Friday 2 August 2013

Where Can You Buy a Portable Air Conditioner Without Exhaust Venting?

Have you ever noticed that some homeowners have neat portable air conditioners that don't appear to have an exhaust venting capability? Yet they seem to work perfectly well in keeping the home cool in those hot months throughout the summer. How can this be?

You are probably already familiar with the portable, ventless evaporative coolers that resemble true air conditioners, yet aren't. That would be a foregone conclusion if you've read other articles on this blog.

Swamp Coolers are Not True Air Conditioners!


Just to recap, these "swamp coolers" are not real aircon units as they don't refrigerate the air that is passed through them. Instead they chill it by evaporation as it is passed through a damp membrane. There is no refrigeration process and no need for a compressor motor to pump the air through any system.

Swamp coolers simply use a basic fan to force air through a membrane that is kept wet by being partially immersed in a water reservoir. These coolers work best in dry atmospheres, as they generate humidity through the evaporative process.

As a result, these coolers don't need to vent any hot exhaust, since they don't produce any! It makes them the perfect portable cooling solution as they can pump out a cold breeze that is capable of reducing the temperature in a room by as much as 30 degrees!

However, their downfall is their effectiveness is reduced in humid atmospheres. So what about the true aircon alternative, especially for those who live in hot, humid conditions?

Refrigerant Based Portable Air Conditioning Units


Working in a completely different way to evaporative coolers, true aircon units use a refrigeration process to chill the air that passes through them. The by-product of that process is a hot exhaust that needs to be vented out of the room being cooled.

So the reality is that these room cooling solutions have to have a means of removing their hot exhaust air from the room. That is the typical corrugated plastic tubing that you see on most of these units.

Do Unvented Portable Air Conditioning Units Exist?


True refrigerant aircons that are portable, standalone units that are not vented do not currently exist because of their very nature. Until a way can be found to refrigerate the air without the use of a heat exchange system, there will always be the resultant hot air produced by the internal chilling process.

One solution is a fixed aircon system whereby the cooling unit is affixed to a wall or ceiling and its vent is channeled through a wall or ceiling to am extracting unit placed outside the house (usually on the other side of the same wall).

So Where Can I By a Portable Evaporative Air Cooler?


True ventless air coolers can be purchased at all major hardware stores as well as many online retailers such as Amazon, WalMart, Lowes etc. The price you pay will differ from store to store, but generally the prices are lower online since online sellers don't have the same overheads as brick and mortar stores.

One of the best places to buy one of these units is actually Amazon, as they have free overland shipping on larger items such as these and that can represent a big saving on the total cost.

You can find more information on our personally recommended unit when you click the link in the right column on this page.

4 comments:

  1. Great post. I love the idea of a portable air conditioner that doesn't need to be vented to the outside and you explain it pretty well here, thanks!

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  2. Thank you for this very informative article. Research will have to be done by the consumer to find out which unit will best suit his/her needs. If the cooling unit has to be portable, the humidity of the area is important. Since the truly ventless portable air conditioner does not exist, knowing which portable air cooler to use in the area will be one of the deciding factors.

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  3. Swamp coolers simply use a basic fan to force air through a membrane that is kept wet by being partially immersed in a water reservoir. These  Coolers work best in dry atmospheres, as they generate humidity through the evaporative process.

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  4. I knew there was a difference between swamp coolers and refrigerant based air conditioning units, but I didn't know the exact difference. I've lived in a desert climate my whole life, so I can see why a swamp cooler would be good for that particular situation. My family actually used to have one before we switched to an air conditioning unit that cooled the air better. My mom was much happier with the switch!

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