[Disillusion_10]

so it's fkn hot!! great cause the booty shorts girls are coming out :thumbsup: but shitting when u are rolling in bed trying to sleep

so I'm looking for a portable air conditioner and want to know if I should go for 7000 BTU vs. 12,000 BTU.

I know the higher the BTU the stronger/colder the air con is, but is 7000 enough? the price is about double for 12,000 so if 7,000 is enough i rather just get 7000. Can't find anything on google how exactly how strong a BTU is, I get this scientific non-sense :confused:

thanks in advance

[littledog]

It depends on how big your room is and whether it's facing the sun. For me my old 6500 BTU could barely keep it under 28 degrees in the afternoon. With my new 13000 BTU unit I can get the room to 24 degrees.

[Harvey Specter]

Yup, depends on the room size. I got AC installed in my entire house last year and it was fairly cheap. I got fed up with portable AC units, it's good for a small room but for larger rooms it's not worth it.

[SoulCrusher]

12,000 btu = approx. 550 sq. ft room

I saw a pretty good deal for one in the province newspaper today. Its. 4-1 portable AC unit, 12,000 btu for 450$.

[Presto]

You don't need A/C. It's Vancouver. Temperature peaked today, and it's going to cool down, for at least, the next week. Save your money and buy some frosty beers instead. I've only got window fans setup, and with some clever flow control, and closing the blinds, my condo is reasonably cooler than outside.

[Harvey Specter]

You don't need A/C. It's Vancouver. Temperature peaked today, and it's going to cool down, for at least, the next week. Save your money and buy some frosty beers instead. I've only got window fans setup, and with some clever flow control, and closing the blinds, my condo is reasonably cooler than outside.

Good point but remember it's only June, it usually gets hotter in July/August so we still have a good 2 maybe even 3 months of hot, dry weather.

[scheng924]

climate change / global greenhouse emissions!!

[Mr.HappySilp]

my room faces west and there is only one window... the 12inch I got isn't cutting it when I have my laptops and computers on.... well even just sitting in my room is crazy hot.

Is 2am now and still too hot to sleep >< I thinK I SHOULD get another fan. lol

[ctsport]

I just use natural AC.. shade LOL. The front and top level of my house is baking but I stay at the ground level at the back under the sun-deck and its relatively cool. :D Best of all its free and no emissions! :D

I want to line the whole backyard with trees to keep even cooler but the garden is in the way :mad:

[124Y]

Yeah...it's hot and I can hardly sleep!

[thumper]

consumer reports just did a test on the portables and none of them did the job...

i had no idea some of the larger ones are almost 80lbs+!

[hotjoint]

Glad I live in a basement suite :) when I used to live upstairs my room was facing the front, in the afternoons it was scorching. I bought an AC machine and had to have it on all afternoon for my room to be cool :(

[Euro7r]

Just soak up a wet cold towel and wrap it around your neck or something.

[Mancini]

You're losing bowel movement control in bed? Wow, that is hot.

[wouwou]

You're losing bowel movement control in bed? Wow, that is hot.

I lol'ed

[wouwou]

I have a quick Q regarding portable ACs,

Some of the newer models now have bucketless systems and use exhaust pipes to drain the water out, how do you guys deal with pipes, or is it even necessary to worry about that?

[Shun Izaki]

Most people need to understand the concept of air flow.

Like what was said above, if you place fans in some sort of a wind tunnel setup, and block off any major leaks of air, you can get a pretty decent breeze on hot days, and on hotter days, you just have to minimize the amount of sun coming into your place as well.

Following this method, i've been able to keep my place cool, without a/c for a while. I do have central at one house, but it racks up the bills >_<

For my condo, i've got a portable A/C unit in the master for when it's too hot, and otherwise, all the doors open to the patio during the day

[rsx]

I'm only on the 4th floor apartment and my temp read 32 degrees. It's brutal, I have two fans blowing and my patio/window doors are open. Any suggestions on maximizing air flow?

~650sq/ft, should I get a portable A/C??

