UK friends - do you have an air conditioner?
If so, which one?
There are so many different options and I don't know how to choose!
Boosts, as ever, appreciated.
(UK replies only, thanks. Not interested in fans & ice-cubes. Will be run off solar power, so I'm comfortable with the energy usage. Yes, I hate having to ward off reply-guys with these long disclaimers.)
@Edent the portable unit is a good home Bnq special, I was too hot and found something I could pick off the shelf that day. The fixed unit is over 10 years old so likely not even made any more
@Edent A ground source heat pump can provide you with "free" passive cooling in the summer (if configured correctly) as it stores the heat away in the ground for use in the winter. Capital outlay is higher but if you don't already have a heat pump then it could be a good option.
Not the most efficient with the single hose design, but It does a good job of keeping a few rooms in our house cool and also has a dehumidifier mode for when we are drying clothes inside in the winter.
@Edent I have a Gree GPH12AL. Works fine for me in the flat; when I use it, I hang the hose out of the window, so it’s not permanently fitted in place and I can move it around.
@Edent EcoFlow Wave 2. It’s awkwardly shaped and cumbersome to fit in a house but has dual hoses, a plug for solar panels and turns our bedroom into a fridge 🤣
Unfortunately I have wrecked the ~£800 battery add-on for it by not cycling it over winter 😭
@Edent yes, I have two. I'll dig the model numbers out shortly.
if at all possible, get a dual hose one. for some baffling reason they have generally been unobtainium in the UK but they're vastly more power efficient.
@Edent Amcor SF12000 and Pro-Elec PEL01201. bought the first in 2018, second in 2021. both work fine, no repairs needed so far.
unfortunately both are single hose designs because I could not find any dual hose designs available in the UK at any price at the time. but despite their relative inefficiency they do work very well, even in a large room with a lot of thermal load.
@Edent I would generally say that you don't want anything less than 9000 BTU unless you're cooling a very small or shaded room with one person in it. you end up running the compressor at high duty cycles which is noisy and wears it out more quickly. on the other hand you don't want to go overkill (e.g. 18000 BTU in a bedroom) because the compressor will run at low duty cycle which is also not good for it.
12000 BTU is a nice sweet spot for most living spaces in average sized British homes.
@Edent this factors in that you will not actually get 12k BTU of cooling in practice and you'll have electrical appliances (computer, TV, etc.) kicking out some heat, plus thermal leakage through windows, sunlight generally heating up the room, and subpar thermal insulation in older homes. the cooling efficiency is definitely better in our new build than when we were running the Amcor unit in our old house that was built in the 60s or 70s, just because there's less thermal leakage into the room.
@Edent I just ended up buying a generic portable one from Screwfix (a GoodHome Takoma) - they don't sell the specific model any more but for my home office it does the trick nicely in hot weather.
@moogal@Edent same here. A goodhome for our room and homcom (snigger) for the loft. The only issue is where to put them for the remaining 11 months of the year. During a heatwave we put them on for 2hrs before bed and then turn it off. It's enough tto reduce the room temperature enough to sleep
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