Portable Air Conditioners In Thailand

[lambethgal]

Does anyone know where I can get a portable air conditioner if Chiang Mai? I need to cool the baby's room but it's on the upper floor of an old wood and plaster house where a conventional wall mounted air-conditioner would be too difficult to install.

[haybilly]

Does anyone know where I can get a portable air conditioner if Chiang Mai? I need to cool the baby's room but it's on the upper floor of an old wood and plaster house where a conventional wall mounted air-conditioner would be too difficult to install.

Pretty much all the big electrical retailers sell them--they're quite expensive compared to wall mounted and you still need to be able to make/find a whole in an external wall for the outlet pipe--which is from 4" to 6" [ don't try to run it without this, obviously]

Forgot to say that there are small very portable units, like a dehumidifier, available but from what I've been told they're none too efficient.

Edited March 15, 2008 by haybilly

[lambethgal]

Does anyone know where I can get a portable air conditioner if Chiang Mai? I need to cool the baby's room but it's on the upper floor of an old wood and plaster house where a conventional wall mounted air-conditioner would be too difficult to install.

Pretty much all the big electrical retailers sell them--they're quite expensive compared to wall mounted and you still need to be able to make/find a whole in an external wall for the outlet pipe--which is from 4" to 6" [ don't try to run it without this, obviously]

Forgot to say that there are small very portable units, like a dehumidifier, available but from what I've been told they're none too efficient.

[lambethgal]

Thanks for the tip. I have looked in Homepro, Carrefour, Tesco ... but they don't have them. Do you know which shops stock them?

Also, how much should installation charges be for conventional wall-mounted a/c's?

Thanks in advance!

Does anyone know where I can get a portable air conditioner if Chiang Mai? I need to cool the baby's room but it's on the upper floor of an old wood and plaster house where a conventional wall mounted air-conditioner would be too difficult to install.

Pretty much all the big electrical retailers sell them--they're quite expensive compared to wall mounted and you still need to be able to make/find a whole in an external wall for the outlet pipe--which is from 4" to 6" [ don't try to run it without this, obviously]

Forgot to say that there are small very portable units, like a dehumidifier, available but from what I've been told they're none too efficient.

[Jefferson]

Does anyone know where I can get a portable air conditioner if Chiang Mai? I need to cool the baby's room but it's on the upper floor of an old wood and plaster house where a conventional wall mounted air-conditioner would be too difficult to install.

* You could have a regular wall mounted unit anywhere.

* Better yet, move the baby downstairs where it's cooler, rather than spending lots of money & energy on trying to cool an oven. (And then optionally find active cooling incl. airconditioning downstairs)

[bunta71]

Bought what we call in Kansas a swamp cooler yesterday for about 2500B in Carrefour(Caw-fo). You add water and the evaporation process cools things. Check it out.Works fine

[Ulysses G.]

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but your "swamp cooler" might work fine, right now, at the end of cool season, but it is useless during the hot season that is coming soon. Get yourself real air-con while you can!

[Fun2Fun]

Did see a portable air condition unit for around 23.000 THB in BIG-C some moths ago.

[pschef]

I saw in Macro Chiang Rai, 12 BTU at 12000 Baht and smaller unit for 9500, the look the business. Brand name AJ or something

[AndersSN]

I saw in Macro Chiang Rai, 12 BTU at 12000 Baht and smaller unit for 9500, the look the business. Brand name AJ or something

That is correct

My neighbour bought one in Makro, he says it isn't worth the money. And i guess at the price they are at you might as well by a propper one.

[BigWheelMan]

The huge new Siam TV store by the Chiang Mai gate. Stacks of them in there.

Had been looking at them myself last week as my conventional wall mounted air conditioner died on me a few weeks ago.

As someone has already mention, they`re not cheap. A 12000 btu costs about 18000 baht for a decent make, but they have models from all ranges, well worth a look.

Also not forgetting you may need to upgrade your electric meter and some wiring to accommodate it`s power supply.

Have been considering buying a portable air conditioner. Does anyone already have one and are they equivilent to the regular wall mounted air conditioners?

