Air conditioners and home insulation

[BB1955]

Using Mitsubishi inverter. I think its great. I run it 24/7. 26 in the day and 25 at night. I bundle up in a comforter at 24. 20,000 btu in a 330 sq ft room with a 10 foot ceiling. No insulation yet in the ceiling but the walls are Q-Con not concrete. The outside walls do not get warm. Costs me around 1200 Baht a month.

I have been looking at insulation. All the big stores sell foam insulation R 13 and R 19. Can't be positive if the values are accurate but it has to be better than bare gypsum. The attic in this house does not get stifling hot and it is about 5 C cooler inside than outside in this Isan heat. (38-39 lately)

I have 2 other rooms with 9,000 btu A/C's. I run them and the master b/r A/C with the doors open and ceiling fans on to cool the living room that is around 550 sq ft. It does a fair job but the electric bill might scare me.

I will agree on the Mitsubishi Mr Slim inverter. I have two of them one 9000 btu and the other 18000 btu . They are quiet and cool very well . Paid more for them but very happy with the product ....

[BB1955]

What's the price difference between an inverter system and the older on-or-off compressor units. Didn't know what an inverter was until I looked it up.

I have a 18000 BTU inverter Mitsubichi and a 9000 btu I paid 39000 bhat for the 18000 and 21000 for the 9000 money well spent ...

[thaibeachlovers]

trouble with putting batts up is the ceilings[at least mine has many wires hanging from the roof to support the frame that the tiles sit in,could be done but a lot of mucking around,cutting batts etc,

No way anyone could stand on my ceiling as suspended from those puny thin steel rails slung from the steel roof supports. Also nothing to rest a plank on. Well designed, NOT.

[Thighlander]

Global House stocks 3" foil wrapped Batts which is ideal and cheap @ under 300Bt a 2.4 x .6m roll. HomePro/Baan&Beyond sell similar tho marginally more expensive.

Beware of different "R" rating standards used and read the small print on data sheets, in English, on the good brands.

IMHO a ~9k BTU unit sufficient for bedroom. We use ours for ~ 4 hours a night (auto-off at 2am) for approx 3 months and running cost takes PEA a/c to a whopping 800Bt/pm.

I prefer Samsung and Inverter models. Check SiamTv, Central and HomePro for specials @ ~ 12k, installed. The filtering claims are not always kosher and depends on ones household hygiene/pets or not ... etc. Don't be fooled by sales talk and beware the COMPANY reps in each retail outlet ... eg: LG staff employed by LG, Samsung by Samsung ... yet wearing local store uniforms.

using an inverter aircon for a limited time ("4 hours at night") was a waste of money when buying the much more expensive unit.

sizing the unit is based on individual demands e.g. required temperature in the bedroom at maximum ambient temperature during daytime and minimum ambient temperature at night. based on the present prevailing max 35º and min 27º a 9,000 btu/h unit cannot cool a 21m² (15'x15') bedroom to a comfortable 25º sleeping temperature.

I'm not familiar with the inverter, but what we found in the desert, was that the super high efficiency models didn't pay for themselves in heavy use areas. You definitely don't want an old, shitty one, but a 12 or 13 SEER will use a near identical amount of energy as a much more expensive 18 SEER in a heavy use area. Where those units really save would be an area where it's 27c outside, and you're cooling to 25c. The majority of the savings comes when it starts, so in a milder climate; you are going to have shorter cycles, with more starts giving you the savings, but since your usage is much less; it doesn't pay for itself very well in that scenario, either.

At 119F, in 2012, my attic temp peaked at 143F, with the attic fan. Otherwise, it would have been 170+ up there.

[connda]

I think I might have found the answer to home cooling as opposed to air conditioning. Our local hospital just bought two air coolers that work using water evaporation. It's a product made by M Kool with two different models: MKF-15 and MKF-35. We sat near one and I was blown away (pun not intended, but sort of funny anyway). We were at least 5 meters away and the air was significantly cooler. And the unit is portable. For the village, I think this would meet our needs.

[Thighlander]

they won't be as good as a ceiling fan once the humidity kicks in. They're amazing when you have 0-20% humidity.

[connda]

they won't be as good as a ceiling fan once the humidity kicks in. They're amazing when you have 0-20% humidity.

Ah hah!!! I was wondering what the hitch was.