I would appreciate any opinions or advice you can give me about these. I looked at a few in the Home Depot today. They stand abput 3 ft. high, cost. about $400 and up…My mother had an old outside central air type thing that finally rusted and fell apart after 30 years . Her house is small, one story, and full of weird tiny windows that you push out to open, and a regular boxy room AC won’t fit in any of thm. Mom is 80 and really needs an AC. I plan to take her to look at some and was wondering if one of the ‘portables’ is a good idea.
I don’t have any personal experience with one, but from reading the users manual from one of the units offered at home depot-
Be prepared to:
- clean a filter every 2 weeks
- empty the water collection bin every once in awhile (more often in humid climates).
- have to install an exhaust hose out a window.
Typically these require an exhaust hose of some sort to dump hot air/wamr water. Also, they consume a lot of power. Newer whole-house A/C units are much more efficient than placing the smaller units in a few rooms.
Be aware that overtaxing an A/C unit can greatly increase its power consumption as well as leaving your room feeling clammy. You’d do well to read up on these units and their appropriate applications.
My brother has one and it works fine. It’s better than fastening one in the window.
For the air, that makes sense. But for the water? How does the water get up from floor level to the window?
And regarding the air: How does the hose get out the window? Do people put the hose up against the insect screen, or do they remove the screen? (I presume that either way, they use some sort of plastic sheeting to prevent hot air from coming in, probably the same sort of stuff that I put on my windows in the winter.)
Any suggestions where to look? That’s what I came here for! Seriously, my wife and I will probably buy one of these soon, and I’d like to know more first.
Some of them are designed to vaporize the water and vent it with the hot air so you don’t need to empty the pan.
A window unit should be more efficient. A window unit pulls air from the room runs it accros the evap coils (cooling coils), and then puts the cool air back into the room. At the same time it is pulling outside air across the condencer coil and dumping all the heat outside.
A spot coller pulls air from the room runs it across the evap coil and then puts the cool air back into the room. Here is the difference it also pulls conditioned air from the room runs it across the condencer coils and exhaust it outside. This means hot air from outside must enter the room to replace the exhaust air.
This means per BTU the spot cooler will be more expensive to run.
For the money replacing the whole house AC would be the best bet. But that would probably be more money. Call and get an estamate from 2 or 3 dealers.
Now after all that I have one that I use in my solar room. Can not run a duct to the room and a window unit would have its own problems. But my summer power bills are high.
Most units collect the condensat in a pan and the hot air from the condencer blows accros the the top of the pan evaporating the water. If the evaporation rate is lower than the condensate rate then the pan will have to be emptyed from time to time.
The unit should come with a flexable exhause hose. The hose is connected to a window exhoust port that expands to fit into the window, If there is a window screen it will have to be removed.
I have one, it connects to a outside window via a flexible tube and thus vents that way. It’s 4X the cost of a window A/C and works about 25% as well, so you do the math. Not to mention they suck power like no-ones business.
You must have at least a small window to vent the hot air out. This window can be sealed except the vent, which is about 4" in diameter or so.
As has been said, there’s also a water pan to empty.
Now, you can also get a “swamp cooler” which works anywhere and cools by evaporation. They are cheap to buy and use. OTOh, they increase the humidity in that room also.
Compare the SEER rating of units. How to Buy a Room Air Conditioner.
Why wouldn’t you just replace this outside unit?
It’s only a small part of the cost of a total central air system – you already have the most expensive parts done – the installation, integration with the heating system, and wiring power to the unit.
Is there some reason you want to start over with a portable, temporary solution?
Why not just get a decent fan for 10% of the price?
Just going from my very limited experience at a job where they had one: They do work. They do produce a lot of water that you have to dispose of somehow (run a hose, empty the tray). They are limited in how big a space they can cool.
If she wants it in her bedroom for the night, that’s fine. Is she wants it to cool the entire apartment, that might not work.
For the kind of money a new portable will cost you, you might find a refurbished unit for the central AC.
This is what I would do. If there are already ducts, etc, inside the house, that is the biggest expense out of the way. Hubby and I have 28 rental houses, and one of the first things we did as we bought them was replace the window ACs with high-efficiency central air units. They are less trouble, and cost our tenants much less to run. Plunking in a new central AC unit would be an easy job if you are just replacing an old one and need no duct work, and it would save your mother lots of money on her electric bill.
We own in Missouri and in South Dakota, where the summer heat and humidity make AC a necessity for the comfort and well being of our tenants. Fans do not do the job.
I would not even consider one of those portables. They are expensive to buy (for what you actually get), annoying to maintain, and they suck up power like it’s orange juice.
Brilliant! Thanks!
Well, after reading these comments, I’m rethinking a portable thing. Replacing the old outside unit is going to cost $1000, no ifs ands or buts according to Some Guy (handy man advertising in the Pennysaver). The unit Mom has still works after a fashion but makes so much noise the neighbors complained to the police, so it has got to go. Some Guy suggested replacing one of the useless windows with a normal window so a window AC could be put in. OH NOES, that would look just AWFUL, sez Mom . She would rather swelter all summer than have her crappy 50 yer old falling-down house altered. Which is a whole other problem.
The house is very small. The outside thing is out under the picture window and cool air comes in through a box inside the picture window, and they don’t make that kind of AC anymore according to Some Guy. There aren’t any ducts or anything inside the house, so its not really central air as we have today.
Maybe at 80 the lady needs something better than a fan. The OP asked if the air conditioner worked an not if people thought mom needed an air conditioner.
I have one; it works fine, but under heavy usage, I have to empty the water drip bucket perhaps once per day. It has a mechanism to drain the water away, but it can only go downhill, and I don’t have a drain handy.
It’s less efficient and more expensive than the window units, but I have strange windows (and I rent, so installing central A/C is out of the question). Fitting a window unit would require a piece of wood (or some other substance) twenty inches wide and four feet high, which would block out most of the light coming in the window. While that would probably help keep the room cooler, it would be unsightly. The exhaust hose adapter is, as mentioned in previous posts, about four inches wide and adjusts to the full height of the window, which works for me.
So, it’s a solution for a particular situation, and that situation IMO is one where a regular window A/C won’t fit.
How about a ‘through the wall’ installation? This would likely be similar in price to replacing a window. I have several of these in my house & they work well. You could place them up high & control them with a remote. Mom might still have aesthetic objections. I bet those objections will melt after the first few really hot days. Tell her its her only option.
I love people who think a fan will cool a room.