Portable Room Airconditioner

[enf]

I need some recommendations.

The wife is currently undergoing chemo and radiation treatment.

She spends a lot of time feeling unwell, and I would like to cool and dehumdifiy the bedroom down for her.

Our house is centrally heated, but not cooled. We have airconditioning in the living areas, but I wouldn't mind rolling something into the bedroom to make it easier.

I don't want a splitty yet (a couple of years down the track), and no evaporative coolers.

Anyone have experience with these units? And do they actually work satisfactorily?

[hoe]

the refrigerated ones do, but they need to be vented via a large diameter tube.

they are not cheap, a splitty might be cheaper in the long run...

[Bigfella237]

the refrigerated ones do, but they need to be vented via a large diameter tube.

Probably more difficult than that is they need to drain the condensation from the evaporator. Some require a drain tube away to a lower location (water doesn't run uphill), or they may have an internal tank but even that needs to be drained regularly, either into a bucket, which can get tricky/messy in a carpeted bedroom, or you will be constantly wheeling it outside to empty it.

An evaporative cooler is probably more convenient in that you only need to put water INTO them, not worry about getting it (and the hot air) out. But then they don't dehumidify the air, in fact, probably the opposite.

I know it's not what you want to hear but I'm with hoe, just buy a split system and be done with it. Especially if you're thinking of doing that sometime in the future anyway.

[Bigfella237]

Or, thinking laterally, if it's only the two of you in the house why not rearrange the furniture temporarily and move the "bedroom" to an air conditioned part of the house?

It would only be for a couple of months until the temperatures start to come down again.

[lsemmens]

Bigfella is on the money here or you could buy a cheap fridgy and temporarily mount it in the window. Not pretty, but it will work.

[WhiteOx]

My daughter had one before she got the split system.

Yes, they work, they come with a venting kit for a window, you need to empty the water tank, they tend to be a bit noisy.

[Bigfella237]

And I find that you basically have to sit right in front of them to feel any real benefit. They don't seem to be anywhere near as effective as a 'proper' A/C in a room of any reasonable size.

Plus, the hot air duct that runs out the window isn't thermal ducting (not on mine anyway), it's just plastic, which gets very warm and the radiated heat seems to pretty much offset a lot of the work that the cooler is doing!