Cooling for a small room

[AsleepInYorkshire]

Can anyone tell me what I'm looking for please?

I'm looking for a cooling unit for the my mother in laws lounge. It's not a huge room - 5.5 x 3.6m.

I don't want a fan - something to reduce the temperature in the room - happy to spend up to £1k

Thank you Fools in advance

AiY(D)

[servodude]

Can anyone tell me what I'm looking for please?

I'm looking for a cooling unit for the my mother in laws lounge. It's not a huge room - 5.5 x 3.6m.

I don't want a fan - something to reduce the temperature in the room - happy to spend up to £1k

Thank you Fools in advance

AiY(D)

Permanent or portable?

A small reverse cycle air conditioner would do it if you were able to install one.

Portable air conditioners are available but need a way to vent the moisture taken from the air (which can be tricky depending on the windows).

[AsleepInYorkshire]

Can anyone tell me what I'm looking for please?

I'm looking for a cooling unit for the my mother in laws lounge. It's not a huge room - 5.5 x 3.6m.

I don't want a fan - something to reduce the temperature in the room - happy to spend up to £1k

Thank you Fools in advance

AiY(D)

Permanent or portable?

A small reverse cycle air conditioner would do it if you were able to install one.

Portable air conditioners are available but need a way to vent the moisture taken from the air (which can be tricky depending on the windows).

Hi sd,

I hope you have great weather and can't sleep under quilt

Yes ... sorry I should have said, portable.

Thank you

Take care

AiY(D)

[monabri]

Something like (£329)

https://www.screwfix.com/p/goodhome-tak ... oner/966hv

Posher ( more £££)

https://www.amazon.co.uk/s?k=mobile+por ... _nr_p_89_1

[kiloran]

£1k should provide a load of G&Ts with oodles of ice. And it would not require the storage of a portable electrical item for the cooler 11 months of the year.

--kiloran

[AsleepInYorkshire]

Thank you monabri and servodude

I've authorised operation freeze commencing 8.30am tomorrow.

The De'Longhi's seem to get some negative comments regarding noise. So I'll try the Takoma first which gets comments on noise but is half the price. Wish me luck

AiY(D)

[servodude]

Thank you monabri and servodude

I've authorised operation freeze commencing 8.30am tomorrow.

The De'Longhi's seem to get some negative comments regarding noise. So I'll try the Takoma first which gets comments on noise but is half the price. Wish me luck

AiY(D)

I'd try and see them in person before making your decision if you can.

They can be bulky awkward things, often they just come with a hose and you need to work out how you're going to mount it at a window; some of the manufacturers sell kits - but what works dpends on the window
- they NEED vented - don't try it without! pulling (more than you would think possible) moisture out the air is a big part of what they do

It's also worth having a listen to them; it's quite possible that between two designs with the same dBa rating one of them will sound a lot more pleasant (I've met ones that can make unsettling noises on gears/pinions moving vents - not "loud" but "oh what's that - bloody hell it's that box again" )

and avoid anything that says "evaporative cooling" - you don't live in Dubai and it will just make things clammy and uncomfortable in the UK

-sd

[richlist]

I'd recommend an inverter air conditioner. This is an air to air heat pump. Quiet, low running costs, cooling in summer, heating in winter.

[UncleEbenezer]

I bought a supposed portable air conditioner in my first summer in Italy. It turned out utterly useless. Can't speak for the ones recommended above, but just bear in mind the risk!

Now, it's just possible that a dehumidifier might help. It doesn't cool the room (in fact it emits a little heat), but it makes the heat dryer, and thus more bearable. In a dry heat, the body is much more capable of cooling itself, 'cos sweat has somewhere to go long before you reach that unpleasant stage where you're damp and panting.

[monabri]

We've actually got a portable air con unit. It is noisy such that we have to increase the TV volume. Our unit is coming up to 30 years old! It only gets used 1 week a year! It was bought from B&Q ( I think!) ...we just open a window and dangle the exhaust pipe out, trapping the pipe between window and frame. The unit is used in a room of 5m x 4m approx but we are "open plan" with stairs up and down to different levels. ( so the actual volume of air to be cooled is much higher). Our unit is 750W 6000 BTU cooling capacity. We find we have to leave it on for most of the day in really hot weather on max setting. I would guess it would be more effective in a room which is not "open plan". It does however make an appreciable difference.

(51 weeks it sits cluttering up a corner of the lounge with the plastic slowly ageing! )

[SDN123]

I’ve lived in many hot places where air conditioning is necessary and tried many variations of portable air conditioners.

