free standing a/c? frustrated with cooling solution.

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VolunteerChin22

VolunteerChin22

I <3 dustbunnies
Joined
Feb 1, 2009
Messages
1,992
Location
Nashville, TN
Does anyone have a free standing A/C in their chin room? I am wondering if I should take this window unit back and spend the money on a free standing one - seems like the window units create a lot of hassle with trying to keep air in on the sides (like where the accordian screens are) ...I just dont know if they work well - the room is 6x10 with 10 or 12ft ceilings so it's not big but it's not insulated. I thought the outside walls (structural parts of the garage) would be insulated so I opted not to put insulation (to save money:banghead: on the wall we built) and then found out when we had to cut the wall open to put in a ventilation fan that now 3 of the 4 sides aren't insulated.

I mean case in point, the LG 8000 btu one i just bought to replace a cheap 5000 btu unit that crapped out doesnt fit in the window very well (the screen parts that extend on the side don't line up with the lip of the window and thus are infront of it on the bottom creating air space) and we are trying to jerryrig the sides (read duct tape). the stupid thing is more powerful and better quality and the room wont get below 72 (set on 69) and at 70% humidity vs the cheap one's 69 and less than 60% humidity when it was working:banghead:

I am so frustrated with trying to modify this garage area to suit them. We have a three bedroom house and to move them to a bedroom we'd have to rip out the carpet and put down laminate and I'd have to give up a future nursery or enclose our loft area to make one and sell the furniture that is currently up there that we are still paying for. ARRRGHHH.

Somedays I just want to sell everyone and be done with it.:hair:
 
First off, buy this thermostat; it will turn your pos window unit into something much better.

Second, do not get a free standing unit in the south. Even the ones with two tubes will burn out here. It is too humid and too hot - they exchange outside air and absolutely can not keep it cool. They don't even bother selling them in the stores here, couldn't figure out why I had to ship one from Costco (in WA) to find one. Lesson learned. :p

Use Tin foil to seal the cracks around your unit. Tin foil is the best heat diffuser pennies can buy.

To recap;
1. Seal with tin foil
2. By that thermostat

If you must buy a new window unit make sure you get one that comes back on after power failures. Believe it or not some don't - but I've found the cheapest units always have in the past. Might want to consider getting some insulation blown in come next year.

8,000 is a pretty small unit, mine are in a 11'x11'x8' room in a steel building that while insulated probably doesn't have much any more due to mice and has a south facing steel door. It takes a 15,000btu to cool that room all summer, and until I picked up that thermostat it was taking that plus an additional 8,000btu to keep it down in the evenings.

I am happy to say that the big one is doing it on it's own now with correct temperature regulation.

Good luck!
 
You don't want a portable (free-standing) air conditioner. Trust me, it's the only thing we can use in our current place since a window A/C won't fit.

1) They are awful. They just can't cool down as well as window A/C. I'm lucky if the room gets down below 80 on hot days, 75 on average days.

2) My unit requires water being added to a reservoir to work; others require a reservoir being emptied. Just another pain to deal with.

3) It still needs a hose going out the window for exhaust (or air exchange if it's a two-hosed one) and you still need to worry about sealing up the cracks around it. It probably wouldn't be as difficult as sealing up around the A/C, but still something to think about.

Honestly, I would take a window unit in a heartbeat right now if I could. If you really want to try a portable unit though, find a store that allows you to return A/Cs after being opened, that way if you don't like it you won't lose hundreds of dollars (they are pretty expensive).

Also, Spoof - I love the idea of that thermostat, thanks for sharing.
 
You're going to need to set it below 69. I have to keep my air conditioner on 60-63 for the temp to range from 66-69. I have a 15,000 BTU LG and which is cooling 400 sq ft in the chin barn, which is supposedly made to cool up to 800 sq ft. I've never been able to set the a/c on a certain temp and it actually stay that temp with any digital a/c I have. It's just too hot and humid in the south. Our bedroom has an 8000 BTU LG and its set on 60 and it stays about 67 degrees in here. You can get cans of foam to seal the areas around the air condition. It's a temporary fix, but it works.

I wouldn't get a portable, I had one in my old chin room that was 6' x 9' and I could not keep the room cool as the exhaust hose put out more hot air in the room than the air condition could cool. They're just crap air conditioners to begin with.
 
Yah I none of them have good reviews - It seems like it would be a better solution if they were just made better!

This one does come back on to the settings if the power goes out - it's this one http://www.lg.com/us/appliances/air-conditioners/LG-window-air-conditioner-L8010ER.jsp - I read several reviews and they were good - it also has a vent function that will allow air just to flow in and out if it's not too hot outside. I liked that feature.

Supposed to be good for 350 sqft vs the old one was for 150sq ft. so i figured this one would do even better than the other one running less often (the other one ran 24/7).

Thanks for the thermostat tip - does it just serve to help if the power goes out? Not sure Im getting what it's for....Tiff I thought about the foam...does it come off? We do have to take down the ac for a good spray off about twice a year in the summer...
 
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Thanks for the thermostat tip - does it just serve to help if the power goes out? Not sure Im getting what it's for....
Click to expand...

It manages the temperature of the room and cuts power to the unit when it reaches the desired temp. See, those built in ones are right in front of the grille or embedded in the plastic on those units so the cool air coming out the top drops and gets re-sucked into the vent fooling it into thinking it is cool.

