If that worked you’d slowly turn your dwelling into a vacuum chamber :-)
The same volume of air will enter your home in one way or the other, the important bit is that it’s cooler than the exhausted air. In particular you don’t want the hot exhaust to recirculate back in.
Ideally you’d get medium warm air from another room into yours, and warm outside air into an unoccupied room.
Thank you. I thought I was insane because surely mobile units would have two tubes if they really needed them. Then I got one with a single tube (the only ones available) and found out that no, I am sane and these units work really badly.
I find mine works fairly well, it’s a 12k BTU unit.
It has one exhaust duct. It pulls in warm air from the room it’s in, cools part of it and pushes it back into the room, the rest is used to cool the condenser and that hot air is sent outside through the duct.
It does have another tube, but it’s a small hose to drain the water from condensed humidity.
Yep, main problem with those portable units is that their efficiency is pretty bad. They does work and cool the room, but amount of energy that needs to be spent, plus the fact that you need to somehow restrict airflow to not be sucked right back in - makes them a horrendous option. Better than nothing I guess.
Well yes, I meant preventing that hot air from circling back inside through the window, since these usually come with a kit to fit into the window, but aren’t particularly airtight.
Also I’m genuinely amazed at how fast that thing fills a bucket with water from the condensation, it’s ridiculous. I live near the sea so 70%+ is normal, but seeing it was still surprising.
I have mine in the living room and it pulls in air from the rest of the house, air filters in from many different places.
If that worked you’d slowly turn your dwelling into a vacuum chamber :-)
The same volume of air will enter your home in one way or the other, the important bit is that it’s cooler than the exhausted air. In particular you don’t want the hot exhaust to recirculate back in.
Ideally you’d get medium warm air from another room into yours, and warm outside air into an unoccupied room.
Thank you. I thought I was insane because surely mobile units would have two tubes if they really needed them. Then I got one with a single tube (the only ones available) and found out that no, I am sane and these units work really badly.
That’s why the earlier comment mentioned the portable minisplit, it doesn’t have this weakness
I find mine works fairly well, it’s a 12k BTU unit.
It has one exhaust duct. It pulls in warm air from the room it’s in, cools part of it and pushes it back into the room, the rest is used to cool the condenser and that hot air is sent outside through the duct.
It does have another tube, but it’s a small hose to drain the water from condensed humidity.
Until the room is cooled enough that you are using the air you have paid to cool, to cool the evaporator. Portables are shit.
That’s one of the main reasons their efficiency is lower.
A split unit, especially with an inverter motor, can be 50% more efficient, much less noisy and cool more evenly.
That said, portable units do work. For people who are unable to get a proper split unit, then don’t rule out a portable unit.
Dual-hose portable ACs avoid the vacuum problem. You just need to have good sealing around the intake and exhaust hoses.
Oh I haven’t seen one of those yet, that does sound like an improvement.
So it creates positive pressure in the house?
The air that is brought in from outside via the intake hose is the same air that is heated and then ejected through the exhaust hose.
In theory, it shouldn’t cause a change in pressure.
So there is a separate intake and output inside the house for the cold air?
Outside air. If you are using AC, the intake probably isn’t cold. But: air in => heated up by the AC => sent out.
2 hoses in the window that connect to the back of the AC unit.
If it’s blowing cold air into the house, there has to be an equivalent volume of air leaving the house.
Air from room is cooled and that same air is blown back into the room after being cooled.
Air from outside is pulled into AC (does not go into room), gets the heat from the air in the room, then is blown out as exhaust.
If you aren’t sure, look for a diagram or in-depth explanation.
Ok, so there is a separate intake and output inside the house for the cold air.
Yep, main problem with those portable units is that their efficiency is pretty bad. They does work and cool the room, but amount of energy that needs to be spent, plus the fact that you need to somehow restrict airflow to not be sucked right back in - makes them a horrendous option. Better than nothing I guess.
Well yes, I meant preventing that hot air from circling back inside through the window, since these usually come with a kit to fit into the window, but aren’t particularly airtight.
Also I’m genuinely amazed at how fast that thing fills a bucket with water from the condensation, it’s ridiculous. I live near the sea so 70%+ is normal, but seeing it was still surprising.
I have mine in the living room and it pulls in air from the rest of the house, air filters in from many different places.