Paul&Nic

Any advice people??

With funds deminishing at a rate of knots, we move out of our lovely rental next week. Current place has a nice pool and ducted air conditioning, which HAS been lovely!

BUT! ... as I say we're moving down.

Now new place altho a lovely house, well it doesn't even have a split system in the lounge! ...

Now to be honest the heat hasn't been much of an issue untill the last week or so, but I don't see ceiling fans being anywhere near enough for the hot nights, so I guess the only option is a few portable units ...

IF!!!! ... they're any good that is ?!?!?

I don't expect them to be anywhere as good as ducted, but are they worth having, and can anyone offer any advice at all?

Thanks

steve`o

we bought one last week for our daughter from bunnings for 500 bucks
its cooled down our girls room a treat and as she was "camping" in our bedroom which has ac it was worth every cent

ps where on the GC are you guys

Paul&Nic

Thanks Steve.

We're currently in Coomera Waters but are moving to Ormeau over the next week.

wanderingwombat

Make sure you dont buy an evaporative cooler as they dont work on the coast (unless you want to simulate FNQ in summer )

WW

wmoore

Last summer in Brisbane, we had a couple of evaporative coolers running and we were fine. No A/C, no ceiling fans, just a couple of coolers

wanderingwombat

They work by blowing moist air around. If it is hot and humid you only add to the humidity.

I dont suppose you are using one now in Darwin?
WW

Wol

I've never understood the rationale behind portables: surely the heat output goes back into the room? Or is the heat exchanger outside?

Quite honestly a decent and quiet fan can work almost as well as an A/C unit and costs a lot less <g>.

framac

Got all 3 and A/Con is easily the best but it must be a decent system. The one in the kids room is crap, prob very old but I'm moving tomorrow so I really don't give a shit about this crappy hole. YEEEHHHHAAAHHHH

ken-6

I brought one a little while ago and it's great.It has a dehumidifier which is great. I got it from www.Greysonline.com.au which is an auction site and i saved $1000 so it's well worth a look and it's one of the best makes on the market.

wmoore

Funnily enough .........


We got something of a sea breeze in Brisbane too so that helped but we did find the portables just added a little extra. The ones we have can be filled with ice / an ice brick to help the cooling.

silver knight

don't bother with evaporator units they are pants and a waste of money, portable A/C is very good now, the bigger the unit the better it will be, something around 3kw will be ample.
make sure you duct the exhaust away from the unit, it is well worth making a blank to fit a window this can be made from cardboard and taped into the window.

also empty the condensate tank everyday, nothing worse that the unit turning it's self off half way through the night.

I hope to install A/C in oz soon once i get my TRA sorted
i can see a BE web special

anymore q's feel free to pm me A/C installation and maintenance is part of my job

gareth

Vash the Stampede

They have an exhaust pipe which you stick out the window. That's where all the heat output goes.

Fans are OK, but they have their limits; in the height of an Australian summer, all they do is push the hot air around, without doing anything to reduce the overall temperature.

steve`o

its amazing how much heat comes out of the duct its as hot as as the exhaust duct from our tumble dryer

silver knight

if you get fixed A/C you can get a system with a heat pump fitted and in the winter it reverse's the process thus warming the room, used a lot in the uk.

i went to a conferance a couple of months ago where they were investigating ways of saving and reuseing energy.

one idea was to use the heat exchanger on the back of a fridge to cook with and another was using the waste heat from A/C units(in cooling mode) to dry clothes and heat water.

gareth

Wol

Thanks V: I had always wondered about the apparent logic of putting a machine into a closed room and pumping energy into it and expecting the room to get cooler!