My advice is:
- avoid evaporative air conditioners, they won’t work in UK
- an in-window air conditioner is not portable but (if chosen carefully) can easily be installed in summer and removed in winter. These systems work well, are relatively quiet (if you get the better models) and are cheaper to run.
- a portable air conditioner will work but only just, you must find a way to drain them, they are expensive to run, even the best are noisy, they don’t cool as well as you’d hope, you must ensure that the air intake fits the window well (minimal leaks) to get any kind of performance. This last point could make the “portable” just as hard to setup as an in-window unit if your relative is not mobile, relatively weak or is not practically minded.

So I’d go for an in-window unit or, if that is not practical and/ or acceptable, the best portable that you can afford. The keys to look at for the portable are:
- power
- noise (actually lack of noise)
- how the air intake fits into the window
- how they drain (best is back through the window through a tube, other options are into a “bucket” in the room or into an internal “bucket” - in both cases the “bucket” needs emptying regularly. How regularly depends on the humidity and how hard the ac is working).

In my previous (rented) house we had no built in ac and wanted something in the bedroom and something in the living area. Rather than buy one expensive portable we bought two smaller in-window units which we setup each summer and then stored in the garage in the winter. This was by far our best setup except where ac was fully built in.

FWIW I found Panasonic to be a great brand - there are others of course.

Hope that helps.

[Itsallaguess]

So I’d go for an in-window unit or, if that is not practical and/ or acceptable, the best portable that you can afford.

Another option nowadays that delivers the benefits of an in-window unit, are the single 'through the wall' units, similar to the example linked below -

https://www.orionairsales.co.uk/unico-easy-sf-fixed-air-conditioning-unit-cooling-only-no-outdoor-unit-2kw--7000btu-a-240v50hz-5376-p.asp

Installation PDF for the above example - https://drive.google.com/file/d/1sT-O4aG-r8y4Syn89_K8RDl7w-e3bKYR/view

Please note that the above is just a random example, to show how these single-unit air-conditioning options are now available with two rear 'through the wall' ducts, one for air intake and one for exhaust, which deliver the benefits of in-window installations, but which might suit a particular situation better than a window-mounted option in some cases...

Just something to add into the mix given that I don't think anyone's mentioned these particular single-unit wall-mounted options yet in this thread...

Cheers,

Itsallaguess

[AsleepInYorkshire]

May I say a big thank you to everyone please. I've spent the day doing some homework, following up on your comments and thoughts.

The parents in law live in a 2 bed semi-detached home. About 8 years ago they added a conservatory to the back of the house. Oh dear .

The conservatory is excessively hot in summer and excessively cold in winter. My father in law has some health problems and we are planning to remove the conservatory and replace it with a room about the same size (possibly a fraction wider) and a corridor to a new wet room where he can shower.

In the meantime I wanted to review options which will deal with the temperature issues in the existing conservatory temporarily until the building works start. We've got to get through planning yet and sort out suppliers.

After a look over options today I felt the inverter air conditioner looked the most favourable. I'm not sweating (no pun intended) costs. This is about getting their home comfortable. Mother in law has heart failure and father in law has carers calling twice a day. When I was there in the afternoon three days ago they had the curtains shut between the lounge and conservatory and had three fans on in the lounge. It was still unbearably hot. The conservatory was 38 degrees and the lounge, whilst cooler, must have been above 30 degrees. They had the ceiling fan whirling away and two other fans trying to keep cool. Pointless really with all the radiant heat pouring in from the conservatory.

The downside to inverter air conditioning is that it needs to be fitted by qualified fitters, or at least approved by them, if I fit it. I'm reliably informed that at this time of year getting someone to approve is virtually a no no as they are out getting better pay on installations and booking an installation will mean quite a substantial wait.

So, for the moment Plan B is I'm going to get them this portable, which will hopefully bring some instant relief. This should bring both rooms back to a reasonable temperature whilst we make longer term plans.

Again, may I thank you all for your thoughts and advice please - it's all given me a lot of research work to do today.

AiY(D)

[Howard]

I bought a portable aircon a few years ago and made a frame for the exhaust tube to fit the window. Before committing to buying it, I had listened to it in the large shop and it didn't sound too noisy.

However once I got it home and used it in a quiet house in a fairly large bedroom it was incredibly noisy, expensive to run and not that effective.

So I sold it and had Mitsubishi split aircon installed instead. Whisper quiet, incredibly effective and costs pence to run. Admittedly It would cost a bit over £1k to install a split system for one room. Worth considering? See post viewtopic.php?p=222449#p222449 and the later review of using the system in very hot weather.

By the way, I did listen to a through the wall aircon unit and that too was very noisy compared with a split system.

