Today's Technology And You

Today's
TECHNOLOGY AND YOU

Cool solutions to hot spots

One portable air conditioner cools many rooms

Q: Some rooms in my house get as hot as an oven even though I have central air conditioning. How efficient and effective are the lightweight portable air conditioners that roll from room to room? - D. T.

A: A quiet portable air conditioner (A/C) can be effective with central air conditioning to lower your electric bills. There is no need to keep your entire house very cool throughout the daytime when most family members are gone and only one or two rooms are being used. This also reduces the peak afternoon load for the utility company and delays or reduces future electric rate increases.

Using a portable A/C allows you to super cool only the room which you are currently using or an extra-hot room. Set your central air conditioner thermostat several degrees higher. This will cut your electric bills by about three to five percent for each degree you set it higher. Also if you cannot afford to install central air conditioning, a portable unit is a lower cost cooling alternative.

There are several designs of portable A/C's. They weigh only 50 to 90 pounds and are mounted on casters. It is easy to roll one from the kitchen to the living room to the bedroom at night. They plug into any 115-volt outlet and use only 7.5 amperes of electricity.

One efficient design, Pinquino, has an easy-to-use window adapter to vent the exhaust heat from the condenser to the outdoors. The adapter is attached to the unit with small flexible clothes dryer-type duct. The window closes and seals against the adapter.

This design uses water to super cool the coils for more cool air output, up to 8,000 Btu. You slip out the small water tank and fill it at a faucet. The evaporation of the water increases cooling just like sweating cools your body in a breeze.

For automatic operation, it has a 24-hour timer, electronic memory and a two-speed blower. If it runs out of water while you are away, it automatically switches to the dry cooling mode at 6,500 Btu output. In either mode, the humidity is exhausted outdoors. This dehumidifies the indoor air for comfort and reduced allergies.

Another portable design, called TID, weighs only 55 pounds and works somewhat like a dehumidifier. As it dehumidifies the air, it spot cools by blowing cool air (7,200 Btu output) out the front and the waste warm air out the back away from you. If you operate it near a window, install a window kit for outdoor venting.

To increase the cool air coverage, it has motorized oscillating louvers. These distribute the cool dry air evenly in front of the unit. It has an automatic timer to control the cooling mode or you can use it in just the three-speed fan mode (no cooling).

Just using a small dehumidifier can help make an uncomfortably hot room feel more comfortable. Reducing the indoor humidity level makes 80 degrees feel like 75 degrees and is great for allergy sufferers.

One new whole-house dehumidifier, Herrmidifier, has no compressor. It uses heat from your water heater and a desiccant wheel to dry the air. Another compressor-type model, Sahara, has a unique super-efficient design. It precools the incoming air for double the cooling efficiency. I use one of these in my own basement.

Write for Utility Bills Update No. 661 showing a buyer's guide of portable air conditioners, whole-house and portable dehumidifier manufacturers, listing output capacities, features, prices and recommended size selector and cost-to-use charts. Please include $2.00 (with checks payable to "Jim Dulley") and business-size SASE, and send to Jim Dulley, Illinois Country Living, P. 0. Box 3787, Springfield, IL 62708.

James Dulley is a mechanical engineer who writes on a wide variety of energy and utility topics. His column appears in a large number of daily newspapers.

AUGUST 1996 ILLINOIS COUNTRY LIVING 9