Seriously thinking of getting a portable Air Conditioner for the bedroom but am confused/baffled on how how they work and how effective it will be.
Am told that I need to vent some kind of hose out of the window while the AC is working? Surely on a hot humid night I’d be letting warm,muggy air in just by having the window open therefore cancelling out any cooling efect the AC would bring
Effectively it would be like trying to operate a Fridge with the door open all the time?
BTW I’m a Poster from the UK (Belfast to be precise) & Air Conditioners are much rarer over here (certainly the type that predominate across the water, the ones that sit on your windowsill and you close the window on) are as rare as hen’s teeth.
Any advice appreciated and hello btw (first post, though long-time Forum-browser)
The air conditioner needs to be able to dump room heat outside, which is why you have to connect to the window. What you need is a piece of wood cut to fit the open window, with a hole for the AC hose. That way the hot side stays hot, and the cool side stays cool. In a pinch, you could set it in the door to the bedroom, with the cooling coils in the hall. This would keep the bedroom cool, at the expense of heating up the hallway.
I live in Southern California, where it is very hot, but not humid at all. I get by with a “swamp” (evaporation) cooler on wheels. I set it by an open window in the bedroom, fill it with water, and let it do its thing. The room stays cool, and the heat is pumped out the window.
The type of unit you’re thinking of has a length of 4" or 6" flexible exhaust hose, like that found on many clothes dryers. The unit sits on the floor and the hose exhausts the hot air out the window via the hose. These come with a fitting for the window with a flange for the hose, and adjustable sliders to fit the width of the window, keeping the outide air out. The othe consideration is drainage. You’ll need to periodically empty a basin in the bottom of the unit, or it will overflow. They work fairly well, but for maximum comfort and energy efficiency, you’ll want to match the BTU rating of the unit with the size of the area to be cooled. This page has a handy calculator that will help you properly size your AC unit. This should work the same for either a portable or a window unit.
Where the heck do you live in So. Cal. that doesn’t have humidity. The humidity in Burbank is clocking in at 48% as we speak. In Long Beach, where I will be later it’s 60% this afternoon. I know people in the Valley use swamp coolers, but I can’t believe they work as good as in, say, Tuscon or Albuquerque where I used to use one. Are you up in the high desert, or are you comparing the humidity relative to Houston?
Redlands. Yucaipa, actually. But yeah, I was speaking of relative humidity. We aren’t nearly as bad as say…Atlanta. Or Boston. Or St. Louis. Or…you get my point. Not as good as in Phoenix, but they work.
Having lived with evap coolers on the desert for 54 years I’m sort of an expert. You don’t have to put it by a window. Open a window on the downwind side of the house. The fan will, believe it or not, raise the pressure in the house enough to exhaust the air through that window.
Or here (west-central coastal Florida – it’s usually worse inland), where it is currently 11 at night, 79 F / 26 C and 74% humidity. Swamp coolers are absolutely worthless around here.
Craic is an Irish term and, in my experience at least, is generally pronounced pretty much the same as “crack.”
In general, it’s meaning is along the lines of “talk” or “gossip” or “conversation” or “banter,” generally of a social or friendly nature. In this context, the OP is asking, essentially, “What’s the deal” or “What’s the buzz” or “What have you heard” about portable air conditioners.
The most likely place to hear the term, in my experience, is when discussing an evening out. “We were at the pub last night, and there was some really good craic,” or “How was the craic at the wedding?” You get the picture, although i’m sure there’ll be a genuine Irish doper along soon to expand on my definition, or to point out something i’ve missed.
What you need is a piece of wood cut to fit the open window, with a hole for the AC hose. That way the hot side stays hot, and the cool side stays cool. In a pinch, you could set it in the door to the bedroom, with the cooling coils in the hall. This would keep the bedroom cool, at the expense of heating up the hallway.
Large (ish) two and a half foot Window that opens outwards. Not such an easy gap to custom fill with wood and ensure that no hot and humid air creeps in?
Also what on earth is a “swamp” (evaporation) cooler (not that they have them in Belfast you understand, just out of curiousity).