So I'd advise listening very carefully to a portable model to ensure it was very quiet before inflicting it on my relatives.

regards

Howard

[Itsallaguess]

I bought a portable aircon a few years ago and made a frame for the exhaust tube to fit the window. Before committing to buying it, I had listened to it in the large shop and it didn't sound too noisy.

However once I got it home and used it in a quiet house in a fairly large bedroom it was incredibly noisy, expensive to run and not that effective.

So I sold it and had Mitsubishi split aircon installed instead. Whisper quiet, incredibly effective and costs pence to run. Admittedly It would cost a bit over £1k to install a split system for one room. Worth considering?

See post -https://www.lemonfool.co.uk/viewtopic.php?p=222449#p222449 and the later review of using the system in very hot weather.

I can't believe your very interesting air-con journey was three years ago now Howard - it's scary how the years fly by!

It's great to hear that you're still happy with it all after such a long period of use, but I've just had a read through that great thread again this morning, and it doesn't look like the URL links to the outdoor and indoor units you had installed are valid any more - would it please be possible for you to provide a couple of new links to the kit you had installed, or the latest models of them if they've been updated since?

Having had a bit of a dig online, would I be right in thinking these two options are somewhere near?

2.5kW and 3.5kW indoor units - https://www.orionairsales.co.uk/mitsubishi-heavy-industries-air-conditioning-scm40zs-s-r32-multi-1-x-skm25-1-x-skm35-wall-240v50hz-13959-p.asp

2.5kW and 2.5kW indoor units - https://www.orionairsales.co.uk/mitsubishi-heavy-industries-air-conditioning-scm40zs-w-r32-multi-2-x-skm25zsp-w-wall-mount-240v50hz-15064-p.asp

Cheers,

Itsallaguess

[servodude]

In the meantime I wanted to review options which will deal with the temperature issues in the existing conservatory temporarily until the building works start. We've got to get through planning yet and sort out suppliers.

Consider what your might be able to do to reduce insolation or transmission in the short term - much easier to avoid heating up in the first case than to actively cool.

The trick is to stop the infrared from getting to or through the glass.

You can get film that you put on glass: https://www.3m.com/3M/en_US/home-window-solutions-us/solutions/temperature-control/

And you can use whatever you have to hand to shade the outside: even just jerry-rigging shade cloth over the worst hit parts of it can make a noticeable difference.

-sd

[AsleepInYorkshire]

In the meantime I wanted to review options which will deal with the temperature issues in the existing conservatory temporarily until the building works start. We've got to get through planning yet and sort out suppliers.

Consider what your might be able to do to reduce insolation or transmission in the short term - much easier to avoid heating up in the first case than to actively cool.

The trick is to stop the infrared from getting to or through the glass.

You can get film that you put on glass: https://www.3m.com/3M/en_US/home-window-solutions-us/solutions/temperature-control/

And you can use whatever you have to hand to shade the outside: even just jerry-rigging shade cloth over the worst hit parts of it can make a noticeable difference.

-sd

Hi sd,

Thanks for the advice. It's a bit spooky as I was looking at this last night and have just been discussing this with my good lady.

Of course all of this is of no real concern as I know that when the air conditioner arrives summer will end the following day

Have a great weekend and make the best of the last three days of summer

Take care

AiY(D)

[UncleEbenezer]

In the meantime I wanted to review options which will deal with the temperature issues in the existing conservatory temporarily until the building works start. We've got to get through planning yet and sort out suppliers.

Consider what your might be able to do to reduce insolation or transmission in the short term - much easier to avoid heating up in the first case than to actively cool.

The trick is to stop the infrared from getting to or through the glass.

You can get film that you put on glass: https://www.3m.com/3M/en_US/home-window-solutions-us/solutions/temperature-control/

And you can use whatever you have to hand to shade the outside: even just jerry-rigging shade cloth over the worst hit parts of it can make a noticeable difference.

-sd

Indeed.

In terms of just keeping the temperature down in summer, one of these on a south-facing window works wonders - mine stays in place from May to about September/October. Though if it's sunny and mid-20s-or-above outside, the loft room can still tend to get hot.

[monabri]

Just a thought- look at the relative running costs of the Mitsubishi units v the "dalek in the corner" portable unit. In addition, the Mitsubishi noise levels are much much lower than the portable unit. How about hiring a portable unit for the hot weeks of this summer ....making the house mods ( conservatory) and then going for the superior mitsubishi units?

[SDN123]

Another option nowadays that delivers the benefits of an in-window unit, are the single 'through the wall' units, similar to the example linked below

Totally agree this is the best option if you have the ability to knock holes in walls (I was renting and didn’t have that option). Going down this route… another advantage of “split systems” is that they can also provide very cheap heating in the winter.

SDN