Owning your own home

How many rooms do you want to have air con in?

You will have to live with a wall mounted evaporator unit in each room. The more rooms the bigger the outside condenser unit you will need.

They aren't maintenance free either. The evaporator and condenser need cleaning and making sure the water pumps are working. Modern gas is a lot more environmental friendly but the CO2 cost to a leak can be frightening. You have to be qualified to maintain them as well so it's not a DIY job and you can't fit them yourself.

If you are rich and want a cold and hot house they are great. If you want to save money then it's not a place you want to go to.

To qualify. I test air con as part of my job.

Have you considered a fan?

Or open a window.

Or naked

Grrrr. Nekid Bear.

Yeah I get ya. It’s gonna be spendy.

Our flat is about 900sq foot. Last summer it was often 29-30 daytime and 26 at night inside so obvs a fan or being naked - although sexy - isn’t going to work.

We have no outdoor space. We have a toddler. It’s gonna suck. It might suck less if we can escape the heat in our place because we won’t be escaping it in an office or cafe.

So if not a two piece pro unit what about air conditioning a single room - a bedroom for instance with a portable?

Whilst we’re on legal notices I have a question on a letter we have received.

Two years ago we had new windows fitted. They messed up the bay windows twice, meaning having to have them fitted twice, then when fitted the line of the window me at it didn’t fit with the other window they had done at the front so had to redo that.

They also messed up a rear window and re did that. They also chipped another window. These were painted aluminium. Last contact with them two years ago was asking when they were doing to sort out the damage. Never heard back. We still owed 10% £900 odd. We never paid that. It all went silent and thought they’d given up and chips we could live with without them going into our lives again.

Now they have unsurprising to us gone into voluntary liquidation and have received a letter from their liquidator saying we still owe the money.

Which obviously I don’t want to pay. Do I just send them all emails and their lack of replies? And state we’re still waiting for them to finish the job? Which we are I guess

Do I just send them all emails and their lack of replies? And state we’re still waiting for them to finish the job?

Yes. You'll be on their books as a creditor, and the liquidators won't know the full background. Kick up enough of a stinky, and they'll go away.

Great thanks. That was the plan.

So if not a two piece pro unit what about air conditioning a single room - a bedroom for instance with a portable?

I've got a 10,000 BTU portable unit in my home office, as it's a small room packed with computers and monitors and is south-facing, so gets a bit warm in summer. It sits by the sash window, with the hose pointing out of it and a DIY blanking plate blocking the rest of the opening which doesn't have the hose sticking out of it.

It works pretty well, but it's bogging noisy. I certainly couldn't sleep in the same room while it's on. It might work if you pre-cool the room with the AC before going to bed, and then turn it off though. TBH I haven't used it for the last few years, as I only use it in extremis, and it hasn't been too stinky hot for the last few years.

Was there a written payment schedule? E.g. £900 on completion?

Are you thinking about those things you see in USA windows?

Real air con relies on separate units. One is taking the air in the room to heat/cool over the coil, the other dumps the cooled/heated gas outside via the other coil.

'Portable air conditioning' doesn't exist. Sorry.

Should have got a bear...

Worked for Byron.

Portable air conditioning' doesn't exist. Sorry.

Does ‘luggable’? As in what @danstuff has.

All in one presumably and the captured heat is exhausted through air being pushed outside through a window that obvs has to be sealed.

BTW I was that guy in the start up office who could explain to colleagues why opening the window to cool a room whilst having the air con on was a self defeating idea. I have a rudimentary understanding of how they work Yeah I’m a riot at parties.

If you really want to get legal on their arses, tell them in any response that you're exercising a right of set-off under rule 14.25 of the Insolvency Rules 2016, and setting off against any debt the unliquidated damages owed to you arising from their breach of contract under an implied term to take reasonable skill and care, noting that under rule 14.25(6) the term 'obligation' means 'an obligation however arising, whether by virtue of an agreement, rule of law or otherwise'.

Yes. When they asked us for the money we said we were still waiting for the touching up of chips. To which they replied to saying something like “oh they haven’t done that yet, let me see what’s going on about that” we assumed given it was a fuckup start to finish and two days off work was 5/6 in the end they had just cut their losses as we never heard back again

'Portable air conditioning' doesn't exist.

Well I wouldn't want to put it in a rucksack, but it's on castors. It's definitely possible to move it from one room to another.

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I was going to go with a toned down “jog on” but that sounds impressive.

Just put (jog on) after the legal bit in case they don’t understand. They will find it endearing.

No. You have something trying to cool the gas and then reheat it in a single unit.

Air Con relies on the condensate points of gaseous chemicals. Gas wants to expand.

To cool you force it to be a liquid by pressurising it, it wants to be a gas again so picks up heat and stores it. Then you allow it to be a gas and it releases all the stored heat to allow that.

Yes - same principle used in refrigerators, dehumidifiers etc. I don’t understand your point - unless it’s ‘the thing @danstuff has doesn’t exist’?

But you are cooling and heating gas in one unit. Look at the plate on the back and see what gas it uses. It will be probably propane which is how fridges cool/freeze food.

I beg to differ

https://youtu.be/LJLvqdum6-E

Fridge technology isn't air conditioning. It's something that cools a square meter of space that doesn't has room sized air flow into it.

Here's a good video explaining exactly why portable air conditioners are a bit rubbish:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-mBeYC2KGc