Portable air conditioning units for home - anyone got one?

[flobbleflobble]

Are these worthwhile does anyone know?

get a fan much cheaper

got one already - wouldn't air con be better? Aircon in the car is certainly better than the fan...

unless you get them fitted properly you spend most of the time emptying them

Emptying them of what, CD?

water

They are crap

Get a proper one installed (if you are allowed to - think you need pp as they are noisy)

I can't afford an installed system - I just thought that £150 might buy me one that could sort out one room...do you think they are totally ineffective?

I wouldn't mind emptying it frequently as I think it would only be used on a few days each year!

I've got one which lower the temp in my conservatory from about 30 to about 24 (which might not sound a lot - but it was a life saver.

Apparently if I closed all the doors & windows it would get cooler - but I like fresh air

cost £250

Very noisy when we tried one when DS was a baby (he's nearly 10)

The ones that use water evaporation to cool don't work very well in humid weather, and even if it isn't humid they tend to make the room more humid and so it might be just as uncomfortable even if the temperature is lower. The proper ones that cool and dehumidify are very electricity hungry and quite loud so that if feels as though you're sleeping on a long-haul flight, they also tend to give me a cough as the air gets very dry. IMO a big lump of ice in front of a fan works very well in the UK, especially when the nights are a bit cooler before dawn.