Recommend an Air Conditioner?

Qtx · 09-06-2014, 16:56

With the weather warming up I was thinking of getting a ceiling light fan for the bedroom to stay cool at night but then figured I might be better off getting an air conditioning unit which I could move between rooms if needed.

Does anyone have any recommendations for an AC unit, preferably between £200 to £350? Will pay more if I have to.

I see some have hose piping to put out the window which I could do although I guess it would be preferable to have one with a tray bucket you empty out? Would rather keep the bedroom window closed if I can.

One with a timer would be handy so it could be set to a lower setting at night so it's not so noisy, or one that isn't too noisy to begin with. Thinking I will need a 12,000BTU for the size rooms I want to put it in. Might be putting it in the hallway so it could possibly do a few rooms at once.

Amazon has a number of units advertised as air conditioning but the cheaper ones are fans you put cold water or ice in which is not what im looking for.

Any suggestions or things to look out for appreciated

MovedGoalPosts · 09-06-2014, 18:16

I have a couple of the "portable" aircon units. These were Homebase branded, but similar are available in places like B&Q. They are single units, and so need the 4" hose that you dangle out of a window to exhaust the excess hot air. There is a small bottle inside which can collect condensate, but when normally running these units do exhaust excess moisture via the window hose. We used a similar unit in an office recently, sticking the hose up a redundant chimney.

They work OK, but are noisy, and that is the biggest draw back of this type of unit. You wouldn't want one of them running, even on slow speed, in the same room when you want to sleep, or even what TV quietly. Of course they aren't that cheap to run either. They do have basic timers to enable them to start up in a few hours, or shut down, and also thermostat. Variable speeds can be set to the fans too.

Don't confuse these true aircon units with the cheap and nasty chiller fans that rely on evaporation of water / ice. Of course even these all in one units aren't aircon, but more comfort cooling, as true aircon can balance temperature and humidity.

If you want something that will be quieter, and more overall efficient, you'll have to bite the bullet for a split unit system, ie a chiller fan box wall or ceiling mounted in the room, connected by pipes to a second unit you locate externally. Of course such systems normally have to be fully installed.

heero_yuy · 09-06-2014, 18:32

I have a movable unit on wheels in the bedroom IIRC it came from B&Q for around £180. I've put the exhaust up the chimney in the bedroom to avoid dangling pipes out of windows.

On full blast it's rather noisy, mostly the fans, but getting 10-15C off the temperature is priceless for a good nights sleep.

Qtx · 09-06-2014, 20:26

It does look like they all have the hose to put out the window after looking in to it further. Did see one with a window kit that blocks the gap in the window once the hose is in place. Got a slightly better idea of what im looking for now.

Those two parts units look nice but too much work and price for my liking. Decent portable is the way i'm gonna go. Didn't realise B&Q/Homebase did them, I did look in the actual shops last year but only saw their fans.

Figured the best way with these was to use them on full blast earlier in the day and once cool they would only need to be on the lowest setting to maintain the coolness? Otherwise I guess the option is to get it to a nice temperature to go to sleep and leave it off for the night.

Almost fell for buying one of the chillers by mistake before. Not easy to spot them at first until you see the description and it mentions ice or cold water refilling.

Cheers for the advice. Made me look at cheaper options I had missed before too.

MovedGoalPosts · 09-06-2014, 23:40

On the warmest days I find if you set them running early evening then the room is comfortable by bedtime. I've only a moderate sized house so running the unit in one room will generally get the entire floor comfortable. Use the timer function and it will switch itself off and if it is in a next door room the noise isn't too bad anyway once the initial cooling was done.

Conversely on warm days in our office we used the timer to start it up before we got into the office and then it had a chance to keep temps acceptable during the day. It wasn't really capable of lowering temps so once PCs and stuff was on it was too late.