Portable Air Conditioners

They still feel tacky though ...

Ditto. Had 3 of them from Great Mills. Still going strong & a boon in this heatwave. Only downside is that I have to dust them as the wife refuses to.

I often found the opposite. I was responsible for meeting the requirements of various contracts, but all too often the rule book said: "You can't do that - first you must xxxx" where xxxx was impossible on the contract in question.

I'd be looking harder at a split unit. The duct run is going to be a constant battle, and would likely add to the additional inefficiencies of the portable unit.

Catch 22.

So lets look at building regs and cooling.....

from

Approved Document B (Fire Safety) requires a protected staircase or the provision of escape windows. Escape windows must meet the following criteria:

A minimum clear openable area of 0.33m² A minimum dimension of 450mm, and A maximum sill height of 1,100mm from the finished floor level.

Approved Document K (Protection from falling, collision and impact) requires that any openable window with a sill below 800mm (and with a drop over 600mm externally) be protected to prevent falls. This means either limiting the opening to 100mm and designing the glass to provide fall arrest, or installing guarding to a height of 1,100mm above finished floor level. That creates the first problem. An opening restrictor set to 100mm may satisfy Part K — but it doesn’t meet the opening size needed for Part B escape. If you install removable restrictors, you must ensure they can be disengaged easily without tools or keys, or you’ve failed compliance.

Approved Document O (Overheating), introduced in 2022, now mandates that any window opening wider than 100mm must have its lowest edge at least

Now given that walls are normal brick is 65mm height, say 70mm with mortar and the sill sits on top of the bricks I think you can see the problem! Apparently there is a note in the back of the regs which now specifies additional tollerences...

..... but sometimes such contradictions can be useful and many years ago, when I was working in IT in local government I had a hysterical manager screaming at me down the phone that they needed x,y & z for the latest mandate.

I told them that if they continued to shout I would put the phone down and find other mandates that said under no circumstances could she have x, y or z. They shut up immediately, and said that probably wouldn't take me more than 5 minutes and we returned to a having sensible discussion..

... I think we managed x and z on time, but Y was delayed by central government....

Dave

It is not clear how a wheelchair bound person could use this.

Tell me about it. All electric sockets have to be reachable by a person who cant bend down, but no light bulb socket is so designated,.

Net net result is that normal people now trip over appliuance cords at a metre above the ground

Letter in today's Daily Mail where a reader bought a cooling fan for £89.99. The price then went up to £160.99, then £287.99 & ended at £384.

And in a few weeks they will be stuffed into garages, lofts , sheds under the stairs etc.. Fans at sensible prices are available all year round. Lack of forward planning seems to be a trait of much of society today, I suppose those sort of people have got so used to ordering on an Amazon, Ebay Deliveroo and getting what they want next day or even quicker then when the warehouses run out of stock they really notice it.

GH

I am afraid to say we fell into that category. We had ceiling fans in most rooms and these served us well for many hot summers but with a move imminent we took them down and packed them away and of course Sod’s Law we get two heat waves, we endured the first but gave in on the second rushing out to acquire a couple of upright ones. No doubt once in the new house with the ceiling fans installed the two upright ones will end up stuffed away somewhere.

People have so much 'stuff', and modern houses are small enough that there isn't always enough room to keep larger items on a "We might need it one day" basis. We do have a desk fan. It's been up in the attic for the last 3 years or so. I just haven't bothered to clamber up there to get it (if it's hot in the house, the attic will be much worse).

Why are DC fans better and more expensive than AC when AIUI AC hairdryers are better and more expensive than DC?

I've looked into these in the past and been put off by high ceiling heights needed for safe/effective clearance - even the 2.8m ceilings downstairs didn't seem to cut it.

Just come across these:

The one my pal bought has everything in the inside unit except for the radiator and a fan in the outside unit. So the outside unit is quite light enough to be manoeuvred through a window say and the inside part is heavier and on wheels. The condensate in his is pumped to the outside unit for more convenient drainage outside. He has so far found it very good.

nib

Yes (we have one), but they're probably all sold out ATM.

The unit works well, with an exhaust tube meant for a casement window, which is something we don't have. We use the A/C in the kitchen, pointing the (warm) exhaust out into the garage via the connecting door. Not ideal, but it works far better than doing nothing at all. In other rooms we satisfice with a 45w or 50w oscillating fan.

I should think so, as long as the grate hasn't been in use, the chimney was swept since last in use and there is consequently little soot to be dislodged.

Any chance of make/model please?

Make & model would be a useful/interesting thing to have, please

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