Are portable air conditioning units worth a punt at $1000? Anyone got any experiences?

Forums › Home Workshop DIY › Are portable air conditioning units worth a punt at $1000? Anyone got any experiences?

1 | 2

dolsen

1483 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 319

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#2579708 5-Oct-2020 19:01

richms:

raytaylor:

Interesting tidbit of info...

About 12 years ago, Delonghi was bringing in a "portable" split unit.

I tried to find one a while back and it seems they were never legal to sell here, the connecting and disconnecting of the connectors is still regarded as refrigeration work and needlessly regulated heavily. Self install is fine in the USA where they even have ones that need charging sold for self installation.

I wasn't aware of that aspect of it, but, not having a proper isolation switch from an electrical standpoint was an issue.

rp1790

751 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 177

Lifetime subscriber

#2579825 6-Oct-2020 07:34

I have used one of these in a small room (several years ago) that was getting full sun, very noisy but hey it worked and it meant the room became bearable. My daughter last summer also used a delonghi one last summer for baby's room and it was fine, that one was much quieter and apart from the difficulty of getting the vent out the window worked really well.

bfginger

1330 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 191

#2580407 7-Oct-2020 02:18

If you were putting water into a tank it may have been an evaporative cooler. They're best in dry climates.

BlueShift:

A simple back to back smallish heat pump install should be about $2000.

If you're not renting, its a no-brainer.

If you are renting, and are thinking of spending $1000 on a portable unit, try hitting up your landlord and see if they'd go halves. Costs you the same, landlord will have to install one in a year or two anyway when the legislation kicks in, so they should be keen as. In fact - hit up the landlord for a heatpump first, and if they say no cos they're waiting for National to get elected and reverse that law, then try for halfsies.

I looked into this and didn't think portables fulfilled the new regulation's criteria.

Some units do unofficially support a second pipe as the unit may be downgraded for the Australian market by a minor measure like using a different cover.

SomeoneSomewhere

1882 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 1086

Lifetime subscriber

#2580886 7-Oct-2020 19:51

I think the suggestion is to get the landlord to go halves on a proper split unit.

A two-hose unit is going to need a much more effective condenser fan so I don' think there's a lot of units that will be readily convertable. Most units sold overseas are also single-hose.

Window units are somewhat better than portables, but again our windows don't really work for them.

Wellingtondave

160 posts

Master Geek
+1 received by user: 88

#2580976 7-Oct-2020 23:20

I have actually used one (and own one, though it's sitting in the garage) and despite what people say about them, it was fine for a couple of years cooling during summer in a rental place. Some custom cardboard and duct tape modifications were required to the exhaust duct because no one sells any sort of kit for aluminium windows.

They're loud but do work for knocking down the heat before going to bed for example, not really suitable for a space you want to be in and have it quiet for working or TV watching. If you've the option of putting the money towards a permanent heat pump then do that.

1 | 2