You get the picture, although i’m sure there’ll be a genuine Irish doper along soon to expand on my definition, or to point out something i’ve missed.
You’re explanation sounds Dead On.
A swamp cooler uses evaporation to cool air. A fan pulls air through a fibrous pad that has water dripping on it. The water evaporates, cooling the air. Of absolutely zero use anywhere it gets humid, because the water doesn’t evaporate! They get the nickname “Swamp” coolers because they jack up the humidity of the house they are cooling like you wouldn’t believe! Not a prob in Tuscon, where things could do with a little moisture in the air.
As for the window…hmmmmm. a piece of 1/4 inch plywood should do the trick. Cut to fit in the window, edge with duct tape to form a bit of a seal, and cut a hole for the hose. Remove when done and close the window.
A swamp cooler is really just a water evaporator. You run water through a screen or piece of cloth (as I understand it) and blow a fan over or through the water-containing medium. The evaporation can cool the air 15-20 degrees F.
They’re much cheaper than a compressor-cooler (real AC), but they only really work with low relative humidity. The water needs to evaporate very quickly to lower the temperature a lot, and you don’t want to end up with air that’s so muggy you wish you’d never started.
I’ve used a so-called “swamp” cooler in high-humidity areas with great success. They work just great at doing exactly what they’re supposed to do – produce a variable-strength directed breeze of cool air (perhaps 20 degrees cooler than the ambient air) – high humidity or low (but I supposed it might not work well at 100% indoor humidity).
The only drawback – again, either in high humidity or low – is that you feel the cooling effect of the unit from within the “cone” of the breeze only: the rest of the room (outside the “cone”) becomes noticeably warmer (and of course more humid). But within the area of the breeze, it’s very cool – sometimes even a bit too cool – but always quite comfortable. It’s perfect for sleeping or for focusing on any particular (if smallish) area.
These are great devices. They’re much cheaper than air conditioners and they require no porting or tubes or ducts or access to windows. They’re entirely self-contained. Just add water. And a gallon of water lasts at least 8 hours, usually 12 hours or more.
Yeah, well, I also have one - bought it last weekend for $500 at Home Depot. It’s a Maytag brand. And it works, does just what it says it is supposed to. I have casement windows upstairs, for which air conditioners are terribly expensive and almost impossible to make fit right. And I have a finished basement without windows, for which window air conditioners are of course impossible. To top it off, there’s no central hvac, only baseboard electric. I think this thing is the answer to my dreams and I might get a couple more.
Ok, so I’m thinking that given that pronunciation, such comments and questions around here would get you some pretty curious looks, and maybe a request to be invited to the next wedding.
Indeed, an Irish fella I know was thrown out of a bar in Manhattan the first night he was there after shouting “Jesus, the craic’s great here!”
mhendo is largely correct, but, though I’m not a geniune Irisher, in my experience the primary use of the word is “enjoyment”. Of course it’s slightly more than that; it has an indefinable, enhanced Irish quality to it. I recall my first New Year’s Eve here, at about 3am in the pub, going “Now I understand what craic is! Quick, someone take a picture of it!” I got a shot of the ceiling. Pubs in Ireland often have a sign outside them that say “ceol agus craic”, meaning “music and [enjoyment]”.
I heard a radio documentary a while back saying the word was in fact originally from England hundreds of years ago and spelled “crack” (and some Londoners still say, in a slightly different usage, things like “it’s a crack” for it’s good fun).
We now return you to your scheduled discussion of aircons…
I hope this doesn’t annoy your heads but had a further thought on the matter.
Don’t think a Portable Air Conditioner will be the answer as they’re way too much hassle (venting hoses & blocking up windows) & probably too expensive to justify(starting @ £200).
Now it’s the Humididy that’s the killer so what if I bought a Dehumidifier, gave it a blast in the room and when the air’s dry, stick in a Swamp Cooler, which although it would raise the humidity would actually cool the room.
The combination of one after the other might do the trick and at less than half the price?
