Anyone ever used a Portable A/C Unit?

MyOwnDemon

MyOwnDemon

Face Rocker
Jan 28, 2007
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www.sitestomp.com
I have a room I need to keep cool for the upcoming horribly humid midwest summer. It's about 220 square feet.

The problem is the only window in the room is a casement window so putting a standard window a/c in there simply won't work. I was going to use a portable a/c and make a custom kit for the window.

I was looking at some portable air conditioners at Lowes like this: Shop Soleus Air 8,000-BTU 250-sq ft 115-Volt Portable Air Conditioner at Lowes.com

However, upon doing further research online, portable a/c units have A LOT of mixed reviews.

I was wondering if any of you have ever used one personally and if it's worth the money or not? I don't need to keep the room super cold, but at a bare minimum, I'd like to keep it a solid 68 degrees with no humidity. I don't mind emptying it manually once a day, but I heard some of them shut off every 2 hours or so... and they don't cool very good. I have no idea, so asking here if anyone can share their experience.

Thoughts?
 


Hey Jason I had one in my home office a while back and it looked very similar to the pic you posted (for what that's worth). The results were only mediocre because it was in an interior room without anyway to vent the hot air it makes outside. I'm Sure this would have made a Huge difference. My unit had a very small reservoir for the condensation, but this I piped to a larger holding tank to eliminate the unit shutting off every few hours.

Hope this helps.
 
A portable AC unit is almost contradictory since you need some place to vent the heat it makes. My only experience with a portable AC unit is at a Korean restaurant because their regular AC broke. It did not cool the room very well at all, and the big problem was there wasn't a proper place to vent the hot exhaust like GerardWon mentioned.

However your circumstance is unique enough, where this might actually work well since you're going to vent all of that shitty hot air through the casement window.

If there's a return policy on the portable AC unit, I say go for it.
 
bluechinagroup said:
A portable AC unit is almost contradictory since you need some place to vent the heat it makes. My only experience with a portable AC unit is at a Korean restaurant because their regular AC broke. It did not cool the room very well at all, and the big problem was there wasn't a proper place to vent the hot exhaust like GerardWon mentioned.

However your circumstance is unique enough, where this might actually work well since you're going to vent all of that shitty hot air through the casement window.

If there's a return policy on the portable AC unit, I say go for it.
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Exactly. Air Conditioners work by removing the heat from the room and dissipating it through cooling fins outside. If the cooling fins are inside of the room (in the unit) the heat has nowhere to go. Yes, if they are insulated, it won't spread back into the room, but once the insulator reaches a certain point, it won't be that effective. A fan will probably simulate "coolness" better than a small floor AC.
 
I've used a Haier model similar to this one:

Haier 14,000 BTU 3-in-1 Portable Room Air Conditioner / Dehumidifier / Fan

However, it only had one exhaust. It works well for a 100 sq ft room, possibly even larger. When you're on the outside of the house next to the window exhaust, you can really feel the hot air getting sucked out of the room. Since you have a casement window, instead of one that slides to one side, you'll probably have to jerry-rig the exhaust setup.
 
I bought a Sharp model for my mom. The room she's using it in is about your size and it works fine. It comes with an accordion-like vent hose (4"?). There is rectangular interface for the hose to the outside (made to be placed in a window) where you would connect the vent line. In your case, you would have to go MacGyver on that part. These things are pretty heavy. You would most likely want to prop it up on something and let it drain into a plastic waste can or something. Got mine on Newegg with free shipping, don't remember the model.
 
Too bad you weren't closer. I have one I used for awhile in a house we were renting a handful of years ago and it's just sitting in my shed right now. Forget which one it is but I bought it for $400-500 at Home Depot and it worked great. I did the same thing you'll have to do which is to rig up a vent kit. I ended up just taking off the screen, leaving the window open, and then covering the opening with a piece of clear plexiglass with a rectangle cut out for the vent hose. Worked great. You may have a hard time keeping it at 68 though depending on how hot it is where you are. 68 is pretty fucking cold man.
 
Yer

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We Stay Cool
 
There are quite a few types of house plants that will absorb a lot of humidity and purify your air at the same time. I would use those in conjunction with an A/C unit.
 
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