A/c advice-moved to very hot country.

[TherealMeghanMarkle]

Posting here as no replies in living overseas.
Anyone any experience of using portable a/c units.
Recently move to Australia where it regularly is in the high 30s /low 40's in in the summer and low 20's in the winter.
House hunting but a lot of the property's I like (the older Victorian style) don't have A/C. Mixed online reviews from they are great to don't waste your money. Happy to spend the money if it works but wanted advice from anyone who actually uses them when its very hot.
Am I crazy (or to keep the theme of the subject title) AIBU to even consider about a house with no a/c?

@TherealMeghanMarkle I am in Queensland and the last place I rented had no aircon. I bought a Kogan portable air conditioner and it was able to cool the bedroom with the door closed. It was a small 2 bedroom unit.

I had to have a tub next to it for the hose that drains the water and that needed to be emptied a few times a day.

There might be better ones than the one that I had.

I ended up offering higher rent in exchange for a split system to be installed. The landlord agreed.

Hope this helps, good luck

@echt thx for posting that link.

I’m in Australia. First place we lived didn’t have an AC and a portable unit us what prevented me from leaving the country!

We bought a cheap Mistral stand alone. Probably from Bunnings, maybe Kogan. Best $200-300 ever spent!

I’ve had a quick look and the reviews don’t seem to match my experience as a Brit, I was very, very happy with it.

Your house will have very little in the way of thermal standards such as you are used to. Heat transfers very easily though our windows and the roof etc.

You will need air conditioning. If you are close to the coast, reverse cycle will work better than evaporative. If you are further away from the coast, you may get away with evap.

Also, pedestal fans will be good, too. Block the windows on the north and west with decent curtains. If you are very new to Perth, Friday will give you a gentle introduction. Please note, the cloud and humidity of this past week is not our regular climate.

Also, your house could be very cold in winter.

Also, pedestal fans will be good, too.

That's what I said! Got a bit of blow back.

@milkyaqua. Fans will do that.

@TherealMeghanMarkle I also hung dark green shade cloth with uv protection, that I bought at Bunnings Warehouse, on the outside to shade the windows. That helped massively in preventing the home from getting so hot the aircon can’t cope.

I'm renting in Aus in a 1930's flat. I do have a split system which I occasionally turn on in summer and winter (for heat) - I don't enjoy aircon and it is $$$ to run.

I would get fans - best are ceiling fans but I have the normal kind. I tend to keep blinds down/curtains shut all day to keep the heat out. I run my electric dehumidifier to take down the humidity.

It comes down to what you can tolerate. I am fairly tolerant of heat, having lived in the tropics. Those very hot, humid days can be brutal in Aus - you literally sweat so much, you drink and drink and don't wee, you've lost so much water.

Look for a place with shade outside, trees etc. That will make a huge difference.

We've got reverse cycle with a dehumidify option which is ideal for Q heat.

Daughter has two freestanding units. They are noisy and while they do cool the rooms down a bit, I'd not rent a house where I was dependent on them as my only option. Victorian houses are built to maximise ventilation but if they have been remodelled, verandas closed in etc, it is not going to work. I'd go for comfort over looks personally.

[quote ImustLearn2Cook]@TherealMeghanMarkle I am in Queensland and the last place I rented had no aircon. I bought a Kogan portable air conditioner and it was able to cool the bedroom with the door closed. It was a small 2 bedroom unit.

I had to have a tub next to it for the hose that drains the water and that needed to be emptied a few times a day.

There might be better ones than the one that I had.

I ended up offering higher rent in exchange for a split system to be installed. The landlord agreed.

Hope this helps, good luck [/quote]
Thats a good idea, offer higher rent to get it fitted. By the sounds of it id be paying higher bills with a portable one so if they agreed it could work.

[quote echt]Look at passive cooling such as drafts, this might help with the open plan downstairs.

By coincidence there's a report (Hot Homes) about terrible standards of cooling in Australian rentals, and it's not all old homes, new ones are just as bad - vague "standards", and no obligation to provide any cooling at all.

www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/mar/17/it-reached-38-degrees-rental-properties-across-australia-routinely-exceeding-safe-temperatures-study-reveals[/quote]
Thank you for the link, very insightful but also so sad, sleeping on the kitchen floor to try and stay cool :(
It illustrates how deliberating living with extreme heat can be.
Good advice about new builds as well.
Thanks again.

