Question:
This might be a dumb question, but is there such thing as an "indoor" room
air conditioner?
I live in an area where most of the time a box fan is enough to keep the
temperature bearable in the living area. But my home office is built in an
"attic room" over the garage which is usually 5-10 degrees warmer than the
rest of the house. Sometimes it's a bit too hot to stay at a desk all day.
There are lots of inexpensive room air conditioners available, but they all
appear to be designed as a window or wall mount unit. Local covenants
prohibit window mounted air conditioners and even if they didn't, the only
suitable window is on the front of the house and I wouldn't want one there
anyway.
Is there any particular reason (other than condensation) that one of these
units could not just be set on a counter and run completely indoors? Does
anyone make a "portable" air conditioner for indoor use?
Answer:
Yes, I have seen them locally (San Francisco bay area) but they
still need a to be able to vent through a windows. They are also
quite expensice, $800-$900 for a one room one
There are a number of self-contained units around now even at Home Depot and
Eagle. They are more $$/BTU than the equivalent window unit, but they have
come down in the last year or so. They *must* be vented to the outside
because AC works by pulling the heat out of the room air and expelling it to
the outside. If you just ran the machine inside it would have a net effect
of heating the room just like a refrigerator does.
DeLonghi makes them. I have seen them used in Hawaii. They need an outlet
to vent the hot air. They have a tray that collects the condensate which
needs to be emptied periodically. Here is a link to DeLonghi:
http://www.delonghi.com/sitodl98en/index.htm
My company just bought a couple of freestanding units: simply an A/C unit that
uses water to cool the condenser. Obviously, you need a water supply and drain
to function. Pretty neat system, though.
Just one thing. The indoor ones do not work as well as a regular unit for
cooling a room. You should get one that is about 3,000 btu more than you would
need for a regular window a.c. So a very small home office space that would
need a 6.000 but window unit, look for a 9,000 self standing.
