Portable A/C

And I did spell Friedrich right when I searched for them.

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Home Cheapo or LoweBalls

PC Richards carries Amana, and occasionally another brand. I have two. So far so good. About $350. Newspaper ads show others, about the same price.

But even the salesguy was hemming and hawing, as they supposedly get a lot of returns, due to high expectations. The EER is very low, the BTUs proly not what the label says (about 8K), but, for excellent dehumidification (buckets of water, also will throw the condensate out with the heat (a misting process--nice), which might even help efficiency), and passable A/C, if the space is not too big, or enclosed, like a basement.

For winter, get a standalone dehumidifer--which also acts as a 600-800 watt heater.

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tt

The OP said he didn't require heating. I think you're a bit on the high side in your heat output estimate. I think 400 watts for a residential unit would be more realistic. You're dropping the relative humidity which will affect latent heat, and the units themselves only draw 600-800 watts. Even a heating element isn't 100% efficient.

R

watt

Sorry, but it is surely 100% efficient, in that all the energy delivered to it (not dissipated in transmission) is transferred to local load.

And, for winter, the dehumidifier does not dissipate energy outdoors, which, for this discussion, is as good as it gets.

J

0 watt

I understand your point. Let me rephrase what I'm trying to say and maybe you can clarify my thinking. A resistance heater is adding the full load to the room and the relative humidity would stay more or less the same. A dehumidifier would remove humidity, and add the full heat load initially. After the dehumidifier ran for a while, wouldn't the sensible heat be lower?

R

watt

No. How are you going to turn water vapor into water by extracting the heat from it, reject that heat into the room, and have the rom cool down ???

Your sensible heat will be 'what is was before' + 'the latent heat of condensation of the water vapor condensed' out + 'the inefficiency / waste heat of the device'.

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Dehumidifiers are MORE than 100% efficient as heaters, as latent heat pumps, since removing water vapor from air adds heat. I measured a 1.6 COP with a power meter and a measuring cup.

Nick

Since when?

No

Don't waste your money on one. I had an 8000 BTU model. It was a worthless piece of junk. They have a *very* serious design flaw - the air the gets blown across the condensing coils (high side, the hot part) on normal a/c units comes from outside, blows across the high side, and is vented to the outside. Works great. With the portable units, the air that blows across the condensing coils comes from the room your are trying to cool, and is vented to the outside. This causes a relatively high volume of air to be vented to the outside - and hot air to be sucked into the room. IOW, it is constantly sucking in a lot of hot air from outside, and trying to cool it along with the hot air that is already in the room. Because of this, they will not cool as much space as a window mount 8000 BTU unit will.

Bite the bullet and get a window mount unit.

Hehehe... can't resist. A teensy bit is light (the element glows), and maybe even a teensier bit is noise (the element vibrates at the AC rate)

Devil made me do it :)

Take care.

Ken

But both of those are eventually absorbed and dissipated as heat...

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wrote:

units

pumps,

So you're saying a dehumidifier that consumes 800 watts of energy is providing more than 800 watts of heat?

BULLSHIT!!!!

your far better off buying several window units, more efficent, no moving hassles, quieter, since at least some of the noise is outside.

and small window units are cheap.

Both of which ( light and vibration ) are forms of energy released into the room, which become heat, thus it IS 100 % efficient :-)

Dog made me do it :-)

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As is your bad advice here.

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My 2 cents on a portable AC:

1) Get a model with two hoses - the two hose models use outside air to cool the condenser and will be more effecient. You will not be sucking the cooled air out of the room to blow it outside - this is what the models with one hose do (the condenser air comes from somewhere. 2) Be prepared to have a real drain (ie hose going somewhere) on the unit unless you want to be emptying condensate all the time. They seem to be able to blow some condensate out the air hose, but unless you are in a dry area you will probably get more condensate than what it can evaporate out the air hose. (If you want to pump water out the window you will probably need a condensate pump and some 3) They are for the most part pretty quiet. It seems most of the noise is what you can hear through the thin walls of the air hoses leading to the window (these hoses connect to the area the condenser fan and compressor live in - most of the noise is in there).

I personally have had a PAD-121 running every night for 3 years without any issues. That model is no longer available, but the successor is:

There are plenty of options out there though, so do your research...

J

How so? :)

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