Anyone got A/C?

[d000hg]

Layout of our old house means our bedroom gets full sun during the summer... rest of the house is always cool but neither of us can sleep when it's stifling.
Proper portable A/C units cost half a monkey and I wouldn't want to install a permanent unit ideally. Then there's these water-cooling things (https://www.toolstation.com/air-cool...control/p78965) but I'm dubious especially at the idea of having to load them with ice every night.

For the lower-tier contractors who don't have a butler to fan them all night, have you used any of these things?

[amoeba]

Those ice blower things look like a load of crap, the ice will melt in about 30 minutes and then it will do nothing.

We have a proper split aircon unit in the bedroom, with the outside unit below on the ground at the side of the house. It cost £1600, professionally fitted and is a 'quality' Mitsubishi unit. It is a godsend.....for the 15-30 'proper' hot days a year.

I did look into the DIY split units you can get for £500-1000 and fit it myself, but couldn't put up with the wife saying 'get a professional'. But it really doesnt look that difficult, as long as your are happy drilling a huge 50mm diameter hole through the brickwork.

[northernladuk]

I can't believe for one minute that's going to work. That unit is unbranded. If there was even a sniff it would work someone would be offering branded ones.

[Paddy]

Layout of our old house means our bedroom gets full sun during the summer... rest of the house is always cool but neither of us can sleep when it's stifling.
Proper portable A/C units cost half a monkey and I wouldn't want to install a permanent unit ideally. Then there's these water-cooling things (https://www.toolstation.com/air-cool...control/p78965) but I'm dubious especially at the idea of having to load them with ice every night.

For the lower-tier contractors who don't have a butler to fan them all night, have you used any of these things?

There are some very good youtube videos on A/C performance. To cut a long story short, the only A/C that has any real performance is one that has at least one outlet to the outside to expel the hot air. Having said that, all portable A/Cs are going to generate there own heat which is inefficient hence why you see proper A/Cs located outside the building.

My home office has indoor louvered shutters and it keeps cool. I have the same setup in the villa but with the addition of ceiling fans in each room. The trick is stopping the sunlight getting in the rooms and ventilating from the lower floors upwards.

[d000hg]

Those ice blower things look like a load of crap, the ice will melt in about 30 minutes and then it will do nothing.

We have a proper split aircon unit in the bedroom, with the outside unit below on the ground at the side of the house. It cost £1600, professionally fitted and is a 'quality' Mitsubishi unit. It is a godsend.....for the 15-30 'proper' hot days a year.

I did look into the DIY split units you can get for £500-1000 and fit it myself, but couldn't put up with the wife saying 'get a professional'. But it really doesnt look that difficult, as long as your are happy drilling a huge 50cm diameter hole through the brickwork.

I wondered if the 'cooling units' act on any sort of misting principle, which does work... definitely can't see a handful of ice cubes doing anything.

I thought I'd seen 'real' A/C units for just a couple of hundred, like you see in American motels, but I may have been mistaken. No way I'm spending a grand for a few really hot days it'd be cheaper to insulate the wall that gets the sun on it all day

[d000hg]

There are some very good youtube videos on A/C performance. To cut a long story short, the only A/C that has any real performance is one that has at least one outlet to the outside to expel the hot air. Having said that, all portable A/Cs are going to generate there own heat which is inefficient hence why you see proper A/Cs located outside the building.

My home office has indoor louvered shutters and it keeps cool. I have the same setup in the villa but with the addition of ceiling fans in each room. The trick is stopping the sunlight getting in the rooms and ventilating from the lower floors upwards.

We have thick blackout curtains but it doesn't help much. Our house is solid brick and the bedroom wall gets full sun until mid-afternoon so I think the entire wall is just getting hot. It's a Victorian place with nice high ceilings and generally, it's lovely and cool except this one bedroom - well and the loft conversion which was 24C still at midnight, but we don't go up there!

[_V_]

as long as your are happy drilling a huge 50cm diameter hole through the brickwork.

50cm hole? 1/2 metre dia hole in the wall? Crikey, most new build houses would collapse with a hole so big.

[xoggoth]

We have thick blackout curtains but it doesn't help much. Our house is solid brick and the bedroom wall gets full sun until mid-afternoon so I think the entire wall is just getting hot.

Same here. I keep windows open for some hours before bedtime but temperature stays much higher than outside.

[Paddy]

We have thick blackout curtains but it doesn't help much. Our house is solid brick and the bedroom wall gets full sun until mid-afternoon so I think the entire wall is just getting hot. It's a Victorian place with nice high ceilings and generally, it's lovely and cool except this one bedroom - well and the loft conversion which was 24C still at midnight, but we don't go up there!

If you have a digital camera with night vison like the old Sony, and take a look through the viewfinder you may be surprised that blackout curtains appear transparent in sunlight. I presume that blackout curtains do not stop IR and IR heat.

[Halo Jones]

Over the past 15 years or so we have had all forms of AC, desk fans, water based cooling, portable AC units until finally we got "proper AC" installed about 5 years back.

Best thing we ever did!

OK so for us it was more to do with heat kicking off BGG's MS but the benefit for both of us is great.

We have one condenser (outside box fan thing) which can run 2 or 3 internal units, currently we have 2 - one in BGG study & one in the bedroom.

As I over-specced the size of the units they will cool down the whole of upstairs

I am planning a 2nd condenser for the extension & putting 2 more units (my study & workshop)

My advice is don't waste your money on half hearted attempts, bite the bullet & get a proper job done.

Also its not just for the really hot days - like today its a bit muggy, AC set to a low air circulation mode (not chilled) but makes it a lot more comfortable.

The speed the units can chill a room is miles better than the lesser units,

Oh and they have a heating function too - so if its a sudden drop in temperature, specific room heating or if the central heating is on the blink they are useful then.