Question:
A normal wall mounted air conditioner pumps out a lot of hot air, and has a
water drain .. How does an inside portable air conditioner work? They appear
to be a free-standing plastic unit .. One is described (latest retravision
catalog) as being rated at 3500w, which suggests it IS a proper air con ..
but I don't understand how it deals with the above problems?
I'm familiar with the "evaporative coolers" that are around .. that use
water/ice to cool the air .. i've got one of those currently, and its good
while your in its air flow, but it can't make any effect on the air temp ..
I figure a proper air conditioner should be able to?
Answer:
I assume the portable units must have some way to evacuate the warm air from
the hot heat exchanger.
The secret with evaporative coolers is that they have to be positioned in an
open window so they have access to fresh external air. You also need to have
other windows open to avoid the buildup of moisture in the air. If you use
one of these units in a closed environment, all they will do is cool
initially, but in doing so will raise the humidity to the point where the
cooler actually stops working because the air is too wet, amd the room will
be so humid, it actually feels hotter than the open air.
I've seen portable airconditioners/dehumidifier with a plastic duct that
must be positioned outside. They are heat pumps and the heat/water vapor
must be transferred somewhere.
Evaporative air conditioners use the latent heat of evaporation to do the
heat transfer. They are only useful when humidity is low, which isn't a
problem in this Queensland drought.