Edited May 30, 2010 by BigWheelMan

[ataloss]

The regular wall mounted air conditioner has a noisy compressor unit which is installed externally, and is very noisy. Are the compressors of portable air conditioners silenced in some manner? A consistent 'white' noise is acceptable; but a noisy 'truck-like' motor is not. Any experiences and observations, please. Thnx

[Boksida]

I have been disappointed with the ones I have bought. Noise is not a problem but they have been fairly ineffective when installed in well insulated mobile office type containers. I got a Central Air brand at Central in Kad Suan Gaew and it makes very little difference in extremely hot weather. I also have some reverse cycle Chinese made ones that work reasonably well as a heater, although not good enough when the outside temperature is -30 even in a 3m x 2m insulated cabin.

[tigerbalm]

They do make floor standing aircon units as well as wall mounted units but you still need the compressor mounted on the out side some where but this could be mounted on the floor below if needed.

Just a thought.

[ataloss]

Hi. Thnx for the ^^ above. Just came across this data:

Portable air conditioners are movable units that can be used to cool a specific region of building in a modular fashion, not requiring permanent installation. Most portable air conditioners are refrigeration based rather than evaporative[citation needed], and it is this type that is described in this section

All refrigerated type portable air conditioners require exhaust hoses for venting. Through this process of air intake, cooling and venting, air is continually cycled through the unit until the room reaches the desired temperature setting. Also, the refrigerant works to not only cool the air but also dehumidify air in the room, owing to the temperature decrease in the air which results in the saturation of the water content of the air, causing condensation when the air is returned to the room. The air will therefore be left without this ional water content.[9]. The water loss rate is sufficiently high to require collection or drainage. The exact conditions for the condensation of the water from the air can be estimated using a Psychrometric chart for air at room pressure.

[edit] Single hosed units

A single hosed unit has one hose that runs from the back of the portable air conditioner to the vent kit where hot air can be released. A typical single hosed portable air conditioner can cool a room that is 475 sq. ft. (45 sq meters) or smaller and has at most a cooling power of 12,000 BTUs. However, single hosed units cool a room less effectively than dual hosed as the air expelled from the room through the single hose creates negative pressure inside the room. Because of this, air (potentially warm air) from neighboring rooms is pulled into the room with the cooling unit to compensate.[10] (Hmmm- not good)

[edit] Dual hosed units

Dual hosed units are typically used in larger rooms. One hose is used as the exhaust hose to vent hot air and the other as the intake hose to draw in additional air (usually from the outside). These units generally have a cooler power of 12,000-14,000 BTUs and cool rooms that are around 500 sq. ft. The reason an intake hose is needed to draw in extra air is because with higher BTU units, air is cycled in large amounts and hot air is expelled at a faster rate. This would create negative air pressure in the room, so the intake hose eliminates reduction of room air pressure which would draw outside air into the room.[clarification needed]

[edit]

Split units (Tigerbalms obsvn)

Portable units are also available in split configuration, with the compressor and evaporator located in a separate external package and the two units connected via two detachable refrigerant pipes, as is the case with fixed split systems. Split portable units are superior to both single and dual hosed mono-portable units in that interior noise and size of the internal unit is greatly reduced due to the external location of the compressor, and no water needs to be drained from the internal unit due to the exterior location of the evaporator.

A drawback of split portable units compared with mono-portables is that a surface exterior to the building, such as a balcony must be provided for the external compressor unit to be located. Unlike window ACs the split AC does not have an option of exchange of indoor and outdoor air.

[edit]

Heat and cool units

Some portable air conditioner units are also able to provide heat by reversing the cooling process so that cool air is collected from a room and warm air is released. These units are not meant to replace actual heaters though and should not be used to cool rooms lower than 50 °F (10 °C).

So it seems at least a dual hose configuration is called for; but I have yet to see one.

[Dellboy218]

Tesco & Makro, probably others as well, AJ brand 9k and 12k btu, latter one about 13k Baht, think its on wheels.