Single Room Air Conditioner

[demotivater]

Hello everybody, been a while since I've been in these parts. Hope all are well.

Looking for some advice on single room air conditioners. Working from home for a year plus and have had some issues with air temps. My "office" gets pretty warm once everything is fired up and cooling the whole house just for my room isn't feasible and drives everyone else crazy as the rest of the house is "too cold". Personally, I can never be too cold, but with an in-law quarters on the lower level I constantly get bitched at about heat or ac.

So, does anyone have suggestions on portable ac's or something like that? I think a window unit would be gaudy and I'd like to open the window now and then, so that's out. This question may be better suited for an HVAC group, but figure maybe some fellow programmers might have run into this before.

[jdc2000]

The hot air has to go somewhere, so you need to decide where it will be vented. A windows AC unit may be easier.

https://www.goodhousekeeping.com/app...r-conditioner/

[Steve R Jones]

Keep an eye out for the Voltage....whatever you call it. You don't want to have to re-wire a wall plug.

[TysonLPrice]

This is out of the link jdc2000 posted...it may give you another idea:

"Since there are no portable ACs without an exhaust hose, you may want to consider an evaporative cooler if you want a portable unit with no venting to the outside. They require a large amount of water to cool the space and are ideal in dry climates where humidity levels are low and the air is hot."

I Googled them and they run from around 50.00 to 250.00

[dilettante]

Of course in short order an enclosed space can end up damp and humid. Bad for electronics and it won't feel nice for very long either.

Better option:

Get rid of gratuitously wasteful components. Many people have way too much CPU, RAM, video card, high-RPM hard drives, etc. for their real needs. This burns up a ton of power and most of it ends up as waste heat.

[demotivater]

Thanks, all. Gotta do some thinking on this, lots of options with pros and cons to each. dilettante, you're right - working on a regular machine instead of a gaming type rig would be a simple experiment. Fingers crossed.

[Bonker Gudd]

Get outside naked.

[demotivater]

Get outside naked.

And there he is.

Perhaps a viable option but I'm not sure my cord's long enough.

[Shaggy Hiker]

No comment.

For a long term solution, you could wall mount a window unit, or get a dedicated wall mount unit. The latter is more expensive, but gives you more servicing options. Essentially, either way you are creating a new window dedicated to the AC unit.

[passel]

{p.s. I see this is what jdc2000 was suggesting...}

You could also get a portable air conditioner. It will have wheels so you can wheel it to where you need it, and it has an exhaust hose that runs to an adapter that fits along the edge of an open window, so there isn't anything sticking outside the window and not something that is heavy to mount or dismount.

In one house, I lift the window a bit to insert the plate with the hose. In another house the windows slide side to side, so the plate is mounted vertically. Since the window is taller than most windows are wide, I have to stuff my own material above the hose plate. The plate has an adjustable length, but not enough to fill an unusually lengthy gap.

[dilettante]

Well, you could also buy some rope to tie around the PC. Then dangle the entire thing out the window wrapped in a garbage bag to keep the rain off. Voila!

[szlamany]

Portable units MUST have two hoses. Those with one hose are bad performers, as ALL the heated air SENT out that single exhaust hose must get pulled back into the house - and that comes in any drafty windows. I have two DUAL HOSE units at my house - one used in a home office for exactly the reasons you note.

[chenko]

I really can't believe you've held this posting pattern for 20 years.

[dilettante]

[demotivater]

If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

Edit: that was supposed to be to Chenko - after 20 years I still haven't mastered this ****, nor do I intend to.

I think I've decided to go with a bag of ice, screw it.

[Steve R Jones]

If it'll make you feel better, my new (used) home faces WEST. Around 5pm when I start relaxing in the living room, it's 10 degrees warmer than the other side of the house. The East side is great.... The West side with a ceiling fan and a second fan are tolerable.

Yesterday, I hung more blackout curtains on the last set of windows on the west side.

[RubisGuit]

Most of us take heating and cooling for granted. We expect our heating systems to keep us warm during the winter, and we depend on air-conditioning to keep us cool during the summer. All climate-control devices or systems have three essential components: a source of warmed or cooled air, a means of distributing the air to the rooms being heated or cooled, and a control used to regulate the system. The sources of warm aircon pipe leaking, such as a furnace, and cool air, such as an air conditioner, in a house often use the same distribution and control systems. For example, if your home has central air conditioning, cool air probably flows through the same ducts that heat does and is regulated by the same thermostat.