Portable air conditioning units

[danbo]

Dear All

Has anyone seen any portable air conditioning units for sale in Bangkok.  I'm looking for a cheaper option than an installed unit, and a more effective option than a fan.....

T.I.A

Dan.

[LordHawHaw]

May I pin you down a little bit?

Are you planning on putting a true AC (refrigeration unit) on a rolling table, and moving it from place to place in your home/office?

Are you looking for what we in my home nation call a "swamp cooler," one of these things that is basically a fan in a box with a kind of wick or sponge that is soaked with water and through which the fan blows?

To answer your question, maybe, I think I recall seeing a number of units in Central.  Maybe they have something that will meet your needs.

Comment: both of the options I mention above have serious drawbacks.  Maybe you want a small window-mount AC unit that you can, in theory at least, move from window to window as needed?

[danbo]

Thanks for the reply.

I was looking for a "true" AC unit which could be moved from room to room and would hopefully work out cheaper than the fixed models.  I assume that the "exhaust" pipe must be placed outside with these.

Re. The fans which take ice or water:  I saw some of these for about 3000 baht - any idea how effective they are ?  I am guessing that you call then swamp coolers because they pump out the water which has been added.

Dan.

[LordHawHaw]

OK, got it.  I'm not sure about price, but a window unit ought to be about the same price as the unit you describe -- I think.

The problem, IMHO, is that exhaust pipe.  Yes, it's needed.  But I can't recall ever seeing a unit such as you describe; if they exist, they would have to have rather large ducts to carry away the hot air.  Reason: imagine the difference between blowing through a straw and blowing through a tube several inches in diameter.  A larger tube reduces the back pressure and increases the air flow, while a much smaller one literally chokes things.  So your unit would have to have a very large pipe for an exhaust.  We are getting into the realm of the impractical pretty quickly here.

If such units exist, and they may, I would start looking at Lotus  and Carrefour, and then try Central and the upper level of the Emporium complex.  (The latter is at the Phrom Phong station on the Skytrain.)  I believe you will find the best selection overall in those places, so your chances are better.  Smaller outlets?  Sorry, I don't know.  Maybe try Mabunkhrong (which I probably did not spell correctly), at the National Stadium end of the Silom line of the Skytrain -- even though that could be a daunting experience rather like the needle-in-the-haystack search.  

My guess: a small window unit that you move from window to window might be your only recourse.  A bit of a chore, though.

"Swamp coolers" are called that because they add humidity to the air, so the indoors can take on a swampy quality.  Mold, bacteria, dust and other contaminants in the machine can add the aroma of a swamp, as well.  Delightful.  They work best in the (very!) arid desert.  You seldom see them used here because they can turn a room into a sauna.  As for the ice, well, consider that you cannot add cold, according to what the physicists tell us.  You can only move heat.  (See note below if this seems goofy.)  So a block of ice will absorb heat, melt, and leave the room more humid and not one calorie cooler.  Its only benefit: some of the heat in the air is trapped in the water -- but that's temporary, as it is free to recirculate!  You have to move the heat OUT somehow, and a true AC unit does that.

Sorry I can't send you to exactly the right store.  Maybe someone else knows the best place to shop, and will post its location.

Note: so it sounds as if I am saying that when you put ice cubes into room temperature water, you do not cool the water, right?  "Adding cold" is in fact impossible, but it sure looks as if you can do it, I agree.  What happens is you redistribute the heat that is in the water by allowing it to flow into additional mass.  You do not decrease the quantity of the heat in the glass one bit, not even a single tiny calorie, when you add ice -- you spread that heat into a larger mass.  Think of it as thinning the heat out by giving it a chance to move into new territory; the water loses heat to the melting ice, which becomes warmer.  The more ice, the lower the temperature falls, because you have added a lot of mass to the mix.  (Temperature is not a measure of the quantity of heat present.  It is a measure of how high the existing heat is.  Calories tell us how much total heat -- energy -- is present.)   No heat leaves the glass.  This is a bit counter-intuitive, eh?

[pschef]

Hi Danbo

I know what you refer to, a self generating unit that can be moved from room to room. I did see some on sale but sorry it was in Saudi, the brand name I think was Panasonic or Mitubishi. Over there the price was about 30. 000 for the cheapest. In theory it would be cheaper to fit a split unit here in Thailand for as little as 20. 000 depends on the brand.

Try looking on the web sites for the above names ???

[bryanjackson]

Just for the record, i did see such a unit here in chiang mai at "home pro", an american company attached to the carefore superstore complex.  it was a true air con on wheels, not a swamp cooler and was rated at 6,000 btu and cost 17,000+ bhatt. great idea, but as above reply mentioned, 'where to exhaust the unit?' as there was at least as much hot ait coming out the back as there was cool air comming out the front!

good luck and hopefully, you'll work it out before the summer is over

[lopburi3]

Central Air Conditioner makes such a unit here and any dealer should have full information on it.  It has often been advertised in UBC mag.  It is a roll around unit but has the added item of an insulated bed cover so you cool your bed while keeping the hot air outside it.