I ended up putting a bag of ice on my head last night =(

[dark0821]

i just got the fan to max in my room.. and its doing the trick so far...

[skyxx]

^ Go for a swim :)

[thumper]

I'm only on the 4th floor apartment and my temp read 32 degrees. It's brutal, I have two fans blowing and my patio/window doors are open. Any suggestions on maximizing air flow?

~650sq/ft, should I get a portable A/C??

I ended up putting a bag of ice on my head last night =(

someone suggested to put a bowl of ice in front of the fan... not sure if that is effective.

[Noir]

consumer reports just did a test on the portables and none of them did the job...

Yeah and they cost $500

[drunkrussian]

why don't u go for the cheaper more enviro friendly option like i did (um...or so i think...):

buy one of those ceiling fans which also have lightbulbs and screw it in place of your lightbulb in your room. You get light+3 settings of cooling, without damaging the environment or spending big bucks

[Presto]

I'm only on the 4th floor apartment and my temp read 32 degrees. It's brutal, I have two fans blowing and my patio/window doors are open. Any suggestions on maximizing air flow?

~650sq/ft, should I get a portable A/C??

I ended up putting a bag of ice on my head last night =(

I live on the 4th floor, as well. My place is definitely cooler than outside. I don't have thermometer, so I don't have any metrics for you. Like Jun says, it's all about air flow. Close the patio door. Install window fans in every room. Depending on the time of day, you'll set your fans to intake or exhaust. What you want to do is have flow. Don't have all the fans doing the same thing.

I currently have 2 fans setup. One in the kitchen, and one in my room. It's usually cooler in my room, so that fan is set to intake, and the kitchen window fan is set to exhaust. This allows the cooler air to flow through my apartment, and the air won't get stale and hot.

I also make sure I close the blinds before I sleep, so the morning sun doesn't heat up my east facing living room. My neighbor would have sweat pouring from his forehead in the morning, when I see him in the elevator. He keeps forgetting to close his blinds.

My parents have one of those A/C units that sits outside the house, but they never use it. They don't have to. They just open up the vents in the basement, and have window fans in all the rooms upstairs, which are all set to exhaust. It pulls all the cold air from basement. Their place is always cool.

[f00tzilla]

how much does centralized A/C usually cost for a 4000sqft house

[ZhangFei]

hot?

i thought all canadians live in igloos.

[achiam]

Try leaving buckets of water in the hot room - the greater the surface area of water the better.
Heat = energy.
Evaporation of water is a transformation of liquid to gas phase, which consumes energy.
With water being evaporated, energy is thus consumed, and therefore the heat will decrease.
This is why coastal areas are cooler than areas inland.

Another trick regarding cooling a hot car is spraying a mist of water inside the car - the fine water droplets will evaporate into gas form, thus quickly dropping the temperature.

Try taking the temperature before and after adding buckets of water.

[Shun Izaki]

the japanese way of doing things is to put a wet cloth in front of a fan. thereby "air conditioning" the air that the fan is pushing.

GTO taught me that :)

FYI, i live on the 25th floor (top) and it's always effing hot upstairs, but for some reason at our elevation, there's always a nice wind.

[punkwax]

My portable AC units are fantastic.

Spend the $ on the 12000BTU.

[Hondaracer]

how much does centralized A/C usually cost for a 4000sqft house

think a friend of mine had his done on like a 3200sq foot house at like 8 grand or somthin?

[ilvtofu]

hmm summers are probably only gonna get hotter so an A/c probably is a good investment, The portable AC i'm using isn't bad, it takes about 20 mins to actually be cold though but its just plug and go, It's only 8000 btu though, but good enough for a bedroom or an office.

[CRS]

Yup, depends on the room size. I got AC installed in my entire house last year and it was fairly cheap. I got fed up with portable AC units, it's good for a small room but for larger rooms it's not worth it.

How much did it cost?

I'm thinking about getting A/C for my house too.

[Disillusion_10]

hmm a lot of good suggestions besides an A/C unit I guess, some of the comments reminded me of those spray bottles with fans attached on them so it'd be like the cheap mans A/C

fack it's days like today that make me not want to get an A/C unit. If only every hot day was followed by a relatively cool day.