Having a considerably more accurate thermostat on the wall somewhere else makes a huge difference. My power bill for the barn last year was $78 at this time, this year it hasn't broken $45. It's just that much more efficient. It certainly hasn't been any cooler outside!

My unit cost the previous owners $800 new, it both heats and cools and I can't believe how terrible the thermostat was.

When you set up the thermostat you set your a/c on max cool, full blast. The thermostat then turns the power on and off when it needs cooling. It does weekday/weekend and day/night settings. I have mine set to 76 during the day and 68 starting at 9PM to combat humidity. I find if I leave it too low during the day the outside walls/door sweat (and rot) and it gets too dry in there.

Tiff I thought about the foam...does it come off? We do have to take down the ac for a good spray off about twice a year in the summer...
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If it's the foam in the red can, not really. It takes a razor blade and lots of elbow grease to get off, I got some on my wood floors. It's really sticky if you get it on you too.

I have a feeling that part of the reason you are having poor cooling performance is that outside air circulation vent in the back. I'd take some duct tape and styrofoam and tape it up until it cools off. Bet that would make a huge difference.
 
The vent I was talking about has a lever that shuts it off so it's closed right now. Im planning to keep it closed until probably late september or whenever its not above 80 outside.

I reduced the temp and saw online that to remove more humidity i needed to decrease the fan speed to 1 or 2 (I had it on 3) - hopefully that will help.
 
I reduced the temp and saw online that to remove more humidity i needed to decrease the fan speed to 1 or 2 (I had it on 3) - hopefully that will help.
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That's because the vent to the outside probably doesn't seal very well and having the fan on high causes pressure to suck it open.

In reality, the more air movement the drier things are. Might want to try sealing it a little more than it came with, it's probably just some plastic flaps back there like a dryer vent. :))
 
Ditto what everyone else said. My apartment windows have bars on them so I can't use a regular AC unit, so we bought two standing ones (one for the bedroom and one for the chin room). It turned out that only one of our units actually cools the room below 75 if it's hot out...the hose on the other one just generates more heat into the room than the unit can cool. The one that works is 9000btu, by the way. And since I live in MA where it gets in the 90s for only 2 weeks a year, I guess I'm lucky I'm not in a warmer climate.
 
I forgot to mention this, but have you tried running it on Energy Saver mode? My room seems to stay 2-3 degrees warmer and 5% or higher humidity when the air conditioner is set on Cool. I'm not sure if it's something with all LG's, but the same thing happened when I had my 10,000 BTU LG in the barn before I put the new one in and I've noticed this one does the same.
 
I just posted about my mini-split, if you have the money to invest, it's way, WAY, cheaper to run and does a lot, lot better job... I'm super impressed.
 
The blue sheets of insulation(look like foam,down here we call it turkey house insulation)work wonders for any of the window ac or portable ac . When I finally went from portable to window ac,I did it the same way.I actually measured and cut pieces to fit my window opening(I stacked several layers together since we have the double mobile home window).If you need to,you can also use duct tape(nice colors availabe now not just grey)to seal the gaps.My final layer that you can see from inside home is the pieces of foam that you can use to "fit" the ac to the window.
 
It helps to have an ordinary fan blowing the air around as well, it keeps pockets of cold air from forming, and for those reading and don't know, don't blow the air at the chins. Ps I use a new paint brush to sweep the fins free of dirt and hair then I spray them with water and brown dirty water runs down. AC must be kept clean to work well.
 
I have a small fan in the floor and a air purifyer that both circulate room air. It seems to be working much better on the lower setting and slower fan speed. This room isn't going to be permanent, hoping our next place in a few years will have central air and then I won't need to rely on a window unit, it will just be a if i need to. I may try to fit the foam next time we take it down to give it a good cleaning...dang thing is so awkward. I use a toothbrush and spray it too! I am going to try and vacuume the filter more often than I was (everyday, opposed to every 2ish days) to keep it cleaner.
 
My standing AC works fine for my chin room. But my apartment also has central air as well. I'm glad we have the standing AC though, because our central air crapped out during a really hot week and we needed the one we bought. I got it at home depot, I believe. It was around $300.
 
I just got the thermostat Spoof linked in the mail today (I am SO glad you posted that, by the way). I looked up if there were any other outlet thermostats and I can't really find any except those preset ones farmers use.

I know with my AC, the longer it runs, the less efficient it gets. So if I run it all day, I'll have to turn it on high to get it as cool as low used to get the room when I first turned it on. But in order to keep the room cool enough while I'm gone during any long period of time, I have to have it on all the time and at a setting I know will still keep the room at a good temperature when it starts crapping out before I get back home. This thermostat is perfect since it keeps the AC from slowing down in that sense. I have a $100 AC, so it can use the help from a digital thermostat. The cheapest I found it was on Amazon, as well.

So far, my little 5000 btu AC hasn't really made a dent in the electricity bill, but I can already tell with this thermostat on today that my AC is on less and I would assume using less kwhs overall (I don't know if I can measure that like I normally do with an outlet meter...). I guess I could just look at the bill next month and see. Anyhoo--I recommend the thermostat so far, for my initial review of it.

EDIT: On second look, I'm not sure your AC would work with this thermostat, since it has a digital thermostat on it. You'd have to ask LG maybe. Hope you figure out something that helps, and maybe someone else reading this thread will benefit from the thermostat review.
 
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