Portable A/C vent into fireplace?

Warm air going up a flue in warm weather (i.e. the brickwork will be warm too) sounds like it should be OK. You'll be pulling moisture out at the condensor.

Have you considered a pre-gassed DIY split system?

ISTR that :

The monoblock units usually collect condensate in a tank for periodic emptying - so the exhaust ought not be that moist.

(the is the usual problem though that they displace room air to "outside", meaning new warm moist air gets drawn in from elsewhere unless the monoblock is a two hose design that can draw its supply of air from outside also.

Yes, the problem is I would either have the outside gubbins on the front of a shop or a monster pipe run to the rear.

Could you use the twin duct types, which just need 2 x 4" ducts through the wall.

I don't know if the ducts have to be straight through the wall or if there is sufficient fan capacity to extend them a bit.

In heat pump mode an internal condensate drain is also required.

They still might be above budget though.

Owain

Sounds like someone thinks they've found a mug. I had a Fujitsu 2.5kW unit supplied and installed last week for £800 all included except I cut the 80mm hole in the bedroom outside wall and provided an electric supply via an ip65 isolator switch adjacent to the exterior compressor unit. Oh and he borrowed my aluminium ladder. Running on full blast it consumes a bit over 700 watts, less as it winds down to approach set temperature. The indoor unit when cooling produces condensate which he piped out and down to a handy surface water gully. If I run it in reverse during the winter to heat the bedroom the outdoor unit will produce condensate which he pipes to the gully as well. The inter unit pipes and cable are enclosed in a plastic duct for appearance sake. Pricing up the bits I reckon he made a couple of hundred for a full days work which I thought very reasonable.

Why use ac when you could use a swamp cooler?

UK weather?

My split unit is 'portable' in that the indoor unit is on wheels like the classic free-standing hosed air-con but instead of a large diameter air hose that goes outside there is a sheathed umbilical that contains all the pipes to the unit fixed to the wall on the outside (currently going though a hole that was for a balanced flue wall mounted heater flue).

All the hoses / cables can be disconnected at the main unit end (without significant loss of gas).

It works very well. If I sheet off the landing it will cool all three bedrooms from 'very uncomfortable' to 'quite cool' in a few hours (and keep it there if left on). Then problem is when you walk how the stairs and feel the heat! ;-(

To the OP. A mate has a shop with a large South facing wall, much of which is exposed to the sun all day and the front of the shop is all glass and facing East, so catches the sun all afternoon right until dusk.

I think the idea of exhausting the heat up a chimney flue could work (if not optimal), subject to condensation and back pressure? (As mentioned elsewhere) It would have the same issue as when venting though a window (even if sealed) in that you need to get air in the room from somewhere (ideally, cool).

Cheers, T i m

It's as if someone has heard a name and then thinks it's going to be a solution everywhere, like 'WD40'. ;-)

If 'swamp coolers' actually worked here (with our humidity), I'm guessing we would all have them by now and we obviously don't, well, unless you actually wanted a humidifier. ;-)

Cheers, T i m

Really, i'll shop around then...

There's aircon already in the building downstairs, here when we moved in, so we called the people who'd installed that to quote for upstairs.

(I'd optimistically assumed you could tee off the downstairs one)

I use a crude swamp cooling setup here when it hits heatwave. It works and costs near nothing. We did have 2 or 3 days when it was raining real hard & you don't get significant cooling, the rest of the summer it's good. And no, it doesn't make indoors any damper.

NT

Of course you do, that's why you keep recommending them.

So why aren't they more popular?

For your definition of 'good' I'm guessing? How much cooler did it make the room?

Well, if you have a river running though your place already I guess it wouldn't but how can you evaporate a quantity of water into a sealed space and it *not* get more humid?

It just the same as daughter drying clothes in her flat by hanging them on airers in her bedroom and running the de-humidifier and not having to empty it every day?

If you have any through house ventilation then 'of course' light humidification or de-humidification wouldn't work, as wouldn't any effective heating or cooling (other than very localised and not what most would consider a 'good' solution).

Cheers, T i m

The main point I would make is that the split unit will be more efficient from a massflow point of view (less air changes in the room would be necessary) and that in turn makes it more viable as a heater in the winter

It is what I have done as I have removed the flue from my wood burner to the register and poked the vent up it. No problems so far but I've only felt the need to use this for a week this year.

As I understand it if it is humid the portable cools air below its dew point and this can be collected in a tray, otherwise it is evaporated by the now warmer exhaust. You are worried that this slightly moister warm air will be cooled by the chimney brickwork and condense causing problems? In that hot weather the indoor relative humidify here was about 40% so I doubt that is a problem.

And now you have a nice airflow up the chimney, helping to evaporate any condensate. ;-)

Cheers, T i m

Yes it does.

The humidity increases, actually making it more difficult for sweat to evaporate.

On paper, yes the temperature has dropped.

Plus chimneys are used to condensate, at least in the early stages of lighting a fire.

Theo

And that evaporated moisture has to go somewhere so unless you also have some heat exchangers on the house ventilation, you are going to lose 50% of your cold as you vent the humidity.

Yes, locally, like the outdoor fan my mate bought back from The States that puts a *very* fine mist of water into the exit airflow to provide a cooling effect. To get any benefit thought you really have to sit in the airflow.

Cheers, T i m

Are you actually trying to be a moron?

Which part of 'And no, it doesn't make indoors any damper' was beyond you? Lemme give you a hint: the way the system works means it does not add water to the indoor air, and does not make the place damper. Are you able to comprehend that yet?

Mind boggling.

NT