I was taking a look at futureshop website and saw a 12,000 BTU A/C unit for $450. Might just wait to see what type of heat July/August will bring before buying one.

[DJ Milk]

I have a 12000 btu portable unit and a 5000 btu window unit. The 12000 btu portable is used to cool the main area which is about 600sf and it works fine. The 5000 btu window unit is used for my bedroom which is about 400sf and it works better then the 12000 btu portable unit. By the time I go to bed, it feels like winter in there. I much rather have a 12000 btu window unit on the main floor, but for security reasons can't.

12000 btu portable unit was going for as low as $400 at Rona about 2 weeks ago and 5000 btu window unit was between $90-$100 at most retailers. Now that it's getting hot, price went up to $450 and $150

[sebberry]

13,000 BTU unit works well for my area. I close the bedroom doors and it adequately cools ~ 800 sq.ft to around 23degrees. Lots of heat comes up from downstairs and when the AC is off the temp quickly rises. I have also installed Low-E windows which cut down the amount of thermal heat that comes in significantly.

I also have an portable 8,000 BTU unit in the bedroom that I run for a couple of hours before I go to sleep to cool the room.


There are various calculators online that will help you decide what size of a unit you need.

[goo3]

I live on the 4th floor, as well. My place is definitely cooler than outside. I don't have thermometer, so I don't have any metrics for you. Like Jun says, it's all about air flow. Close the patio door. Install window fans in every room. Depending on the time of day, you'll set your fans to intake or exhaust. What you want to do is have flow. Don't have all the fans doing the same thing.

I currently have 2 fans setup. One in the kitchen, and one in my room. It's usually cooler in my room, so that fan is set to intake, and the kitchen window fan is set to exhaust. This allows the cooler air to flow through my apartment, and the air won't get stale and hot.

I also make sure I close the blinds before I sleep, so the morning sun doesn't heat up my east facing living room. My neighbor would have sweat pouring from his forehead in the morning, when I see him in the elevator. He keeps forgetting to close his blinds.

My parents have one of those A/C units that sits outside the house, but they never use it. They don't have to. They just open up the vents in the basement, and have window fans in all the rooms upstairs, which are all set to exhaust. It pulls all the cold air from basement. Their place is always cool.

How big do your fans need to be? Just regular size? At night, outside air is cool, but inside air is stuffy.

[Presto]

Here is the exact fan I am using:

Holmes Twin Window Fan:
http://cn1.kaboodle.com/hi/img/2/0/0/124/8/AAAAAljbi-EAAAAAASSH-A.jpg

I believe I got 'em at London Drugs.

[Shun Izaki]

think a friend of mine had his done on like a 3200sq foot house at like 8 grand or somthin?

depends with the size of the chiller you get.

For my Lennox one @ 5000Sq ft. house, it was only $7k + install. That being said, I had to make a snow shield for it so the snow didn't get trapped inside of it, but... it wasn't TOO too expensive...

Then again, it only brings down the heat comfortably in that size of a house, it's not ice cold tho.

[Shun Izaki]

How big do your fans need to be? Just regular size? At night, outside air is cool, but inside air is stuffy.

Im planning to move my Giant industrial-size fan on my balcony. it shouldn't matter the size, but how much it pushes... best investment i ever puchased. XD

[thumper]

Here is the exact fan I am using:

Holmes Twin Window Fan:
http://cn1.kaboodle.com/hi/img/2/0/0/124/8/AAAAAljbi-EAAAAAASSH-A.jpg

I believe I got 'em at London Drugs.

i wish my windows slid up like yours... mine either hinge or slide open sideways and it's difficult to mount these window shakers into them :(

[SuperAman]

just bought a portable a/c 12000BTU at The Brick for $379, shopped around cheapest I can find right now, I was considering the 10000 BTU but for a few bucks more, might as well go for the gusto

[josayeee]

Here is the exact fan I am using:

Holmes Twin Window Fan:
http://cn1.kaboodle.com/hi/img/2/0/0/124/8/AAAAAljbi-EAAAAAASSH-A.jpg

I believe I got 'em at London Drugs.

