Air conditioning for your home (UK)
- Thread starter kingrollo
- Start date
Page may contain affiliate links. Please see terms for details.
fossyant
Ride It Like You Stole It!
- Location
- South Manchester
Only got a portable unit but it does the job. Uses about 1kw so 25p per hour. Cost about £400 and had it 20 years.
Installed ones with an external unit are better and much quieter but more costly, £1000 plus.
Installed ones with an external unit are better and much quieter but more costly, £1000 plus.
Punkawallah
Veteran
Might you be as well to investigate window covers during sunny days and strategic window opening for our ‘once in a century’ hot summers?
OldShep
Veteran
- Location
- South West Scotland
biggs682
Itching to get back on my bike's
- Location
- Northamptonshire
We have a unit in our bedroom, had it fitted about 5 years ago and it's one of the best things we have done.
Being on the lowest setting from 7pm till 4am adds about £1 to our electric bill on a daily basis.
Can't remember what it cost but the swmbo will when I ask her .
Being on the lowest setting from 7pm till 4am adds about £1 to our electric bill on a daily basis.
Can't remember what it cost but the swmbo will when I ask her .
Last edited:
Mr.B-Campag
Active Member
- Location
- The birthplace of democracy...
Afaik you can use a heat pump for both heating and cooling, which might be a much better long term investment in terms of both money and environmental impact (albeit with a considerably larger up front cost on the former).
Considered getting one, might still do.
A portable unit is your best option - a good one is around £400-£600 and will also work as a dehumidifier. Downsides to a portable unit (compared to a mini-split or ducted install) is that it's less power efficient and will take longer to cool down and provide slightly less total cooling than it's rating would indicate (A good breakdown of why is here:
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-mBeYC2KGc
). That being said it's still a lot better than no AC if that's what you're after.
There is a trend(?) at the moment to mod portable AC units to work in a dual hose setup which means they are more power efficient and cool slightly better - more in line with a minisplit system. They work by adding a second hose and building some ducting on the intake and running both in- and out- hoses to a window.
A portable unit is your best option - a good one is around £400-£600 and will also work as a dehumidifier. Downsides to a portable unit (compared to a mini-split or ducted install) is that it's less power efficient and will take longer to cool down and provide slightly less total cooling than it's rating would indicate (A good breakdown of why is here:
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-mBeYC2KGc
). That being said it's still a lot better than no AC if that's what you're after.
There is a trend(?) at the moment to mod portable AC units to work in a dual hose setup which means they are more power efficient and cool slightly better - more in line with a minisplit system. They work by adding a second hose and building some ducting on the intake and running both in- and out- hoses to a window.
biggs682
Itching to get back on my bike's
- Location
- Northamptonshire
Update we have had our single unit for 8 years and it cost £1200 to do
Ming the Merciless
There is no mercy
- Location
- Inside my skull
You could go old school with evaporative cooling. Just needs a draft. Cheap fan can do that if house closed up.
Drago
Legendary Member
- Location
- Suburban Poshshire
I've got properly installed split units, one for each floor. Necessary as Mrs D has MS and extreme heart can hospitalise her.
I know the guy that owns the firm - we played in the same band for a while - and got the three Mitsubishi units supplied and installed for £4500. That is a very decent mates rate, id have expected a 6 grand bill if I'd payed full retail. The external units are on the rear wall, situated in such a way as to be invisible to the neighbours.
No planning permission required unless you live in a conservation area or the external units aremover 0.6M3 each, which house sized items won't be.
They work as excellent heaters when set in 'reverse', as theyre essentially heat pumps. If im home alone during a winters day I can heat the part of the house im in very efficiently and inespensively without resorting to lighting up the central heating. Not as "good" as heat pipe heating, but much better AC functioning than heat pump heating and the three separate units give great versatility.
I know the guy that owns the firm - we played in the same band for a while - and got the three Mitsubishi units supplied and installed for £4500. That is a very decent mates rate, id have expected a 6 grand bill if I'd payed full retail. The external units are on the rear wall, situated in such a way as to be invisible to the neighbours.
No planning permission required unless you live in a conservation area or the external units aremover 0.6M3 each, which house sized items won't be.
They work as excellent heaters when set in 'reverse', as theyre essentially heat pumps. If im home alone during a winters day I can heat the part of the house im in very efficiently and inespensively without resorting to lighting up the central heating. Not as "good" as heat pipe heating, but much better AC functioning than heat pump heating and the three separate units give great versatility.
midlandsgrimpeur
Über Member
Drago
Legendary Member
- Location
- Suburban Poshshire
Off the top,of my head im not sure. I think 2.5kW. Id have to pull the paperwork from the filing cabinet to be sure, but theyre not enormous by any means.
For those that aren't initiated, 2.5kW is the amount of heat they can shiftin an hour. It's not, as the Gruinard seemed to think in a recent article about AC, the amount of juice they guzzle.
For those that aren't initiated, 2.5kW is the amount of heat they can shiftin an hour. It's not, as the Gruinard seemed to think in a recent article about AC, the amount of juice they guzzle.
Last edited:
Punkawallah
Veteran
“There’s no school like old school” ;-)
