Air conditioning units?!

i know nothing · 12 Jun 2006 at 20:58

dark_shadow said:
Mickey care to post examples of window units?

Google isn't displaying much, I have rough idea on what you may be talking about as we used to have them at school . .

Edit* Like this?

These are roughly arounds £400 mark, way over my budget

That's a split type you have posted a picture of there. Mickey is referring to the window type (aka Window rattler). Split types are much quieter and the compressor part is located outside. You need only run a couple of pipes and a cable to it through a wall. With a window type you need to hack your window or wall apart (it's sort of half inside, half outside) to fit the unit. Split types are remote controlled (at least all the modern ones are).

Here in the tropics (28-40 Deg C ambient with 80-95% humidity) they use horse power as a rough guide. 1HP for a small room (12' by 12'), 1.5HP for a medium size room (18' x 18') and 2HP for a large room (25' x 25'). We would mount the AC about 8' from the floor in the centre of a wall.

zain · 13 Jun 2006 at 15:52

The air conditioning mounted units are very good, around £2,500.

I purchased one of the BSU1200 from homebase @ £199.99 ~ Does the trick on a very large room with 20 computers in it. If the air is warm you havent left enough space for the unit at the back. You have to let the water drip out of the drain hole too. One thing I didnt like is I have a proline a/c which comes with a plastic tube and a bowl for the water whereas this one did not...-.- The hole is very small at the bottom middle of the unit as well, so kind of miffed about that.

There was another at homebase for 250 ~ the big advantage on this is you just pour water in and it does its magic, no need to empty anything.

Thanks for info here peeps

i know nothing · 13 Jun 2006 at 17:16

zain said:
The air conditioning mounted units are very good, around £2,500.

I bought two 2HP split type units out here for £280 each, I noticed that someone had previously posted a price of £400 somewhere which is possible because the price is a UK price, but that sounds about right. I would guess a firm in the UK would charge you a similar price to fitting a satellite dish for installation of a split type (?).

A 2 HP window rattler out here is £175.

zain · 13 Jun 2006 at 17:23

The 2.5k one is fitted on the wall, I will get the rest of the details tonight.

Anyone else who has the 12000BTU from homebase know if they got anything for draining the water? I am a tad confused (the manual didnt help) on this, do I keep it sealed until the light comes on and then drain the water or do I keep it open and let it drip? The proline one I have has a tube and bowl for this but the homebase one doesnt, it has a ! light which I guess is to say when the drain is full?

Mickey_D · 13 Jun 2006 at 18:21

i know nothing said:
With a window type you need to hack your window or wall apart (it's sort of half inside, half outside) to fit the unit.

Don't know what window types you're thinking of, but all I had to do to install both of mine was open the window, set the AC unit on the window sill, then close the window on it. No tools required, no modifications to the window/wall required.

Spinal2k2 · 13 Jun 2006 at 18:30

zain said:
The 2.5k one is fitted on the wall, I will get the rest of the details tonight.

Anyone else who has the 12000BTU from homebase know if they got anything for draining the water? I am a tad confused (the manual didnt help) on this, do I keep it sealed until the light comes on and then drain the water or do I keep it open and let it drip? The proline one I have has a tube and bowl for this but the homebase one doesnt, it has a ! light which I guess is to say when the drain is full?

The homebase ones have a watertank inside them to collect the water, you just empty it either when the light comes on or anytime you like.

Radiation · 13 Jun 2006 at 18:39

Spinal2k2 said:
The homebase ones have a watertank inside them to collect the water, you just empty it either when the light comes on or anytime you like.

How much do you think they hold?

TDK · 13 Jun 2006 at 19:28

Radiation said:
How much do you think they hold?

1 litre is what the b&q ones hold

i know nothing · 13 Jun 2006 at 19:32

Mickey_D said:
Don't know what window types you're thinking of, but all I had to do to install both of mine was open the window, set the AC unit on the window sill, then close the window on it. No tools required, no modifications to the window/wall required.

I know exactly what you mean but the windows in the UK won't allow you to do that (unless you have a particularly "ac friendly" window frame) especially if they're the uPVC ones.

zain · 13 Jun 2006 at 19:32

Ah, great info. Ty

Radiation · 13 Jun 2006 at 19:33

TDK said:
1 litre is what the b&q ones hold

Thanks, i think i should empty mine but im not sure what to use, would a deep tray be a good idea as the outlet is close to the ground?

TDK · 13 Jun 2006 at 19:48

yeah just use a tray, did yours not come with a plastic tray for this?

Also how long is your aircon on for per hour roughly mine seems to be on constantly if I select 23C instead of 25C (room temp 30), I guess its not powerful enough for my room.

Radiation · 13 Jun 2006 at 19:52

No tray with mine, its been on for probably 5 hours most days for the last few weeks, gets the temps down quite well though so i tend to turn it off after a while as its a bit noisy, i select 16c not sure if it was for output temp or it its just trying to match room temp to it?

Jon Frost · 13 Jun 2006 at 20:20

ive found mine seems to cut in if the tempreture in the room is 2-3*C above the tempreture of what you have selected.

eg if its 25*C in the room, select 27* and it will keep the room at about 25*C.

anyone else found this ?

Jon

benjo plz. · 13 Jun 2006 at 21:36

Jon Frost said:
ive found mine seems to cut in if the tempreture in the room is 2-3*C above the tempreture of what you have selected.

Yeah that'll be cause it will measure the air temperature coming out of it, so say it cools air by 2C each time, the air in the room will always be 2 degrees above the air coming out the unit.

Well... either that or you've got a faulty thermistor

.

Ironic Namesake · 13 Jun 2006 at 22:09

I find that too, porbably because the window next to the air con has to be slightly open for the tubes to go out.

Overlag · 13 Jun 2006 at 23:17

Mickey_D said:
A whole bunch here....

Hope that helps.

the shipping to the UK with those things would make it cheaper to buy two portable ones here

window units arnt common in the UK, and cost a absolute bomb

i know nothing · 14 Jun 2006 at 05:02

Here's a link to a thread on another forum that pretty much covers the pros and cons of fitting a cheap B&Q unit vs a proper unit:-
http://www.screwfix.com/talk/thread.jspa?threadID=20319&start=0&tstart=0

Off that thread is a link to this Company who have some proper split units which look half decent.

Another Company that sells both portable as well as split units here.

Another site selling Hitachi professional split units for £400-500 which can be DIY installed here.

Mundu · 14 Jun 2006 at 10:12

Lucky I didn't buy one it's freeexing in London!

0gami · 14 Jun 2006 at 10:38

Does anyone know if you can actually just walk into a Homebase and buy one of those units and walk off with it or does it have to be delivered?