I watched that immediately after buying a portable air conditioner. Thankfully, too, because I think he oversells the inefficiency and effectiveness of portable air conditioners. It's very easy to leave that video thinking you shouldn't bother with one, but the reality is that they're actually pretty damned good machines. Window-mounted units are marginally better, sure, but if that's not an option or you live a place that doesn't stay hot for very long, then they're fine, your electric bill is just a little higher. Which is fine for me because there's two months out of the year I need A/C and the alternative is a fan.
It varies by device and local conditions, but for single tube units a 50% loss in efficiency is not uncommon. In the worst case the air your sucking into the room is extremely humid and you waste a lot of energy constantly condensing water only to then heat that same air and blow it out the room.
Living in a hoa that is loaded with some weird rules... I'm stuck with a portable as traditionals are not allowed. As per noise this was a happy find overtime. A dog of mine developed thunder and fireworks issues. The noise of the ac running helped filter out the thunder/fireworks. Eventually I gravitated towards something more powerful and a bit more expensive and did some self adjusting to the machine bypassing the temperature min so to have the a/c just run continously when I needed it to. This means a room that is typically 51-52ish.
I knew someone that had an HOA rule against window air conditioners. His solution was to keep the window-mount unit inside his bedroom, with the back end (that normally sticks outside the house) enclosed in a box. That box had an intake and exhaust fan, with flexible duct work that routed to a piece of plywood stuck up in the window. From the outside, you just see the screen with the plywood on the other side. But it worked about as effectively as if the whole unit was mounted in the window.
51 Farenheit is pretty darn cold and would be insanely expensive to keep up in the South. I always forget the conversion (never use Celsius) so assumed it was warmer, but not insanely high. My apologies lol.
yea. its pricey. i make up for the cost in the winter cause i dont run heat that much which. basically the min for preventing pipes to freeze. which is fine cause i like it cold over hot. ideal weather is mid november fall day. though seems like thats been fluctuating more towards december.
They're pointing out that 50C is not really a liveable temperature so by definition "a room that is typically 51-52ish" can not be celsius, especially not as this is with AC given the context.
That much was clear, but 50C is well beyond where heat strokes start to be a thing, so it sounded weird. Perhaps they're from a place like saudi arabia where there are populated places and it can actually ever get close to 50°C? Hence my remark.
The A/C in an apartment I was living in in Texas failed one summer, and the management firm put one like that in my bedroom temporarily.
Noisy and inefficient is a good description. Granted, it had to run off a regular 15A outlet so it was never going to be as powerful as the one in the attic. But it made sleeping possible by getting the temperature below 85F (30C).
After watching that video, I decided to relocate my portable air conditioner. The exhaust tube is now super short, directly mounted to a hole in the wall, and insulated to compensate for the inefficiency of these type of devices. It made all the difference.
The content might be interesting, but it's way too long. The guy goes on way too many tangents and adds way too much filler. You probably can boil the whole video down to a few bullet points, yet it's 16 minutes long.
On the other hand, I like his long-form video entertainment. I'll eat lunch while watching one maybe. Not everything needs to be optimized into bulletpoints.
That's kind of the point though. It's a style and delivery method that makes the content enjoyable. A few bullet points could be broadcast via text+image alone, but that isn't the same thing.
I know I'm old because I immediately thought back to how in my day, my parents complained that kids got bored after 45 minutes or so. If you don't have the patience to watch a short YouTube video, then that's really a personality problem that lies with you, not the video.
Ugh, clickbait title. TL;DW get a dual hose model. Mine was $260 from Craigslist. In the video he even says he uses two portable AC's. He backpedals further in his description:
> Seriously, either we need to get more awareness of how dumb single-hose portable A/C units are, or we need to just use window units whenever possible. While I know that there are times a portable unit is the only option (remember, I’m in that boat), it seems that only very high capacity, premium machines have the facility to use two hoses. Which is frankly stupid but then again that’s what I’m trying to tell you now.
Yes, you "shouldn't like them," unless it's you're only option, like in his case.
Portable AC's exist because window units don't fit in sliding windows and you can't move them from room to room. That's the point of being portable! Believe me I'd love to be able to buy a $50 used window AC like I did in college if it fit my window.
In the video, the guy says he owns two portable AC's. So there's that.
Someone ought to make a reverse window unit. It would be like a regular one but hanging inward instead so it doesn't protrude. Supporting the weight might be a challenge but solvable with some legs or maybe angle brackets.
Of course it would take up more space and be louder than a regular window unit, but at least it wouldn't require hoses. Plus it could drip condensation out the window through a short tube.
