Air conditioning in April - good grief

[Simon Gardner]

I rather thought they'd stopped selling those. Must have a butchers at the weekend.

[John Rumm]

And reduce the RH by how much exactly?

[IMM]

A cool pond. Very natiural and effective.

During last August house temp were an average of 25C inside. NO NEED for a/c in the UK. If you design the house properly, or take appropriate measures of insulation, blinds, natural vegetation, etc, this 25C will be even less.

Obese people should confront their real problem at the root, obesity, and not use am add on. A/c in a normal UK house, is treating the symptom not the cause.

[IMM]

Rh is rarely a problem in the UK

[Andy Hall]

While I don't disagree that obesity is an issue that individuals may find it beneficial to address; assuming that that is the reason why Simon likes to have air conditioning in his house may not be correct at all.

There are a number of reasons why people can be sensitive to heat including balance of salts and a poor ability to sweat which are completely unrelated to body mass index.

Heat exhaustion is a very serious thing, and it isn't appropriate to imply that it is something that the affected person can deal with easily.

Besides which, it's up to him, isn't it?

.andy

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[tony sayer]

In article , IMM writes

What about the humidity?...

[Pete C]

Hi,

Is this a conservatory, and can your windows be opened? I find with windows closed most of the heat trapped behind the blinds eventually finds it's way into the room, but if the heat can escape outdoors through a window they do a good job.

This works quite well if the window has a top opener, if there is a gap below the bottom of the blind the rising warm air helps draw air in through an open door.

Another factor is that the body feels radiant heat as well as conducted heat, so if the walls of the room are a dark colour they will make the room feel warmer even after the air temperature has been lowered.

cheers, Pete.

[Andy Hall]

Now you're just getting into the details, Tony.

It's important to see the big picture :-)

.andy

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[John Rumm]

I would agree - it is usually only about 4 months in the year that it is a problem - so I suppose that is "rarely"...

[Grunff]

No, this is our home office. The reasoning behind the silver blind is to reflect as much of the incoming radiation as possible without absorbing it.

The walls are white.

It's purely because it's a south facing window with no obstructions outside. Gets very hot.

[Pete C]

I see. The trouble with blinds is when the sun hits them, much of the high wavelength IR is reradiated as low wavelength IR which cannot pass back through the window. The only way they help is trap the heat on the outside of the blind but if the window is shut some will conduct and radiate through into the room.

If your window cannot be opened it might be fairly cheap to get it replaced with one that does, especially if it's a sealed DG unit. Or it's possible to get window tint film that reflects a high proportion of the heat.

I know what you mean, I've got 3 south facing windows. Maybe a big floor fan placed somewhere cool with some poly tube as a duct would help. I usually get some breeze but might start looking for an 18" or

24" floor fan for still days.

Might get heat pump AC eventually to use for heating as well as cooling on extra hot days though.

cheers, Pete.

[Grunff]

It can be opened, but opening it on a hot day doesn't help much :-(

That's what I have in this room. I installed in in November, and it's proving to be very useful.

[Capitol]

As a small window mounted A/C unit is about $100 in the US ( Walmart) when are we going to see these here?

Regards Capitol

[Andy Hall]

Never, hopefully.

They are as ugly as sin. On both sides of the window...

.andy

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[Lurch]

On Sat, 24 Apr 2004 20:32:43 +0100, in uk.d-i-y "Capitol" strung together this:

Justified in this case, so acceptable posting etiquette!

[Pete C]

It's a shame that AC is needed when the cooler air from outside is available.

I reckon that cooler air is worth 1.3kW/°C/m^3/s or 4300BTU/°C/m^3/s, it's just a matter of getting it to the right place.

cheers, Pete.

[IMM]

Hopefully, never.

[IMM]

Another fatty?

[IMM]

I repeat: "Rh is rarely a problem in the UK"

[Grunff]

But I think the biggest benefit of the AC is the drying of the air. Having low RH makes a big difference to how you feel.

TBH, since there are two of us working out of this 'office' room, the cost of the AC is pretty insignificant. It's also worth bearing in mind that we have several hundred Watts worth of equipment in that room, always on.