Portable "Air COnditioner" .. How does it work?

[Lord-Data]

A normal wall mounted air conditioner pumps out a lot of hot air, and has a
water drain .. How does an inside portable air conditioner work? They appear
to be a free-standing plastic unit .. One is described (latest retravision
catalog) as being rated at 3500w, which suggests it IS a proper air con ..
but I don't understand how it deals with the above problems?

I'm familiar with the "evaporative coolers" that are around .. that use
water/ice to cool the air .. i've got one of those currently, and its good
while your in its air flow, but it can't make any effect on the air temp ..
I figure a proper air conditioner should be able to?

Thanks in advance!

 

[Phil Allison]

"Lord-Data"

A normal wall mounted air conditioner pumps out a lot of hot air, and has a
water drain .. How does an inside portable air conditioner work? They
appear to be a free-standing plastic unit .. One is described (latest
retravision catalog) as being rated at 3500w, which suggests it IS a proper
air con .. but I don't understand how it deals with the above problems?

** This gives a brief outline.

http://www.cleaning-guide.com/portable-air-conditioner.html


This gives a few more sobering facts:

http://www.choice.com.au/viewArticle.aspx?id=103404&catId=100447&tid=100008&p=1



Yer canne break the laws of physics ......




.............. Phil

 

[Russ]

A normal wall mounted air conditioner pumps out a lot of hot air, and
has a water drain .. How does an inside portable air conditioner
work? They appear to be a free-standing plastic unit .. One is
described (latest retravision catalog) as being rated at 3500w, which
suggests it IS a proper air con .. but I don't understand how it
deals with the above problems?

I assume the portable units must have some way to evacuate the warm air from
the hot heat exchanger.

I'm familiar with the "evaporative coolers" that are around .. that
use water/ice to cool the air .. i've got one of those currently, and
its good while your in its air flow, but it can't make any effect on
the air temp .. I figure a proper air conditioner should be able to?

The secret with evaporative coolers is that they have to be positioned in an
open window so they have access to fresh external air. You also need to have
other windows open to avoid the buildup of moisture in the air. If you use
one of these units in a closed environment, all they will do is cool
initially, but in doing so will raise the humidity to the point where the
cooler actually stops working because the air is too wet, amd the room will
be so humid, it actually feels hotter than the open air.

 

[Jim]

"Lord-Data"

** This gives a brief outline.

http://www.cleaning-guide.com/portable-air-conditioner.html


This gives a few more sobering facts:

http://www.choice.com.au/viewArticle.aspx?id=103404&catId=100447&tid=100008&
p=1



Yer canne break the laws of physics ......

............. Phil

Thanks Phil for those links which I found most informative as we are also
wondering about air con options. Havent really looked into it yet, but
thinking hard) Haven't got any other links for mainstream house air con
units have you ?
Cheers
Jim

 

[Phil Allison]

"Jim"

"Phil Allison"


Thanks Phil for those links which I found most informative as we are also
wondering about air con options. Havent really looked into it yet, but
thinking hard) Haven't got any other links for mainstream house air con
units have you ?

** Hey, wadda ya think I am - made of links !!

It is all is there on Google.




................ Phil

 

[Jim]

** Hey, wadda ya think I am - made of links !!

It is all is there on Google.

............... Phil

I had assumed that you were probably more conversant with the field than I .
Apparently not. Thanks anyway.
Jim

 

[Gregory Toomey]

A normal wall mounted air conditioner pumps out a lot of hot air, and has
a water drain .. How does an inside portable air conditioner work? They
appear to be a free-standing plastic unit .. One is described (latest
retravision catalog) as being rated at 3500w, which suggests it IS a
proper air con .. but I don't understand how it deals with the above
problems?

I'm familiar with the "evaporative coolers" that are around .. that use
water/ice to cool the air .. i've got one of those currently, and its good
while your in its air flow, but it can't make any effect on the air temp
.. I figure a proper air conditioner should be able to?

Thanks in advance!

3500 W is a BIG air conditioner.

I've seen portable airconditioners/dehumidifier with a plastic duct that
must be positioned outside. They are heat pumps and the heat/water vapor
must be transferred somewhere.

Evaporative air conditioners use the latent heat of evaporation to do the
heat transfer. They are only useful when humidity is low, which isn't a
problem in this Queensland drought.


gtoomey

 

[Fred Ferd.]

A normal wall mounted air conditioner pumps out a lot of hot air, and has a
water drain .. How does an inside portable air conditioner work? They
appear to be a free-standing plastic unit ..

Thats TWO free standing units, connected by tubes.

One unit has to be inside, one unit has to be outside..

One is described (latest retravision catalog) as being rated at 3500w,
which suggests it IS a proper air con .. but I don't understand how it
deals with the above problems?

thats right. 3500watts running inside without losing heat to the inside is
3500 watt heater.

 

[KLR]

A normal wall mounted air conditioner pumps out a lot of hot air, and has a
water drain .. How does an inside portable air conditioner work? They appear
to be a free-standing plastic unit .. One is described (latest retravision
catalog) as being rated at 3500w, which suggests it IS a proper air con ..
but I don't understand how it deals with the above problems?

I'm familiar with the "evaporative coolers" that are around .. that use
water/ice to cool the air .. i've got one of those currently, and its good
while your in its air flow, but it can't make any effect on the air temp ..
I figure a proper air conditioner should be able to?

Thanks in advance!

Basically (as others have said) they are a "real" air con - but the
hot air is ducted out a window - out of the room etc.