Those are awsome and cheaper than getting an air con. It does that intake/exhaust thing someone explained earlier but all in one window. Only thing is you have to be at an upper level floor and you need a window that can fit it.

[valent|n0]

I just setup my apartment with the suggested air flow
it seems to help .. the most corner room is set to exhaust the stale air .. and it feels cooler now

[Presto]

Those are awsome and cheaper than getting an air con. It does that intake/exhaust thing someone explained earlier but all in one window. Only thing is you have to be at an upper level floor and you need a window that can fit it.

My windows require the unit be set up vertically. Since it can't take up the entire space, I block off the rest with bristol board.

[heleu]

I do load calculations for buildings all the time. It depends almost entirely on the orientation and how large your windows are.

If you are north facing, a rule of thumb would be 20-30 btu/sq.ft. So 12,000 btu should be good for a 400 sq.ft space.

The "worst" orientation is south facing. You're going to want 40-60 btu/sq.ft. i.e. 24,000 btu will be good for a 400 sq.ft. space.

If you live in a new apartment with huge floor to ceiling windows, you will want to go even a bit higher.

[corollagtSr5]

hey which brick did you guys buy it at?

[EcLiPsEbOi]

Just so you guys know, I am having the exact same problem. I also have a AC unit but I took it out during the winter season. Now the heats back and I can't stand it! So I am going to replace my single pane windows with low e 2 pane windows. I will let you guys know if it makes a big difference or not. Should be happening this coming weekend. Something everyone could look into if this low e stuff works ;p cheap too.

[corollagtSr5]

superaman how is the ac you bought at the brick?

[corollagtSr5]

damn man its sold out at all the bricks
next shipment is in 3 weeks

[SuperAman]

I bought my a/c at the Brick near Ikea. The one I have works awesome, I got a good deal considering I shopped around and found this the cheapest. I just ordered another one for my room, this one is abit smaller 10000 BTU but it was on sale for 299.00.

Like I said earlier, in my opinion if you have the extra $ you might as well get the 12000 BTU. You can take it to a bigger space or you can take it and put the a/c into a smaller room...You have to love portable A/C's

[TOPEC]

^ whats the brand? and how is the noise?

[TOPEC]

oh and also, for those that have those intake/exhaust fan set up, wouldnt it pull in alot of dust if u have the fans set up as intake?!

[optiblue]

http://www.airlux.ca/images/PAC_large_new.gif

http://www.airlux.ca/products_PAC.asp

I just bought mine a month ago for $450 + tax~ now it's price dropped down to $429!! Best part is that it's local so if it breaks down, just go back to them instead of shipping to the manufacturers if you buy from FS, Brick, or Costco (well costco you can return at the end of the summer every summer). It has done a great job in the last few days in my room that faces west! Forget fans or water vapor fans... they just blow hot air around!

[B-DiZzLe]

i wish my windows slid up like yours... mine either hinge or slide open sideways and it's difficult to mount these window shakers into them :(

Yah mine too, I have those hinge windows where you push out. I want to buy an AC for my room but I can't really picture installing an AC for a hinge window.

Anybody got any ideas? My windows are like 6 feet tall and they push outwards and opens on the left side.

[Shun Izaki]

I do load calculations for buildings all the time. It depends almost entirely on the orientation and how large your windows are.

If you are north facing, a rule of thumb would be 20-30 btu/sq.ft. So 12,000 btu should be good for a 400 sq.ft space.

The "worst" orientation is south facing. You're going to want 40-60 btu/sq.ft. i.e. 24,000 btu will be good for a 400 sq.ft. space.

If you live in a new apartment with huge floor to ceiling windows, you will want to go even a bit higher.

hmm, i'm gonna have a look at my AC again... i don't know how many BTU it is.

All i have is my laser temp gun, and my butt dyno which also serves as a "how chill is this room" meter.

