Which air conditioner? I know nothing - how do I choose?

[SarahL2]

I'm 14 weeks pregnant and NOT coping very well with this heat. It's making my morning sickness even worse and I am really struggling to cope with it and my 2 year old and we have months of this to go!!

I've tried selectively opening and closing windows and curtains to ensure I block out the sun and let in the breeze but it's still 28 degrees in my sons room even with 2 layers of thermal black-out blinds blocking out the sun!

So, while it goes against my usually green principals - I want to buy an portable air conditioner. It needs to be fairly cheap though as I am a SAHM and we don't have masses of spare cash.

Apparently the CFC-free fans which use water to cool the air are a little more environmentally friendly and seem to be cheaper..but are they any good?

Can anyone recommend an air conditioner before I melt? Please!!

Any advice would be very greatly appreciated

I have an evaporative cooler - I think that mught be what you mean by a CFC free fan? If has a big reservoir of water in the bottom, and blows air over a damp layer, which gives the same effect as a breeze blowing over the sea and cooling the air.

It works very well, and I think is meant to be much better environmentally than a genuine air conditioner. It also works with your windows open, where with an air conditioner you have to close the windows to let it keep working on the same lot of air.

Oh and a cheap alternative is to buy an ordinary fan and put a damp towel or bowlful of ice in front of it!

I do mean an evaporative cooler - thankyou for translating my baby-brained gobbledygook I've found one for £40 on ebay and am very tempted.

We have a normal fan. I will get DH to drag it out of the attic later (he's put a ladder in but not hinged the flap so I can't get up there!) and try the ice trick.

Thankyou

DS just threw a cup-full of iced water all over my sofa - now all I need is that fan

Evaporative coolers are great and very effective (although you need to remember to empty the water container!). We had one at work one time and it was a life saver. I'm pretty sure, though, that to be effective you do need to keep the windows shut.

Hi, no you definitely keep the windows open with an evaporative cooler - they need a supply of dry outside air, as they make the air more humid, so if you keep the windows shut you just end up with a very damp house. And you fill the water tank, not empty it, so I think what you had at work must have been something different from that.

Have rigged up a normal fan with a bowl of cold water with an ice pack in it - had brought the temp of DS's room down by a degree within about half an hour!! Even with the windows open!

Fan is sat next to the only open window on the sunny side of the house so has a plentiful supply of dry air.

Did wonder about the humidity but nothing seems damp so far

As long as you're running with a window open it shouldn't be a problem!