Air cooler / Air-conditioner

[peter]

I have just came back from a visit to Homebase and saw the following

- An Air cooler (which takes in water+ice) at £49

- An 9000BTU air conditioner, which could apparently be suitable for a room

[Steven Briggs]

In message , peter writes

Sound like a complete con. See threads passim on (none) effectiveness of evaporative coolers in our climate.

Probably not very. Where does this ice come from? Out of you freezer, that's just spent several house taking the heat energy out of some water, and dumping said heat (+some) _into_ your house?

The laws of physics really get in the way of marketing BS sometimes....

[Ian Stirling]

Well, yes. It's going to melt ice at quite a rate though. For example, to cool at 9000BTU/hour, will require 62 pounds of ice an hour.

The air cooler is probably very reliable. It's little more than ice and a fan. The AC, well, you get what you pay for. Out of three dehumidifiers (similar mechanics) on the budget end of the range, one died at about 14 months, out of guarantee, one at 2 months, and was replaced, one has not died as of yet at 6 monts. (not all from homebase)

[Mike Faithfull]

(snip ..)

Sorry, I have to disagree ..... 'cos in this life I've frequently paid for and NOT got !! It is safer to say you never get what you don't pay for.

Anyway, silly word games aside, (sorry Ian) I certainly would not bother with a "cooler" as described. In some limited circumstances a 'portable' (stick-the-condenser-out-the-window kind of device) 'air conditioner' may be useful, but if you're serious about aircon, there's no substitue for a permanently installed system. It's now coming up to the second Summer since I had a small system installed in my 'home office' and just as people say about having a mobile telephone, or automatic transmission or aircon in the car, I don't know how I could live without it now. It kept me cool and comfortable during the hot and humid days, and kept me warm during the Winter without having to have the heating on in the house. Ok, so the cost is probably almost an order of magnitude higher than the Homebase jobbie, but like the man says "you get what you pay for" ...

Er, no, that isn't quite right is it ... umm, .. just a mo, haven't we been here before? :o)

[N. Thornton]

Presumably this is an evaporative cooler. These are a cheapie approach to cooling: cheap to buy, cheap to run. They simply evaporate water into the air, as well as providing some air movement. The gentle fan helps cool humans, the evaporation lowers the air temp a little. But not greatly, and you do need some ventilation. Performance is limited but they do make life quite a lot more comfortable nonetheless.

Air cons eat electricity, and yes youll need 1 or 2 hoses going outside, and maybe a heat exchanger.

oh yes

not long. Forget using ice, they need water. Also they need cleaning to prevent dirt bacteria and mould sprouting. They are baiscally a water trought, cloth and fan. Easy to DIY.

Exhausting your attic heat is another good approach. Ditto using a reflective curtain on the sunny windows. Ditto opening the windows at

10pm. Etc, there are many ways.

Regards, NT

[Pete C]

Hi,

The small portable units are said to be quite noisy. Why do the doors and windows need to be closed, do you live on a main road/and or have kids?

cheers, Pete.

[Graham Wilson]

I was thinking of a permanantly fitted air conditioning unit. However, I was worried about the noise of the unit running in a bedroom and also the noise from the external vent causing a nuisance.

Graham

[usenet]

Noise is a problem in my experience, it's inevitable from the need to move a certain amount of air through a certain sized hole. Having experienced all sorts of AC units in the middle east over ten years or so my memories are as follows:-

Individual (i.e. room sized) AC units installed in the wall are just about always noisy. You can get used to it and sleep with it but I'd prefer not to.

Individual evaporative coolers (probably little use in the UK) which we had in many houses in Saudi Arabia were *much* quieter than AC units, mainly I think because of the lower air speed (bigger hole) and having no compressor. You could sleep comfortably with these.

The best system of the lot was the central AC we had in Shell housing in Oman, very little mechanical noise at all, just the noise of moving air. Even so it was amazing how much quieter life became when we turned it off around October time.

[Simon Gardner]

Not a problem. Modern units are pretty quiet.

[G&M]

Then why don't American hotels b****y use them ?!!!!?

(always have to take a toolkit to deal with units that don't understand the concept of "off". Same with bathroom fans that stay 'ticking over'.

[Andy Hall]

They do as long as you go to the ones where you don't pay by the hour..... :-)

.andy

To email, substitute .nospam with .gl

[Graham Wilson]

[Simon Gardner]

Very possibly. But I was referring to modern installed split systems. They just whisper - and the external condenser unit is also pretty quiet. In most of Juine, all July and August plus lots of September mine is on 24/7 and I am a very light sleeper. They aren't a problem. Desk fans and such like are a lot noisier.