m in a regular T-shirt.
all this talk of portable AC units has sparked a memory. When I was around 10 or so, the neighbors had a portable AC that was basically a metal hassock, a flat top sturdy enough for us kids to sit on, ran on wall current, and pumped out cold air from vents all around the sides. My recollection is when it was operating, you couldn’t sit on it for long because the cold air would seriously chill your legs. As an adult, I’m confused as to how this thing worked without venting waste heat and hot air into the room somehow. It didn’t have a hose running to the outside, it didn’t have a drip pan that I knew of, it just sat there and cranked out cold air. Did I just dream this thing, or did it actually exist… and how?
did a little research and I think it was just a hassock fan, and apparently those things are great at bringing the cool air up from floor level where it will do some good. No AC needed.