Comment on I've been using this simple trick to keep cool in the heat wave (UK)

• ByteJunk@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

  Or just portable, single unit ACs. I got one of those recently.

  It blasts hot air through a duct that hopefully you’re able to direct outside while preventing outside air from getting in. Also noisy as heck, since the full unit is inside the house, and not as efficient as split units, but they do work…

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  • Kazumara@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

    while preventing outside air from getting in

    If that worked you’d slowly turn your dwelling into a vacuum chamber :-)

    The same volume of air will enter your home in one way or the other, the important bit is that it’s cooler than the exhausted air. In particular you don’t want the hot exhaust to recirculate back in.

    Ideally you’d get medium warm air from another room into yours, and warm outside air into an unoccupied room.

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    • tormeh@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

      Thank you. I thought I was insane because surely mobile units would have two tubes if they really needed them. Then I got one with a single tube (the only ones available) and found out that no, I am sane and these units work really badly.

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      • Zwiebel@feddit.org ⁨3⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

        That’s why the earlier comment mentioned the portable minisplit, it doesn’t have this weakness

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      • ByteJunk@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

        I find mine works fairly well, it’s a 12k BTU unit.

        It has one exhaust duct. It pulls in warm air from the room it’s in, cools part of it and pushes it back into the room, the rest is used to cool the condenser and that hot air is sent outside through the duct.

        It does have another tube, but it’s a small hose to drain the water from condensed humidity.

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    • EndlessNightmare@reddthat.com ⁨3⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

      Dual-hose portable ACs avoid the vacuum problem. You just need to have good sealing around the intake and exhaust hoses.

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      • Kazumara@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨3⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

        Oh I haven’t seen one of those yet, that does sound like an improvement.

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      • starik@lemmy.today ⁨3⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

        So it creates positive pressure in the house?

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    • de_lancre@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

      Yep, main problem with those portable units is that their efficiency is pretty bad. They does work and cool the room, but amount of energy that needs to be spent, plus the fact that you need to somehow restrict airflow to not be sucked right back in - makes them a horrendous option. Better than nothing I guess.

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    • ByteJunk@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

      Well yes, I meant preventing that hot air from circling back inside through the window, since these usually come with a kit to fit into the window, but aren’t particularly airtight.

      Also I’m genuinely amazed at how fast that thing fills a bucket with water from the condensation, it’s ridiculous. I live near the sea so 70%+ is normal, but seeing it was still surprising.

      I have mine in the living room and it pulls in air from the rest of the house, air filters in from many different places.

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  • meekah@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

    Yeah those are much more common and way cheaper, but also much less efficient.

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  • elucubra@sopuli.xyz ⁨3⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

    Portables are hot garbage. Get a proper air source wall split. Cheap and immensly cheaper as a heat source that anything you use right now.

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• nightlily@leminal.space ⁨3⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

  „Nicht verfügbar“

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  • meekah@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨3⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

    Yeah with the current heatwave that’s to be expected. Just get one during fall or winter, and be ready for the next year.

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    • elucubra@sopuli.xyz ⁨3⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

      Rrong! The vast majority are reversible air source heat pumps, which means that they cost 1/3 to operate as heat sources in winter. Win all year round.

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• elucubra@sopuli.xyz ⁨3⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

  As far as I know they are mosty designed for vertically sliding windows, uncommon in Europe. For american style sliding windows a think they are brilliant.

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  • meekah@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

    That’s not really a portable AC, or even a minisplit. I am talking about a portable AC with two parts (thus called a split unit), one for the outside that dumps the heat, and one on the inside blowing cool air. They are connected with flexible pipes.

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