jwinch

Hi

we are currently in a rental with no air con and I am currently roasting very slowly from the inside out.

Have been looking at the possibility of getting portable airconditioners, but the still look like they need venting through windows etc.

I dont think the landlord is going to be too chuffed if we start making holes in his windows.

Have seen an evaporative air cooler in Big W for $99 not sure how or if this would work.

Grateful of any advice please

pusky123

In the UK you can obtain portable air conditioners with a special attachment to the vent pipe, so that the window can be left very sligtly ajar, and vented in that way. No need to start drilling holes etc.

I dont know how effective they are though.

The Bloke

Can purchase smaller A/C's that fit into mainly sliding windows without the need for screwing. A expandable flap extends to fill the gap left in the window and is secured by shutting the window on it. It however is best used for smaller rooms ie bedrooms, and is portable throughout the house. Costs somewhere between $300 - $1000 approx ( not exactly sure of exact cost) and is available from electrical stores.
Evaporative coolers, even though they have water in them, are still reliant to a certain degree on a windflow through them to work properly.

GCS15

G'day

Your all in luck as I can save you time and effort from doing further research and with any luck I will have saved you money

"Have seen an evaporative air cooler in Big W for $99 not sure how or if this would work. " - Don't waste that $99!!! these air coolers are great in dry climates. The slightest hint of humidity will turn it into an expensive fan!

"I dont think the landlord is going to be too chuffed if we start making holes in his windows." - I'm in a rental at the moment and I have drilled a couple of holes My view is that it is easier to ask for forgiveness than to ask for permission Just keep the damage minimal.

"Have been looking at the possibility of getting portable airconditioners," - I thought seriously about this. Me mate has one and he say's that it does drop the temp a bit but don't expect it to make the room cool

"we are currently in a rental with no air con and I am currently roasting very slowly from the inside out." - Stop it right now. There is no need to suffer. Get an air-con asap. My advice is to measure your room, find someone who can work out what size air-con you need and buy one heaps bigger That way you can leave the bedroom door open and it can cool down the lounge as well.

Good luck

rapitts

the good portable air conds are pretty expensive, looking at $900+ bucks.
The evaporative air cooler works by having a bucket of cold water which is then fanned out (or something like that).

I've been looking at getting one, same boat as you. The venting normally allows a open window to be used.


You can get pretty good ones at www.graysonline.com.au when they come up for auction, however since summer is almost gone I though I will leave it till next year.

Coulterk

We had a portable A/C unit that required a vent out the window and filled up a water tank. It was quite a sizeable one and cost around $750. It was just about good enough to cool a double bedroom. It was quite noisy, but you get used to it. It really acts like a cooling fan than a proper external A/C unit, and does nothing for the rest of the house.

If I were to do it again, I'd want to put a proper one in - depends on how long you plan to be there. I'd consult the landlord.

Jacko1

Evaps only really work well in very dry areas ie low humidity here in WA they are fine, however they are not much better than a fan in Queensland.

I would speak to landlord, they may be able to assist, loads of rentals here have AC fitted I am in the AC business)

Paul J

Trevglas

The OP is on the Sunshine coast, so I guess this time of year the humidity will be pretty high. An evaporative cooler in those conditions will just not cut the mustard, and so will be basically just a fan.

Measuring humidity and running an evaporative cooler have a lot in common. To measure humidity, you use two thermometers, one of which has the bulb covered with a wet cloth. The two thermometers are waved around and evaporation of water from the dampened thermometer lowers its reading. This means both thermometers will show a different temperature, and the humidity is calculated fom this difference. An evaporative cooler relys on the same thing, cooling the air by blowing over a wet cloth, and so the maximum cooling you can ever get can be estimated by the Wet and Dry thermometer tables.

Take for example Maroochidore. According to BOM, at midnight last night it was 26.4 degrees with a relative humidity of 90%. The best an evaporative cooler would do is lower the temperature by 1 degree, and do absolutely nothing for that humidity, apart from perhaps make it worse.

ABCDiamond

How long will you be in the rental ?
What would a "proper" air conditioner cost you, including fitting ?
Would you share part of the cost with the Landlord, or pay a higher rent, if the landord paid for it to go in ?

Owning Investment properties myself, if a tenant came to me and said they needed air conditioning, and said they would pay half, or they would pay $xx extra pw in rent, I would seriously look at the proposal.
A $2,000 air conditioner, I would expect to have a 5 year life, and would therefore cost it at about $10 per week (cost to me), and would expect it to increase rent by that same figure.

Just some thoughts for you

Jacko1

Could'nt have put it better myself

This is exactly why they do not do the job on the East coast

Paul J

jensteve

I bought one!!
It works fine, I put in the freezer 4 pop bottles and chill the water right down before it freezers and put it in the aircon unit, what doesnt get used can be poured back out by a bung in the back.
I think it depends on where you are as to how well they work, we are in Perth and I find it OK, only put it on though to try it out as the heat is not bothering us all that much yet.

jenny

Shellfish

We bought an evaporative cooler about a month ago and even in a dry climate, it hasn't done much in the way of cooling a room down. The problem is that the motor in it actually heats the room up so the instructions say that when the cooler is running, the back of it needs to be pointing outside which is fine if we are using it downstairs in the lounge but not when we are using it upstairs because it's far to low even to point out of the window.

Now the hubby is nagging for a portable aircon but I would rather wait til we buy our own place and install a good cooler/heater (this is Melbourne!!) in the house.

jwinch

Thanks everyone for your help, we only have three months left to run on the rental agreement and there is talk of the owners putting the property up for sale, although no one will tell us anything for definate.

The owners will not pay out for leaking showers and constantly running toilets to be fixed so i am sure they will not consider air con !

Does the humidity in Queensland usually lower once feb is out the way ?

jad n rich

This has been a very mild summer last year was much much hotter, however usually once you get past the end of march temps can start to drop especially at night. As weve had hardly any storms the humidity has been pretty bearable but this weekend was more normal for time of year. Another 8/10 weeks and we should be past the worst. Best time of year here is usually winter, dry sunny and lovely cool nights which you really appreciate after an OZ summer.

dawn kirbyshire

this has been a really interesting thread so thanks to those who helped. i have a question for jad and rich though, prompted by that last reply. we are planning to be in qld by the summer, hooray, my brother lives at noosa and my sister nearer brisbane. mum and dad et al in between. they all have their reasons for living where they do but i can't get a straight answer out of them about climate. do you have any advice about particular areas that are, a, cheap in terms of property, b, scenic, c not the hottest part of qld. we're not bothered about being near facilities too much but we appreciaqte that the cheaper, more rural areas are also the hottest. what you think? is it really much hotter/humid the further north, ie north of noosa?