Air conditioners (aka. Phew What A Scorcher!)

[chocky909]

Gawd it's hot.

I 'live' in a smallish bedroom packed full of electronic equipment that I leave on most of the time. I live in London which can get really hot and humid.

Last summer was hot. The number of sleepless nights I had was ridiculous. It's started again.

Anyway, I'm looking at getting a portable air conditioner for my room. You can get a 12k one for about £250. I have no idea whether this is sufficient to cool my room down. I hope so.

I'm also aware of how the AC unit works. It needs to 'let out' the heat it generates into an area other than the area it's trying to cool. This is done via a exhaust pipe. This is where it gets tricky. Unless you cut a custom hole in the wall it's going to cause problems. I've seen offices with these tubes hanging out of open windows. Except obviously there's space around the pipe letting the coolness leak out into the hot outside. I assume this puts a massive downer on the effectiveness of the AC. I can imagine maybe packing the surrounding area in the window gap with something, maybe paper but don't know how effective this would be.

So, has anyone any experience of these portable air conditioning units? Any helpful hints? I'd really like to know if it's worth it before splashing out £200+ on one.

[Small Man Big Horse]

I'd love to hear info on this too, I live in a small bedsite above a Fast Food takeaway and it gets so hot in the Summer that I struggle to keep my sanity sometimes. If anyone's got any cheaper suggestions for positive alternative solutions I'd be interested too, as I don't have £200 to spend on such a thing unfortunately...

[El Unicornio, mang]

I remember someone (maybe on here) mentioning putting ice in front of a fan or something, and turning it on full. Not sure of the exact details. I have AC in my place (As do all buildings in Florida, it's a necessity) but it's so fucking loud i usually just strip down to my undercrackers and take the heat

[katzenjammer]

Gawd it's hot.

I 'live' in a smallish bedroom packed full of electronic equipment that I leave on most of the timeI live in London which can get really hot and humid.

The answer maybe very subtly hidden in the question here.

Aircon can be pretty horrible in a bedroom.  The room I've been staying in the past two weeks has it, which is something of a necessity when it 44C outside, but I ended up switching it off quite often because of the noise and the way it dries out your nasal passages and eyeballs.

With a small room one of those portable units should do the trick if you want to give it a go.   They're useless in a big room though.

[Dusty Gozongas]

I'm also aware of how the AC unit works. It needs to 'let out' the heat it generates into an area other than the area it's trying to cool. This is done via a exhaust pipe. This is where it gets tricky. Unless you cut a custom hole in the wall it's going to cause problems.

If it gets hot enough you could open a window and use that...

[daisy11]

I'd love to hear info on this too, I live in a small bedsite above a Fast Food takeaway and it gets so hot in the Summer that I struggle to keep my sanity sometimes. If anyone's got any cheaper suggestions for positive alternative solutions I'd be interested too, as I don't have £200 to spend on such a thing unfortunately...

Lovely big metal fans in Tesco at only £9.99 for the summer, probably available online.
Your personal shopper - I'll keep Cabbers informed of further bargains.

[NoSleep]

You could try the all-natural Spanish method. Curtains drawn and windows closed during the daylight hours, windows open at night. Opening windows during the daylight hours brings a significant amount of heat inside once air temperature rises.

I've found this quite effective, especially if you get solar reflective blinds for the windows.

And best to start on a nightshift to get this one rolling.

[Mr. Analytical]

Nice big fan aimed at bed + ear plugs.

Not only do you get a lovely cool sleep but then you get the bliss of waking up in a nice cool breeze while it's hot outside.  Mmmmm.  My fan went on for the first time yesterday and I have yet to turn it off.

[Dark Sky]

Nice big fan aimed at bed + ear plugs.

A fan?  A fan would just blow hot air at you.  Sounds like your room is toasty cool to begin with.

Air conditioners are great...  I have a big fuck-off waist high one which I wheel into place when the weather turns foul (i.e., sunny).  Just stick the hot-air pipe out the window, close the curtains around it, and tada!

It rumbles like a small traction engine, but to be honest the sound actually helps me to sleep.  It's just annoying that it can only stay on for five hours or so at a time before it turns itself off and you have to get up and empty the bucket of water it's produced.

Air conditioners are the saviour of the human race.  Heat is the enemy of mankind.  Dispense of it.  Get an air-con.  It's the American way.

[Steve Lampkins]

A nice largish floor fan works for me. It oscillates nicely, giving cool waves and circulates the air better. The movement is almost hypnotic and the sound sound doesn't bother me.

[weekender]

Could you not, y'know, just, move somewhere cooler?

[Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth]

If possible get a hammock. The all round airflow keeps you nice and cool compared to a bed.

[mook]

Why haven't they made an electrically chilled duvet? You can buy heated ones,  all they'd have to do is wire the plug up arse about face and it would work surely.

[Blumf]

Why haven't they made an electrically chilled duvet? You can buy heated ones,  all they'd have to do is wire the plug up arse about face and it would work surely.

Yes but then the leccy companies would have to pay you and the world as we know it would collapse.

[rudi]

I have the luxury of fucking massive sash windows so am sat here basking in the gentle breeze.

I look like a hairy, computer-literate walrus which is two thirds correct now I think about it...

[Ambient Sheep]

A discussion about portable air-conditioners from last year (with especial reference to Slim's nipples), can be found from here onwards.

