Portable Domestic Air Coolers

arjay | 14:58 Sat 28th Jul 2018 | Home & Garden

9 Answers

I need to cool a room measuring 15 x 12 x 8 feet to make it comfortable to live in during this heatwave. I live in Brighton, East Sussex, England
There is a confusing choice ranging from £30 to £600.
Prompt delivery is essential.
Would you please suggest a specification in BTU's or kwh to enable me to go ahead.
I understand that 1000 BTU's/hour = 0.293071039kWh
Ideally, I would like a recommendation from someone in the UK who has already purchased
a portable domestic air cooler and has found it satisfactory.
Thank you

Tomatoes

Oil Stain

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DarceyK123

I have a Dyson air cooler which is very efficient, it's also very quite, you can hardly hear it.

You don't get that blowy feeling you get with a fan either.

It was expensive, about £300 but worth it I think.

Dyson deliver next day.

sunny-dave

I hope I can help - I've had a good look at the various options this summer.

Essentially there are three differenet solutions :

1. Fans (including Dyson prodects) - these have no actual chiller/cooler unit - they work purely by moving air around and cannot actually change the overall temperature of a room.

What they do do, is create a feeling of coolness by blowing air across your skin - which cools you slightly by evaporating any sweat - and we seem to be programmed to feel that a breeze (however warm) is helping with heat.

I have a big problem when these are labelled as 'coolers' (or even worse, 'chillers') - they're not - they just move air aound.

2. Evaporative Air Coolers - these are also fans - but with the addition of a tank of cold water (or ice). The fan blows air across the water/ice and produces a stream of air with some genuine cooling effect - not a lot, but better than a pure fan unit.

These are a decent solution in moderate heat - but seem out of their depth when the going gets really hot. I also worry about the water vapour being emitted in the airstream - it has to condense somewhere ...

3. Real Air Conditioners - containing a proper refrigerating unit.

These are the only solution which genuinely chills the local environment - I've got one and it has reduced my living room temperature from around 29C to 22C on the hottest days this last week.

The downsides are :

a) noise (they are not quiet)

b) cost (they are not cheap)

c) ventilation - they produce a stream of (very) hot air via their exhaust tube - this needs to be directed out of the room - either through a purpose built hole in the wall (expensive) or via a partially opened window screened with curtains or similar (with obvious security issues in some locations).

As far as BTU is concerned, 9,000 BTU will cool a bedroom or small living room, you need 12,000 or 14,000 to cool a decent sized room on a scorching day.

As regards finding one in a hurry - you need to look around - I was assured by all and sundry that "they are sold out everywhere" - but I ordered one for a friend on Thursday and it arrived by 9am on Friday. There's also some nasty 'opportunistic' pricing going one - be careful not to get ripped off too badly.

bhg481

sunny-dave - just to be pedantic, a fan actually heats up a room because it consumes about 30watts of power. It certainly causes a cooling effect for people but only when the stream of air passes over them.

sunny-dave

Indeed, bhg - it annoys me to see some of the more 'imaginative' adverts for fancy fans - this page has been obviously written by lawyers to give the appearance of lots of 'cooling effect' whilst avoiding any 'false advertising' problems by not making any explicit claims :

https://www.dyson.co.uk/fans-and-heaters/dyson-cool-overview.html

alavahalf

If you live in Brighton then today you have that stream of air blowing over you, at approx 35mph ... when you happen to open your front door.

arjay

Question Author

Thank you DarceyK123, sunny-dave,bhg481 and alavahalf

gingejbee

sunny-dave's answer is very comprehensive ....I, too, have a "proper" air-conditioner which I bought about fifteen years ago. This is only the fourth or fifth season it's been used...it's really not needed in an "average" UK summer but is excellent in the recent conditions. An important part of their job is also to reduce humidity as they do the cooling....this is the only type (ie the one with the refrigerant) to do this. A good buy for years to come!