Why do you say south facing is bad? doesn't sun only affect west + east? i don't see DIRECT sun hit my patio for the most part of the day, just the splash over from it being so bright outside. At my penthouse, it's the whole southside of the building.

[BlackV62K2]

Anyone try those water to air AC?

[heleu]

hmm, i'm gonna have a look at my AC again... i don't know how many BTU it is.

All i have is my laser temp gun, and my butt dyno which also serves as a "how chill is this room" meter.

Why do you say south facing is bad? doesn't sun only affect west + east? i don't see DIRECT sun hit my patio for the most part of the day, just the splash over from it being so bright outside. At my penthouse, it's the whole southside of the building.

As the sun goes from the east to the west through the day, it goes from the north to the south side of your building.

[Shun Izaki]

As the sun goes from the east to the west through the day, it goes from the north to the south side of your building.

Ah...

I guess that whole earth science thing I failed didn't help :( I also haven't ever spent a full day on my patio just chilling, maybe i'll try that and watch to see how hot it gets.

I'm usually just popping out there every now and then.

[ws6ta]

i hate the fact that my house has one temperature control for heat and a/c in the house. If the middle floor is perfect the theater area etc. downstairs is too cold and upstairs is too hot. if upstairs is perfect middle floor is a bit too cold and the theatre area you need to wear a sweatshirt. i'm going to have to adjust all the vents which are a pain in the ass to adjust in order to get shit right.

[heleu]

Yeah, the 1 zone house is a common complaint. I designed a big mansion in the okanagan once with seperate thermostats (and AC) in every room.

If you want a bit more control, the cheapest way will be to add reheat; Add baseboard heaters with thermostats in the rooms that get too cold. It's not the most energy efficient thing to do, but at least you'll be comfortable.

...we also have one of the cheapest electricity rates in north america.

[Shun Izaki]

Yeah, the 1 zone house is a common complaint. I designed a big mansion in the okanagan once with seperate thermostats (and AC) in every room.

If you want a bit more control, the cheapest way will be to add reheat; Add baseboard heaters with thermostats in the rooms that get too cold. It's not the most energy efficient thing to do, but at least you'll be comfortable.

...we also have one of the cheapest electricity rates in north america.

I have two controls, one in each of the two bedrooms in my condo, and there's nothing for the outside of the rooms. I wonder what I can do about that for heating, no point wasting it for the rooms if not...necesssary

[SuperAman]

^ whats the brand? and how is the noise?

Noise is not bad, pretty quiet. The brand is Strasshoff.

[DJ Milk]

Yah mine too, I have those hinge windows where you push out. I want to buy an AC for my room but I can't really picture installing an AC for a hinge window.

Anybody got any ideas? My windows are like 6 feet tall and they push outwards and opens on the left side.

That's easy to do. You can do it cheaply by getting a cardboard as big as that window and cut it to fit exactly in there. Cut a hole on the cardboard big enough for the vent pipe near where you would lock your window. That way you can leave the cardboard there and reach out and close your window when you need to anytime. You can do this with pexiglass too. I assume your window is about 6' x 2' so the cost for a 1/16 thickness pexiglass would be about $70-$90

This is the only picture I can find online
http://www.pacificcleanair.com/images/Small2.jpg

[thumper]

Anyone try those water to air AC?

are you referring to those asia-made ones with a water container or ice tray?

[corollagtSr5]

thats a piece of shit, the asia ones you put ice or water in. doesn't cool crap just makes it humid.

i found a local distributer of the strassoff 8000, 10000 and 12000 btu protable ac. cheaper than the brick too, and location is in burnaby
http://www.directliquidation.ca/catalog/main.php?cat_id=16
$339 for the 12000 btu

[RRxtar]

I bought a 5100btu window jobbie from Walmart last week. i figured from Walmart it might be work the try and if it sucks i can return it. it was a Danby and it was only $98 so it was definitly worth the try. Its only been a week but it works amazing for my -200sqft bedroom. Cools the place down to 'too cold' in under an hour altho its too loud to run all night.