I have seen other (portable) units too some years back that had the
condensor (hot) part outside - and connected to the portable inside
unit by flexible refrigerant hoses as well (and a power cord for the
fan/compressor too). This particular unit was a "de Longhi" Im sure.

A friend had one in a room in his rented house at the time and it
seemed to cool the room very well, though admittedly it wasn't a huge
room

These should theoretically work as well as a through-the wall system,
but still look messy, and I would imagine you can't separate the 2
units from each other (I didnt ask though) to move them around as you
would lose the gas or risk getting contaminants in the refrigeration
system


---------------------------

 

[Martin]

A normal wall mounted air conditioner pumps out a lot of hot air, and has a
water drain .. How does an inside portable air conditioner work? They
appear to be a free-standing plastic unit .. One is described (latest
retravision catalog) as being rated at 3500w, which suggests it IS a proper
air con .. but I don't understand how it deals with the above problems?

I'm familiar with the "evaporative coolers" that are around .. that use
water/ice to cool the air .. i've got one of those currently, and its good
while your in its air flow, but it can't make any effect on the air temp
.. I figure a proper air conditioner should be able to?

Thanks in advance!

As others have said, they are vented to the outside. A place we reneted
some time ago had one of these units in it - on wheels and looked like a gas
heater unit, which you wheeled to where you wanted it and plugged it into
power, but you also had to run a flexible tube out a window to vent the hot
air, plus a hose pipe kind of tube as the water drain. Otherwise it was
just like a normal a/c unit - i.e. refrigerated cooling not evaporative.

Handy I guess where you want to move the a/con from room to room as needed,
but a bit of a pain having to relocate the various tubes each time!

Cheers

 

[quietguy]

Be cafeful if you are thinking of buying one of these - reports indicate they
are not so good - my daughter bought one - waste of money she reckons

David

 

[S Roby]

Basically (as others have said) they are a "real" air con - but the
hot air is ducted out a window - out of the room etc.

I have one of these. It blows ALOT of air out the duct.

Now if you are blowing air out of the room (via the duct) air has to come
back into the room to replace it (ie hot air from outside), makes it very
inefficient

 

[Bushy]

I bought an Arlec one on sale at Bunnings a few weeks ago. Cost me $569, and
appears identical except for the badge or plastic shroud that covered it
compared to the local supermarket Retravision ones for $800 to $900.

I use it for a combined kitchen and lounge in a country Queensland two
bedroom garage. Although it won't drop the room temperature by more than 5
degrees, it certainly makes a difference. Aiming it above the computer desk
across the room allows me to sit in comfort even on a hot day as the unit
runs flat chat in the large room and doesn't cycle on and off. The
temperature and breeze is perfect for middle of the day surfing.

I have it sitting on top of my combustion stove and blowing it's exhaust
straight up through the old chimney hole in the ceiling beside the new
chimney. Just make sure I disconnect the exhaust tube from the back of the
unit before it rains or water runs down into it which probably wouldn't be
good.

On dry days it hasn't filled the internal water trap, and I haven't had to
empty it so far, but expect that on a wet day I will either stick the
supplied drain tray out the back and pull the plug, or I might even get
technical and drill another drain hole and hook up a bit of garden hose to
let it flow outside. There is a level switch to shut the unit off when the
water level get high and it turns on a red led that says water full.

Oh, and being only a 1 horse motor, it only costs about ten cents an hour to
run!

My girlfriend who bought another one at the same time, has hers in her
bedroom at her place and it allows her to sleep anytime she wants as she
does shift work. The bedroom is small and has curtains and towels helping to
seal the "temporary instalation". A towell wrapped around part of the
exhaust tube acts as an insulator as well, but I don't know how much help it
would be to get some decent insulation for round the exhaust.

Hope this helps,
Peter

 

[John Smyth]

...

A normal wall mounted air conditioner pumps out a lot of hot air, and has a
water drain .. How does an inside portable air conditioner work? They appear
to be a free-standing plastic unit .. One is described (latest retravision
catalog) as being rated at 3500w, which suggests it IS a proper air con ..
but I don't understand how it deals with the above problems?

I'm familiar with the "evaporative coolers" that are around .. that use
water/ice to cool the air .. i've got one of those currently, and its good
while your in its air flow, but it can't make any effect on the air temp ...
I figure a proper air conditioner should be able to?

Thanks in advance!

The portable air conditioners come with a flexible plastic pipe which
connects to the back of the unit. You feed the hot exhaust air out the
window / door via this plastic pipe.

John

 

[Boozo]

..

The portable air conditioners come with a flexible plastic pipe which
connects to the back of the unit. You feed the hot exhaust air out the
window / door via this plastic pipe.

John

I have had a small Dimplex unit for about 10 years now and for any room
bigger than a shoe box it's basically useless.
These units are refrigerated not the water cooled ones.

Has a flexible air pipe about 15cm in diameter to expel the heat outside or
I send it to a room with an exhaust fan due to not having a window nearby.
Also has a small removable plastic container for the collected water or a
plastic tube can be connected and also placed near a drain or outside.

It does work okay in a small room which doesn't heat up too much during
the day otherwise like I said, it's useless.

Boozo.

 

[Wilfred Kazoks]

Another problem with these portable units is that because it has to exhaust
the hot air from ther room it must draw outside air into the room. This
outside air constantly needs to be cooled too , unlike a normal fixed
airconditioner that can cool mthe air enclosed in the room.

If you just want to cool a bedroom at night to help you get to sleep easier
they are fine. I'd only recommend one if the room is small and you cannot
install a conventional unit permanently.

Wilfred