Portable air conditioners

[Pickledonions12]

Morning everyone. I'm thinking of buying one of these. Does anyone have any advice and/or specific models they'd recommend?

Thanks 🥰

No but likewise considering it!

We've got a DeLonghi one, it works very well and keeps our living room/bedroom cool but it's incredibly noisy - it kept me awake overnight so we're just using it in the living room. And you have to keep the window open to let the vent out. The unit was around £800 and we're now thinking of getting properly installed units in those two rooms.

https://www.delonghi.com/en-gb/p/portable-air-conditioners-pinguino-gentlejet-portable-air-conditioner-pacap98gentlejet/PACAP98GENTLEJET.html?pid=0151455003

All the reviews I've seen say that they are noisy. Which is hopeless in the bedroom! Although I don't sleep when it's super hot anyway 🤣

I've got a Dyson fan that works really well in the bedroom and it's much quieter.

I have a black and decker one. You do need to leave a window ajar for the hose.

It's pretty noisy, similar to a fan on highest setting.

So effective though, rest of house was 27 yesterday and bedroom was 20!

I saw some guy in the UK testing these (sorry can't link because it was just on my IG feed or something). But he was saying that a problem with the portable units is that they pump hot air out (through ducting that you should put out a window or a vent) but the models for sale in the UK don't have a inlet hose. So the air being pumped out of the house pulls hot air from the outside in through window vents or other gaps in the house. This means that they don't cool that big an area and you're constantly trying to cool warm air from the outside. Which is not great given the cost of electricity to run the things.

I get the impression they are ok for creating one cooler space within a house if you are willing to pay the cost of running it (or have solar/batteries)

We had an expensive one in our caravan during the 40°c heat waves in 2022 , the weather was so hot it melted our blinds and the tarmac outside of the caravan but the van was like a fridge. Sometimes it was even too cold .
I dreaded the electric bill coming though🤣

I just bought this one from Amazon for our bedroom which can easily tip 30c in summer as the building is old etc.

It's pretty good - definitely does the job, also a fan and dehumidifier. It makes a bit of a racket, but I can sleep through it, and the window kit is a slight faff as it's designed for sash style rather than hinge windows, but 100% better than nothing. Glad we bought it.

What make was this please ?

I use my black and decker one in the bedroom. I wear earplugs and it’s fine. Quite relaxing. I love it generally, 100% worth the £500 I spent last year

But he was saying that a problem with the portable units is that they pump hot air out (through ducting that you should put out a window or a vent) but the models for sale in the UK don't have a inlet hose. So the air being pumped out of the house pulls hot air from the outside in through window vents or other gaps in the house

eh? You think air con units suck in the air from outside more?

Definitely consider the noise issue! Our neighbours have had theirs running 24hrs in this heatwave and the noise is awful. It’s a constant drone that can be heard along the whole street. We had to shut my daughters windows last night as it was disturbing her too much.

Does anyone know if these work if you've got windows that just open at the top? Do you need some kind of extension hose?

I bought a portable one, strength 9000btu from Amazon for £180 two years ago. It is noisy but we keep it upstairs and put it on two hours before bedtime then turn it off. It’s remote control and has a timer setting so if you wake up in the night hot you can set the timer for a certain amount of time and then it clicks off. It’s does the job in this weather. Ideally you’d need one for each room of the house that you want to keep cool, it has wheels but it’s very heavy so not much good if you want to keep moving it upstairs and downstairs. They are more expensive now I noticed as more people are using them.

They come with an extension hose. We have bought an extra one for ours so that we have more flexibility on where we can move it around

Portable Air Conditioner Hose with Extension Kit, 5.9'' Diameter 1.5m Length AC Tubes Replacement Parts, Flexible Exhaust Vent Tube Connector, Universal Counter Clockwise Thread Coupling for Haier LG https://amzn.eu/d/0gf6qr0A

this is the extra extension hose we bought. They are all standard size so fit onto the end of existing ones

@JengaCupboard I just watched the video on Amazon. Wow it is loud 😳 also.....the hose thingy....it doesn't appear to be being used in the video????

I wasn't sure about this comment either???

I have a fully portable one in my bedroom. It is noisy but to me it's white noise I can sleep through, but others might struggle. Downstairs I have a portable, but it's a split unit, so more like proper installed air con. It was more expensive, but it's quieter, far more powerful and more efficient cost wise. A fully portable downstairs was no use. I'm semi open plan and none of them were powerful enough to cool the space. You really do need to factor that in. Get the highest BTU you can afford or are willing to pay!

I can't have proper installed air con as I'm in rented so that was the next best thing. Next year I'm upgrading to a split one upstairs too, just need to figure out how to attach the box outside in a way it can be easily removed!

I bought one about 4 years ago and only use it for those unbearable nights, but when I do it feels worth every penny!
Mine was a cheap model and quite noisy but I actually don’t mind that at all - it’s like white noise and I sleep really well with it on.

@DancingLions can you provide links and/or explain what you mean by a split unit, please? Sorry to be dim

Do you have a link to yours @CoverIt?

This is copied and pasted from British Gas - https://www.britishgas.co.uk/heating/guides/how-does-air-conditioning-work.html - to explain how air-conditioning works -

"In cooling mode, your air conditioning takes heat out of your home and moves it outdoors. This involves:

• Warm air from your room is drawn into the indoor unit (the evaporator). As it passes over cold coils filled with refrigerant, the heat from the air is absorbed.
• As the refrigerant absorbs heat, it changes from a liquid into a gas. That gas is then pushed through the system by a compressor.
• The refrigerant gas travels to the outdoor unit (the condenser), where the heat is released into the outside air.
• As the heat is released, the refrigerant cools back into a liquid so it can be used again.
• At the same time, the indoor unit keeps drawing in more warm air and sending cooled air back into the room.

In most homes, air conditioning systems are typically split between an indoor and an outdoor unit working together. The indoor unit takes warm air from the room, removes the heat, and sends cooled air back inside. The outdoor unit then handles the heat that’s been extracted and releases it outside the home.
These two units are connected by small pipes that carry refrigerant between them. A thermostat or remote control manages the system, switching it on and off as needed to maintain a steady temperature without you needing to adjust it constantly."

That's talking about a fixed system with an indoor and outdoor unit that extracts the heat from the house using a circulating refrigerant. With a portable unit the heat is extracted from the house by pumping out air. Removing air from the house means that warm outside air is constantly moving back into the house through any small gaps because the air pressure inside the house is lower than the air pressure outside the house.

With the portable units you also need to be sealing the window that you send the duct out as much as possible. You shouldn't just open the window and poke the ducting out. And that's not the easiest thing to do with casement windows that are most common in the UK. It is easier if you have sash windows.

I think she's saying that, since you have to crack the window open to let the hose out, hot air from outside is coming in through that window gap. The unit's near the window, so most of its effort will go to cooling the warm air that's just come in.

Presumably it works anyhow, but it's inefficient compared to keeping the already chilled indoor air cool.

I can't find my exact one but similar to this:
air con unit