I'm going to die in the heat!!! Portable vs window AC?

[silkiechicken]

So I am not going to die again in the heat. I'm going to fork it over and get an AC unit for the place in oregon.

I grew up with AC. House between 65 and 72 all year long with central AC and heat. Those two or three weeks of 80F+ days in the summer, no problem, the freak summer where it reached 101, no problem, just go inside. Come down here and bam, it's 75 inside, then 80... then 85 and I start to be come one big fussy ball of over heated female, and nobody wants to be near that kind of wrath. Plus opening all the windows lets in the 50 billion allergens from outside, the agricultural dust, and the smell of our neighbors... all leading to an over-heated, runny-nosed, puffy-eyed monster ready to chew off someone's head.

So best not repeat last summer.


What kind of AC units do you all have and what do you like and dislike about them?

 

[saddina]

Quote:
I just had to chuckle at that.

Last house we had an evaporative cooler (also called a "swamp cooler") the newer energy stars one use very little electricity (you're basically evaporating water and blowing it in with a fan). It was ~$20 a month VS the $200 to cool the house the same amount. As long as you've low humidity and not hot and humid, it works.

 

[SarahFair]

We had to get an all new unit (that is now broken again

) 2 summers ago and it cost us about $5000. I think its just the thermostat that is broken this time though.

Right now it does get 80+ in the house but as long as we keep the air moving its not so bad. We keep a window unit in the master bedroom running with the door shut all day on hot days so we can atleast have some kind of relief if it gets super hot and muggy.

 

[LarryPQ]

Laughing, laughing, laughing....sorry, but no sympathy from the peanut gallery.

Once summer hits, it is 100 degrees at 6 AM here... I had a summer where I was 7 months preggers when the AC broke. 117 degrees during monsoon season. THAT sucked.

But to anwer your question: Swamp coolers work best where humidity is low--not for you.

Central air is more expensive but more efficent. Costs a lot to retro-fit a house.

A window unit is unsightly and inefficent. If the big issue is when you sleep, put one in the bedroom. Otherwise install some ceiling fans. Cheaper, more effective, and can be used with heat.

 

[danischi24]

Don't talk about heat today, it was 114 in the shade of my well ventilated barn today even with 25 big fan units running. I was too scared to put the thermometer outside & all birds & rabbits got moved into the house.

 

[Joz]

I got a portable unit a couple years ago, after reading a million reviews and doing research... and I hated it. Currently I've got window units, and since I live in a shotgun house (rooms all in a row, no hallway) I can close off the room(s) I don't need cooled.

I wish I had an attic fan to air out the house in the evenings. Turn on the fan, suck all the warm stale air out of the house and into the attic, suck in a bunch of fresh cool air from outside. It takes about 5 minutes to cool off a house with one of those, if your climate is such that evenings are cooler than daytime (which we're experiencing here in NOLA far later this year than ever before...)

I grew up in Eugene with no AC at all.

 

[cmjust0]

We have two el-cheapo $100+/- window units...one in the living room, one in the bedroom. They work OK, but neither are particularly efficient, and the electric bill reflects it. But...if it's between roasting and paying a bigger electric bill, we pay the bigger bill.

Might want to keep an eye on the "cash for caulkers" bill that just passed the House, too... It's expected to be passed in the Senate and become law this summer.. Supposedly works a lot like the "cash for clunkers" car deal (of which I took full advantage

) they did last year, in that the rebates/discounts are applied immediately. Homeowners can get up to 50% off certain goods and services up to $3000 under what they're calling the 'silver star' program.. There's also the 'gold star' program, under which homeowners agree to conduct energy audits and pledge to do what it takes to reduce their energy by 20% or more...I think you get $3000 right off the bat under the 'gold star' program. Plus, for every 5% you reduce your useage over the required 20%, you get another $1000, up to $8000 total.

Just a thought.. We've been hemhawing around about getting central heat and A/C ourselves for a long time now, but it's so daggone expensive... If this bill passes, we'll almost certainly do it. Might even go for the 'gold star' and do the audits and all that...but we'll see.

 

[rodriguezpoultry]

I lived in a 500 sq. foot apartment that had a window unit. It was AWFUL. The coolness stopped at the doorway where I had a fan pointing in towards my bedroom. The bedroom had a fan blowing over me at night which was amazing.

 

[silkiechicken]

I grew up in the PNW where you break out shorts and people go jump in lakes when it hits 65. I wake up sweating almost every morning if it is over 75 inside the apartment. Just plain can't do the heat as silly as that sounds to anyone who lives anywhere were temps are not always cool due to ocean/sound breeze. It was so funny when I visited cousins in california and the youngest one came downstairs wearing a winter jacket because they lowered the thermostat to 78 for the sake of their visiting Washington relatives

We rent a condo near campus so are rather limited on what we can use and if it were a house, central AC would have been in long before summer. Seasonal allergy meds can only go so far when you have to have the windows open to get the temp down, and essentially negates the air filter that we have running on a timer. The place came with ceiling fans but in addition to two floor fans, it is just plain not enough so this pitty party is looking for cooling.

Tried turning my clothes into a swamp cooler last year by soaking myself but all that happened was the humidity shot up to 85% inside and not only was I too hot, I was soaked.

 

[Dar]

I dont like the noise of the window units we have

I like the convenience of the portable... I can set it up in the hall and not die in the living room.... BUT on the really HOT days i will run them all... and when i sleep i dont like the draft on my shoulders so the portable works great and it will give some comfort to all rooms... they are not cold by any means ... but they are comfortable