1) Any recommendation for portable Air Conditioners (economical options) ?
2) Do all portable Air Conditioners have an outer unit ?
Does this need to be placed outside or is there an option in which no outside unit is required ?
My room is middle of house and don't have any window or place for outside unit.
thanks bonez for detailed description, i am renting a place and my owner is doesn't want to install an AC in room so i guess i am stuck with not much options
I went through the exact same thing a few years back. I was in a 1 bedroom apartment on the top story of the building (only 3 levels) and there was no AC.
I started out with the portable evap unit and then bought a reverse cycle. The reverse cycle was good on really stinking hot days but it was noisy and a pain in the arse to use. It didn't cool my apartment down, it just blew cold air in my face! No insulation…
Good luck.
Can you move to another room that has a window; e.g the loungeroom? We use a standalone aircon and run the hose out the door to our courtyard. This makes the room pretty cool overnight. If not, can you run the exhaust hose out the door to an adjourning passageway?
The other things we do to minimise heat is:
a) Put reflective material on the outside of the windows to keep the heat from getting into the house, e.g. space blankets and car windscreen reflectors.
b) Open up all the doors and windows in the evening and run the overhead fans to blow the hot air out of the house. We have an internal courtyard so we leave these open overnight if we don't need the air con.
c) Have short cold showers at intervals, including wetting my hair, to provide personal evaporative cooling.
d) Kathmandu has cooling strips you can buy that you soak and then drape over your neck.
Hope these help.
Regarding point b) if you care about efficiency and costs you must be very vigilant - almost to the point of it not being worth it (for me).
The reason is you must monitor temps using instruments because the human body is - as with most things related to senses - absolutely hopeless at determining absolute temps (but we are great at determining relative temp). This makes it tough to determine when is the correct point to air out the home with regard to moving heat energy appropriately to maximise efficiency.
Heat pumps aka air conditioners expend a relatively large amount of energy to change the air temp compared to when they are merely maintaining the air temprature - assuming they're appropriately sized. In the latter case they are just removing any new heat energy that has entered the structure rather than changing the amount of heat energy in the entire volume of air.
It is therefore usually (much) better to run the air conditioner constantly rather than risk bringing in air warmer than the air con thermostat because that causes the unit to have to move a large amount of energy … unless you intend on using instruments to measure the air outside.
An amusing side effect of both of these points is that some (many? most?) office spaces have thermostats that the employees can fiddle with - which are actually doing nothing at all. Often the recorded sound of an air conditioner compressor is played so it sounds like home. Most (many? all?) employees report feeling temp changes after they've set the thermostat to their satisfaction. :D And those that are not satisfied with the setting will start to report being uncomfortably hot :D
The reason for this of course is that running an office space that changes tempratures often is very expensive, particuarly as you increase the number of floors that you are cooling.
We have thermometers with sensors we have placed outside. We know what the temperature differential is around our house so we know when to open up.
Can you recommend some cheap / decent ones? Interested in having one for my bedroom.
@scrimshaw: Honestly we aren't talking rocket science new complicated techology here so we don't need to worry about brands so much, anyone can put these together ;)
So one option is spending ~$5 - 10 (or less) for one on eBay and you could buy a thermometer with a probe to place outside so you can see the inside and outside temps at the same time.
If you are interested in having highly accurate measurements one brand/device that I know of is the Calibre III or IV thermometer/hygrometer which are very popular as an entry level device amongst cigar and dried flower coughcannbiscough enthusiasts however these are not made for the outdoors.
They sometimes come up on Catch of the Day. Ours are Oregon Scientific and they have the ability to detect two sensors as well as the central unit. We use it so we know when it it is time to open the doors upstairs to allow the heat out.
1) Any recommendation for portable Air Conditioners (economical options) ?
No other than presumably brands such as Daikin and Mitsu will have better compressors. But I don't think it's worth it personally for portable.
2) Do all portable Air Conditioners have an outer unit ?
Does this need to be placed outside or is there an option in which no outside unit is required ?
Units with an outer and inner unit are typically known as split systems. The noisy compressor and heat exchanger are seperated from the inside room.
Units known as portable have the heat exchanger and compressor inside. This means that in order to cool the heat exchanger it must pull some air in from the outside environment that mixes with the air inside the room - this fact makes them much less efficient than split or "window banger" types (the aircon is one unit but the heat exchanger is outside the room being cooled.
My room is middle of house and don't have any window or place for outside unit.
In order to operate a portable airconditioner there needs to be a place for exhausted air to move to that is as sealed as possible from the room being cooled. Typically people use a window for this but it doesn't matter where the hot air goes as long as it's outside the room.
If you live in a location where the humidity level is relatively low, consider evaporative type units (only for cooling). However for heating, there is no lower cost to operate system than a heat pump (refrigerated rev cycle). If going for portable type, only use well known brands. That's my 10cents.
The portable reverse cycle units usually have a large hose that has to be put out the window or nearby door. They blow hot air out which is a byproduct of making the air that comes out the front nice and cold.
I'm not aware of any systems that you could use in the middle of the house with no way to discard the hot air… the closest thing would be one of those water coolers that allow you to put ice in the top on really hot days. They are just evap though, so if it's humid or stinking hot they aren't much chop. Bit better than a pedestal fan but nowhere near as good as a reverse cycle unit.
Btw the reverse cycle units are also noisy because the compressor is always running.