Itsallaguess wrote:Howard wrote:Itsallaguess wrote:
I'm sure I won't be the only one interested in an interim report later in the summer...
Bliss!
Great news - and nice to hear that someone's comfortable in all this heat!
Cheers,
Itsallaguess
Hopefully this is a little more helpful feedback on the aircon fitted a few weeks ago.
I’m very pleased with the outcome.
I sold my portable air conditioner in the hot spell just over a week ago. It was priced competitively on Gumtree and the first response came in within 15 minutes, from someone who came and collected that day. It was a very useful research project which ended up costing a bit less than £200 but persuaded me that having the compressor and fan in one unit was just too noisy.
In contrast, the split installation is dramatically more powerful in cooling and amazingly quiet, even on its most powerful setting. We have had one or two very hot days and last Saturday came home to a very hot house with all the windows closed after a day out. The house is well insulated and the interior was around 29 deg C and humid. With no wind outside, natural cooling is very slow..
In that situation, setting the aircon to around 25 deg on a low fan setting had an immediate effect. Within five minutes the (medium sized) room felt refreshingly cool. The aircon reduced the high humidity as well. Briefly standing in its air flow was very refreshing.
So the system doesn’t need to be set to 20 deg. About 23 deg on a hot evening is ideal. Looking at a separate room thermometer, the temp varies between 22 - 24 and the external inverter cycles so that it is cooling the refrigerant only occasionally. The internal fan runs continuously and gently circulates the air in the room. I had a look at my electricity meter, and in these conditions the power used is not that high.
So because of its effectiveness, when the bedroom is very hot the aircon has to be switched on for only a few minutes before going to bed. By the time it takes to clean teeth etc the room feels cool and only once have I set it on the timer to turn off after an hour. Once the room is cool, the insulation works in our favour and it stays that way for some time after the unit is switched off.
One could say that it has been an expensive investment so far as it has probably only been switched on for around 20 hours. However it has improved my quality of life. I hate going to bed in a hot bedroom and can’t sleep in the heat. And on a hot evening downstairs we can close the window to stop insects coming in and watch TV in comfort. Now at the press of a remote control I can improve my environment and relax. And the total running cost of those 20 hours was about £3 at 16p per kWh.
So I’m very pleased with the installation and can’t see any downsides.
Regards
Howard