Portable air conditioner?

[iblizzard]

I'm looking to buy an air conditioner for my room for the summer. Just wondering if anyone has any suggestions as to what to look for? I can't mount it in a window, so it has to be a portable one, but it is also only going to be cooling a very small room (less than 100 sq ft). It seems all the portable units are made to cool much larger rooms and are therefore much more expensive than I'm looking for (More than $400).

any ideas?

[FiveFreshFish]

Expect to pay at least $500 for a portable AC unit.

The smallest portable ones are rated at 300 sq ft and up. If your room is less than 100 sq ft, it's no big deal to have a unit rated for something bigger. It just doesn't have to work as hard and you can use it in a larger room when you move to another place. Besides, I doubt you can find portable unit rated for only 100 sq ft.

Try Sears, Canadian Tire, Home Depot and Rona.

[iblizzard]

Yeah. I was pretty sure I'd be paying no less than $500.. everything I've seen so far has been all over 300 sq ft... and no, I'm not complaining with being able to use it elsewhere afterwards... but it'd be nice to just pay half the price and get a less powerful unit.

Oh well.

[Alex_FORD]

If you want to cool a bedroom on a budget, then buy a ceiling fan, or figure out how to make a $150 window ac fit in the window. Portable ac will always cost you more.

[iblizzard]

Originally posted by Alex_FORD
If you want to cool a bedroom on a budget, then buy a ceiling fan, or figure out how to make a $150 window ac fit in the window. Portable ac will always cost you more.

A ceiling fan wouldn't do too much.. the room is usually mostly closed except for one window, and there are 4 computers on 24/7... so it heats up really fast. I've had the room filled with fans before (not ceiling ones, obviously..) and it didn't really do too much, even with the door and window wide open.

But a member PM'd me and said that window units don't need to be placed in a window... that they can just be run on a desk or whatever.. The only thing I wonder is... do these units need to be vented outside? And if they do, would it be a safe thing to just run some ducting from the backside of the AC unit to the window?

[BlackArcher101]

If you don't duct them to the outside, then you aren't cooling the room. All your doing is taking in air, cooling it, then throwing out, but then the air conditioner would put the heat back into the room along with the cold air. Back to square one.

[iblizzard]

So then theoretically it would be fine if I took some dryer-ducting and just ran it from the back of the AC unit to the window... just to get the air moving, correct?

If that's the case, then all I will do is pick up one of those units and do that.. much cheaper alternative... I was just concerned more about the safety of it.

[BlackArcher101]

Should work as long as you seal it at the exit of the air conditioner and the window. There's nothing wrong with the air if there's some leakage, just lowers the efficiency drastically.

[Weapon_R]

Walmart had a unit for around $400, should be enough for a small room.

[Zero102]

Turn your computers off at night?

Seriously though, is the window too small to install an air conditioning unit in? If so, then you could build some sort of adapter to make the A/C unit fit the window (like a big tapered box). However, depending on how the condensor is mounted in the 'outside' part of the A/C unit, you sometimes need clearance all around, instead of just at the back. Some units don't have a very powerful fan on the outside either.

If you're really talented, you can buy an A/C unit, have the refrigerant evacuated, then remove the cover, de-solder the pipes leading to the condensor and remove the external fan, then run a few more feet of copper piping of the same size, relocate the consensor and fan outside, solder it back together and have an A/C guy come and re-fill the system.
Of course, by the time that is done it would probably cost $500 anyways...
But come on, that's what Tim the toolman Taylor would do

[FiveFreshFish]

Originally posted by BlackArcher101
If you don't duct them to the outside, then you aren't cooling the room. All your doing is taking in air, cooling it, then throwing out, but then the air conditioner would put the heat back into the room along with the cold air. Back to square one.

Actually, by doing this you would be worse off than going back to square one. The room temperature will go up if there's no ducting to outside.

[blinkme_210]

With the portable units, you still have to run a duct hose to the window right? Because I looked into it briefly a few summers ago, and if I remember correctly, that's what stopped me from purchasing one.

[FiveFreshFish]

^^^ Yes.

Or you can run ducting into your hallway and heat up the rest of the house.

[Alex_FORD]

Originally posted by iblizzard
So then theoretically it would be fine if I took some dryer-ducting and just ran it from the back of the AC unit to the window... just to get the air moving, correct?

If that's the case, then all I will do is pick up one of those units and do that.. much cheaper alternative... I was just concerned more about the safety of it.

This should work fine, just bet yourself lots of duct tape some aluminum flashing and you can build just about anything you need for this.

keep in mind that a portable or a 'made to be portable' is not as efficient for 2 reasons: 1) the hot hose tends to heat some of you air and 2) the exhaust air is coming from your bedroom( ie a window ac can use the outside air to blow the heat away, plus it can continually recycle the cold air around the room)

You haven't mentioned the reason why you cant use your window, but if its possible to use your window, I think you should reconsider it.

[iblizzard]

I'm not able to because it doesn't slide open.. it swings outwards, and there's no way to hold the unit in there.

But since the room is so small, I think it'll work fine for my case.

[GoChris]

I bought one last year from sears, its on wheels suppose to do several hundred sq ft. we use it in our bedroom so when we go to bed at night its not cooking. I couldnt live without it now.

[legendboy]

portable a/c units still need to be vented to a window.

you cannot put a window a/c unit on a desk and have it work for reasons mentioned above, but also cooling the air takes all the moisture out and that drips off the back of the window unit. so your going to have water all over the place if you try and do this.