The whole point of a window unit is that the very hot compressor is outside the room you're heating. Without that, you may as well get a portable unit.
The compressor and radiator are outside. A section a couple inches tall contains the pipes, wiring, and braces. The fan, blower, filter and thermostat are in the front bit. Your window panes (hopefully double glazed or better?) and a couple inches of foam provide the sound dampening. The lowest displacement model claims 47dB with the fan and compressor at full bore.
the compressor makes heat in addition to being loud. Thats the other strike against portable AC units. The compressor is heating up in the room you want to cool
These exist, usually an off the shelf through-wall AC unit with custom built sleeve and legs. You can see them (or not see them) in some of the landmark pre-war buildings with strict facade rules.
Thanks. Today I learned that window ACs and wall ACs are different things even though they look extremely similar.
For anyone reading this, presumably because windows are thin and walls are thick, window ACs are expected to stick out and thus have vents on the sides, whereas wall ACs have vents only on the back surface.
So as long as you figure out drainage (so condensation doesn't just land on the windowsill), you can install a wall AC in a window and have it not protrude.
Yes. My apartment building in SF was part of a landmark legal case because many units stay over 80 degrees for large portions of the year due to poor consideration of solar factors. Usually only builders are sued for defective construction, in this case the architect was sued due to poor design.
We received funds but the funds were not enough to retrofit a 600-unit building with central A/C. However, the city of SF will not permit wall-mounted mini-split units nor window units in the building, since that’s a change to the facade. So we’re stuck with portable units...
Same here. My apartment windows only tilt upwards, so there was no way to use a window mount. A portable unit was the only way to go.
But I created a wedge-shaped mount for the hose ports that fits in the triangular window gap exactly, so the room is still relatively sealed. When summer is over, the mount is disassembled and stored flat.
I've never seen anyone else do this. I've always hated the look of hoses dangling out of open apartment windows and of course that's terribly inefficient. Every time I see our windows from the outside I'm rather jazzed at how great-looking the solution is.
I wish it was just code to have mini splits installed in every apartment. They're straight better than other options at both heating and cooling, and very affordable these days.
Can't say enough good things about my Mitsubishi split unit, installed a couple weeks aho during kitchen reno. It's quiet, efficient, powerful, and highly configurable / programmable.
I recently scored major points with the in-laws by convincing them to get a mini split for $800 instead of a window a/c-heater combo. Their place stays much cooler, and their electric bill went down by $125 last month.
Mini splits are fantastic. My experience from them has been from every home / small store I've ever lived in or visited while in south east asia. Window units can be annoying because of the wind they produce while I've never had issues with former.
You can fit it in a sliding window. Go to the hardware store and buy a sheet of 1-inch thick foil backed insulating styrofoam. Cut it to fit perfectly above the AC unit.
I don’t understand why we don’t have a vertical AC unit. I think they are just too used to making them square. Might have something to do with constructing the radiator. Or habit.
Anecdotally having used both a window unit and a dual hose unit with technically the same BTU (using the new adjusted measurements), the window unit is still night and day better. Not having massive heat radiating tubes and a large electric heater in the same room as you is still a big win.
Perception of temperature depends on more than just the temperature - there are other factors. For me, in winter 74 is hot. In summer, 74 is just right - sometimes a bit cool. The level of clothing is the same in both cases. Even within summer I've found quite a bit of variation in perception for the same temperature. A sunny day and a cloudy day feel very different at the same temperature.
I once went hiking. I checked the forecast and the maximum was 72. Great! I almost had a heat stroke - very bad day. I confirmed later that the temperature was not higher. And I've hiked at warmer temperatures just fine.
This is why when I buy a car, I want to make sure it's trivial for me to adjust both the flow of air and the level of cool/heat independent of each other, and not rely on the temperature setting. Almost all cars let you do that these days, but there was a period where some cars did not let you do that. Having a thermostat and letting you maintain a temperature is really not much of a feature if the variance in the "right" temperature is too large.
BMWs have long had a feature that takes these temperature concerns one step further–a knob that controls the vents blowing towards your face, which works independently of the main climate control. So you can set the overall temperature you want for the car, but fine tune the air that you feel most directly. It’s a small detail but something I really appreciate.
It's 75 °F at 67% humidity in the house right now and I can't imagine running an air conditioner to sleep. It will continue to cool off and I'm sure I'll run a fan.
Typically we get just a few days where it stays over 80 °F with high humidity, so I guess it isn't particularly adaptation.
