Sorry if OT - Air Conditioning Units

We have one bought several years ago from Homebase but no remote and it has always been very noisy. I wonder if they are any quieter and if anyone knows any web links with reviews?

Ken

Reply to
Ken
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The problem is that air is a poor medium for transferring heat energy - thus a lot of air has to be moved.

Portable units compound this by having to move two lots of air - cooled air into the room and heated air to the house exterior. Plus they need to be compact, which results in higher velocity air streams and far more noise.

You can cut the noise in the house by more than half by going for a split unit. Both interior and exterior units can be relatively larger and use slower fan-blade speeds. These units are available with self-sealing bayonet pipe connections, which makes it possible for the installation to be DIY. These units are significantly more efficient than portable units.

The quietest solution is a ducted one, designed into the house.

A better bet is to first do all that is cost effective to keep heat out. eg blinds, coatings, type of glass, paint colour, awnings, etc. Using more energy efficient equipment so as to not dump unnecessary heat into the rooms. Such measures can often remove the need for air conditioning, in the UK.

Where a portable air con is the only solution, I've found that the noise can be greatly reduced by two or three folding screens placed strategically in front of the unit. Like baffles in a car silencer, they work remarkably well. YMMV

-- Sue

Reply to
Palindrome

Hear, hear.

I'm amazed at how many English people open the windows wide in the heat of the day - when the best thing is to shut the curtains until dusk, then open everything. (Subject to security of course)

Andy

Reply to
Andy Champ

We have a portable unit which we use to get the temperature down in the bedroom before we go to bed. Too noisy to leave on overnight. Some of the two part units are far more quiet with most of the noise going on outside. Which? have reported on AC units. Most public libraries have the magazines. I believe that in countries with hugely variable temperatures they use warm air central heating and cooling.

Reply to
Invisible Man

Thanks for all the detailed advice. Ken

Reply to
Ken

After about 10pm temperatures fall quite significantly outside, so open all the upstairs windows and preferably the back door. The idea is to draw air in as close to the ground as possible which will be cooler (cold air sinks).

This will convect heated air out of the upstairs windows, but you are fighting limited time & thermal mass of the bricks.

You can greatly aid the natural convection by buying a 16-18" floor- fan from Argos, anywhere. Place the fan in the floor of the hall tilted to point vertically upwards (2 floor house), or in the back doorway tilted to blow air through to the hall area (house or flat). This will blast cool air upwards and help to reduce the gross temperature of the rooms quite rapidly. The downside is they are not quiet, about 55dB(A) - a low rumble, and much quieter than conventional portable HVAC units.

Portable HVAC units suffer from one huge drawback. The condensor & evaporator are colocated into the same unit (unlike split units) which means heated air must be ejected from the room via a flexible hose which is very poorly insulated. If the heat is ejected via a 4" duct through a wall they are basically effective, but if it is ejected via a hose through a window they are largely useless. Realise solar gain will easily outstrip the ability of such a unit to effect cooling. In general they are best blowing cool air over confectionary in a shop, or cooling someone by it. Their ability to cool even a small room is quite limited. Money is better spent elsewhere.

The most effective way of reducing solar gain is secondly (blackout) blinds & curtains, firstly an external shuttering which for downstairs may be a simple dust sheet clipped into guttering or hooked over windows. Most people are astonished at how effective a simple dust sheet is at dropping solar gain on a downstairs room to almost zero, greatly reducing whole-house temperatures. Same applies to any conservatory. Ugly it may be, but for the very few (5-10) hottest combined-with-sunny days of the year, it can make a considerable difference.

Most outside temperatures drop to 14-12oC by 10pm-midnight, so blasting air through a house via a floor fan is very effective and cheap. Running costs are 40-60W compared to 1800-2200W for HVAC with capital purchase costs =A340 compared to =A3400-800 for portable/ installed.

If you do a proper installed HVAC solution ensure it has a) Heatpump capability (heats in the winter) and b) is Invertor based (variable output to reduce energy consumption so it tracks more or less in line with actual demand). Part P applies to fixed HVAC solutions and neighbours may not like a 55dB(A) lump in the middle of the night (summer air-con & winter heat-pump). It is unclear whether Part P will ever get watered down or whether it becomes "Part P police with fines" since there is interest in better policing the building regulations in general (ignoring the fact that modern UK housing is largely of crap construction which would be better addressed than adding yet more cost, bureacracy & made-up jobs).

Reply to
js.b1

This will convect heated air out of the upstairs windows, but you are fighting limited time & thermal mass of the bricks.

You can greatly aid the natural convection by buying a 16-18" floor- fan from Argos, anywhere. Place the fan in the floor of the hall tilted to point vertically upwards (2 floor house), or in the back doorway tilted to blow air through to the hall area (house or flat). This will blast cool air upwards and help to reduce the gross temperature of the rooms quite rapidly. The downside is they are not quiet, about 55dB(A) - a low rumble, and much quieter than conventional portable HVAC units.

Portable HVAC units suffer from one huge drawback. The condensor & evaporator are colocated into the same unit (unlike split units) which means heated air must be ejected from the room via a flexible hose which is very poorly insulated. If the heat is ejected via a 4" duct through a wall they are basically effective, but if it is ejected via a hose through a window they are largely useless. Realise solar gain will easily outstrip the ability of such a unit to effect cooling. In general they are best blowing cool air over confectionary in a shop, or cooling someone by it. Their ability to cool even a small room is quite limited. Money is better spent elsewhere.

The most effective way of reducing solar gain is secondly (blackout) blinds & curtains, firstly an external shuttering which for downstairs may be a simple dust sheet clipped into guttering or hooked over windows. Most people are astonished at how effective a simple dust sheet is at dropping solar gain on a downstairs room to almost zero, greatly reducing whole-house temperatures. Same applies to any conservatory. Ugly it may be, but for the very few (5-10) hottest combined-with-sunny days of the year, it can make a considerable difference.

Most outside temperatures drop to 14-12oC by 10pm-midnight, so blasting air through a house via a floor fan is very effective and cheap. Running costs are 40-60W compared to 1800-2200W for HVAC with capital purchase costs £40 compared to £400-800 for portable/ installed.

If you do a proper installed HVAC solution ensure it has a) Heatpump capability (heats in the winter) and b) is Invertor based (variable output to reduce energy consumption so it tracks more or less in line with actual demand). Part P applies to fixed HVAC solutions and neighbours may not like a 55dB(A) lump in the middle of the night (summer air-con & winter heat-pump). It is unclear whether Part P will ever get watered down or whether it becomes "Part P police with fines" since there is interest in better policing the building regulations in general (ignoring the fact that modern UK housing is largely of crap construction which would be better addressed than adding yet more cost, bureacracy & made-up jobs).

Thanks for your help on this issue.

Ken

Reply to
Ken

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