# Portable Air Conditioners - what's the craic?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/portable-air-conditioners-whats-the-craic/248507>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [June 3, 2004, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/portable-air-conditioners-whats-the-craic/248507 "2004-06-03T21:22:36Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![robby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robby/32/11048_2.png) [@robby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robby)\
**Post date:** [June 7, 2004, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/portable-air-conditioners-whats-the-craic/248507/21 "2004-06-07T03:01:10Z")

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> [@Andrew\_G](#):
>
> 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?

This won’t work. Since you aren’t exhausting the heat from the room, the net effect will be to simply heat the room up. This is basic thermodynamics.

BTW, the same thing will happen if you try to run an air conditioner in a room without exhausting the heat out of the room.

I’ve used a dehumidifier unit in my basement, and if the space is closed up, it really heats the room up dramatically while drying things out. Also, you have to run it for much longer than a short “blast” to noticeably lower the humidity.

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**Author:** ![Andrew\_G](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/278dde/32.png) [@Andrew\_G](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andrew_G)\
**Post date:** [June 7, 2004, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/portable-air-conditioners-whats-the-craic/248507/22 "2004-06-07T21:16:44Z")

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Cheers foe your informative reply.

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