@TheSandgroper

Your house will have very little in the way of thermal standards such as you are used to. Heat transfers very easily though our windows and the roof etc.

You will need air conditioning. If you are close to the coast, reverse cycle will work better than evaporative. If you are further away from the coast, you may get away with evap.

Also, pedestal fans will be good, too. Block the windows on the north and west with decent curtains. If you are very new to Perth, Friday will give you a gentle introduction. Please note, the cloud and humidity of this past week is not our regular climate.

Just googled Friday temp.. yeah thats hot (for me any way!)

2nd week here and have enjoyed the past weeks cooler temp & clouds

Hopefully I will acclimatise by the time the temperatures start rising again September onwards

@silentpool

I'm renting in Aus in a 1930's flat. I do have a split system which I occasionally turn on in summer and winter (for heat) - I don't enjoy aircon and it is $$$ to run.

I would get fans - best are ceiling fans but I have the normal kind. I tend to keep blinds down/curtains shut all day to keep the heat out. I run my electric dehumidifier to take down the humidity.

It comes down to what you can tolerate. I am fairly tolerant of heat, having lived in the tropics. Those very hot, humid days can be brutal in Aus - you literally sweat so much, you drink and drink and don't wee, you've lost so much water.

Look for a place with shade outside, trees etc. That will make a huge difference.

Ive been looking at Dyson ones but crazy expensive so regular ones will have to do. Sadly the property doesn't have ceiling fans either, just checked.

When we moved here to QLD the first thing we did was get aircon's for all the bedrooms. I think it's a necessity to have a good aircon in the heat.

I live abroad. Fit a proper AC.

I’m not sure about the portable units. I’m in northern NSW and we have three split systems but I don’t think portable systems work that well in our area as it’s also high in humidity and I’ve heard the tech on the portable units don’t suit high humidity areas. So maybe ask around your particular area, see if people do use the portable ones or not.

You don't need a Dyson. The $20 ones from Big W do the job just as well if not better. I usually buy more expensive ones as they last much longer.

Appliancesonline.com.au usually have the best prices and will deliver the next day.

I'm in Thailand and live in a house. We definitely need ac for the bedrooms, the hot season would be unbearable otherwise. Using ac with fans helps keeps costs down. Good fans in every room helps a lot.
We have an open plan downstairs and it does use a lot of ac to cool. We actually don't use the ac there much as it's so wasteful and stays cooler than the rest of the house. Sometimes we put if on if we have guests or if it's very very hot but we could survive without that ac if we had to. But not having ac in the bedrooms would really impact our quality of life especially in the hot season when the MINIMUM temp is 27/28 degrees and humid. It just doesn't get cool at all.

I live in the Caribbean and have a lovely airy bedroom and have only used the AC in the really hot windless months ! I prefer not to use it to be honest as it makes me snotty and sick!! Yea to definitely not essential but is nice to have when you want it

Well, there's "surviving" and there's "living comfortably". People have survived through droughts and famines, that doesn't mean I would choose to given the option!

@user1471481356

Having lived in Perth I would NEVER do a summer with no air con there! A portable one is better than nothing but really not ideal.

Sadly thats what im thinking now ☹️

@LovelaceBiggWither

You don't need a Dyson. The $20 ones from Big W do the job just as well if not better. I usually buy more expensive ones as they last much longer.

Appliancesonline.com.au usually have the best prices and will deliver the next day.

Thank you

I'm from Perth. I did used to live in a house with no air con but I lived by the coast so in the afternoon we would just open all the windows and the sea breeze would cool things down. We had a split system in the family room so if we got desperate we
Would just sleep in there. Now that I've had air con though, I'm. It sure I would go back to not having it. And if I lived away from the coast, not a chance. My Grandma lives inland a little and I break out in a sweat as soon as I walk into her house. She's used to it but I struggle.

I'm in NZ and have just moved into a rented flat with a/c, and it is just lovely - even though we are now in autumn there were a few hot days just after I moved in. There is no comparison between a/c and a fan, and I look back on the days when I worked in an office before a/c was a thing here with horror. I won't use it to heat the flat in winter as I prefer to sit in front of a heater, but the a/c is a real plus in summer.