[chocky909]

I remember someone (maybe on here) mentioning putting ice in front of a fan or something, and turning it on full. Not sure of the exact details. I have AC in my place (As do all buildings in Florida, it's a necessity) but it's so fucking loud i usually just strip down to my undercrackers and take the heat

I tried that last year, it lasted about 20 minutes and wasn't that refreshing. I find fans a bit rubbish although I'm using one right now.

If it gets hot enough you could open a window and use that...

There is virtually no air flow outside my bedroom. I'm surrounded by tall buildings.

Could you not, y'know, just, move somewhere cooler?

I fully intend to one day. This country is too hot for me in the summer. I want to move to Canada or Iceland.

A discussion about portable air-conditioners from last year (with especial reference to Slim's nipples), can be found from here onwards.

Ta.

I'm thinking I might get one, and soon. It's been cool in here all day and now it's starting to get hot and humid. Grr.

I'm sure losing weight and having a hair cut would help immensely but that's not going to happen.

[Dark Poet]

I just leave my window open ajar between May and October.  Crazy but it's true.

If you live in a quiet area, aren't on the ground floor and scared of being murdered in your sleep and have a window that's easily openable (sic) then not doing that really is inexcusable.

[Artemis]

You're better off getting one of those units you poor water into then getting an aircon with a tube. Unless it's pre-built into the wall, it won't work properly. Water thingys are cheaper and just as good apparently.

[chocky909]

I just leave my window open ajar between May and October.  Crazy but it's true.

If you live in a quiet area, aren't on the ground floor and scared of being murdered in your sleep and have a window that's easily openable (sic) then not doing that really is inexcusable.

I DO. 24 hours a day. It's still TOO HOT!

You're better off getting one of those units you poor water into then getting an aircon with a tube. Unless it's pre-built into the wall, it won't work properly. Water thingys are cheaper and just as good apparently.

Tell me more. Please.

[NoSleep]

I DO. 24 hours a day. It's still TOO HOT!

24 hours a day is wrong. The outside air temperature is higher than inside during the day. See my earlier post.

[chocky909]

24 hours a day is wrong. The outside air temperature is higher than inside during the day. See my earlier post.

OK, I'll try it your way for a few days. So close the window until the sun goes down and keep the curtains closed, then open up at night?

[Frankie]

Well I've been looking around for something I was thinking of buying last year, sort of frozen packs that could be tied to the front of a fan. They looked quite good but they seem to have dropped out of existence. I guess something like these would do a similar job. I also found homebrew air conditioning in my searches, maybe if you have room for a giant tub of ice water somewhere.

[Small Man Big Horse]

I also found homebrew air conditioning in my searches, maybe if you have room for a giant tub of ice water somewhere.

I have absolutely no doubt in my mind that I'd kill not only myself but probably hundreds of others if I tried to make one of those.

[NoSleep]

So close the window until the sun goes down and keep the curtains closed, then open up at night?

Basically, yeah. But if the sun isn't round your side of the building, shining into the room directly, I guess it's safe to open the curtains at least. It's better if the curtains aren't a dark colour, and even better if you can reflect the sun back out with appropriate solar-reflective roller blinds (dead easy to fit) if it's round your side for part of the day.
Also, you can open the windows in the evening as it cools down, even before nightfall. It's working for me at the moment (even without the reflective blinds, I have ordinary white vertical blinds). I'm often surprised by the temperature when I go out. It gets more like damage limitation if it cranks up to 80-90 degrees. But then it's all the more important to keep the windows shut during the day.

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

Ambient Sheep is proving more effective at searching than the search nazi at the moment. And I'm glad, he could do with some competition. An unchallenged nazi is a complacent nazi.

Maybe I need some air conditioning.

[Ambient Sheep]

You're better off getting one of those units you poor water into then getting an aircon with a tube. Unless it's pre-built into the wall, it won't work properly.

Sorry, but I have to disagree here.  The one I used in Swansea was superb, and that was just one on wheels, with a tube stuck out of a window.  Mind you, most of the rest of the vertical gap in the window was blocked with a bit of dense foam rubber (not the yellow or pink light stuff, the heavier grey stuff), which probably helped a bit.

Having visited another Verbwhore's house who had a similar model, his worked just fine too.

Water thingys are cheaper and just as good apparently.

Well hopefully they are now.  My first employer bought one in about 1987 to help cool the server room (which was the attic of an old country house, in fact), and it got through a whole tank of water in about four hours and didn't actually cool very much.  Mind you, that WAS twenty years ago (fuck, was it?, yes, it was), and it was SO useless (we only had ONE server, not an atticful) that we always sorta suspected it was broken from the word go.

[Emma Raducanu]

I think I'm going to just buy a snorkel and sleep in a cold bath from now on. Sheesh it's hot in here.

[slim]

You're better off getting one of those units you poor water into then getting an aircon with a tube. Unless it's pre-built into the wall, it won't work properly. Water thingys are cheaper and just as good apparently.

This is crap. They don't work as well, aircons work perfectly well without them being pre-built and you're certainly not better off getting one.

(Try and source eco-friendly electric though if you can, nim nim)

Edit: Sheepy said it better and in more polite terms, and it was my house he was round. A marathon love-making session was had that night.

[Emma Raducanu]

I've been using the Spanish method and it seems to be working. Thanks for the tip.