Portable evaporative coolers come on wheels and a long power cord. Evaporative coolers do not operate with thermostat like a portable air conditioner. A standard unit will come with a multi speed motor and a water pump. Most units will have a high and low cool to start the fan and pump. Or you have the vent only, high and low vent this starts only the fan.
Most portable units have an auto fill with a garden hose connection. Some models have a manual fill option (water bucket) . All evaporative coolers have a water reservoir, but they will run dry after time. Letting the unit run dry will burn the water pump out. Burnt out water pumps are not covered in the warranty.
If you don’t treat the water with chemicals you could have odor & lime or scale build up. The better you maintain the water the longer your media pads will last. Unless you use only distilled water some mineral deposits will form in the unit.
If you live in a dry and hot climate you may want to consider evaporative cooler over a standard fan.
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
Friday, May 9, 2008
How do heaters work on Portable air conditioners
Which portable air conditioner with a heater works best? They will come in two forms electric strip heater (like your toaster) or an air to air heat pump. The electric heater will use an electric heating coil to heat the air. This coil will put out about 4,000 Btu's of heat on a standard 12,000 BTU air conditioner. A 12,000 BTU of cooling air conditioner with a heat pump will put out 12,000 Btu's of heat.
The heat pump is 3 times warmer that the standard heater. This is possible because the compressor is doing all the work. How a compressor works is another story, but how a heat pump works is a quick store. All you need is a reversing valve and some check valves.
To best explain this I will use a window air conditioner. An installed window AC is mounted in a window, one side puts out cool air and the other side puts out warm air. Air conditioning 101. If you turn the AC unit around, you would have warm air in the room and cool air outside. 12,000 Btu's blowing outside means you have same amount of energy blowing warm air into the room. "Energy is never destroyed only transferred".
Back to the heat pump, by using reversing valve on the refrigeration piping inside the unit the portable AC blows cool air out its exhaust hose. The indoor unit is now a space heater, and you're cooling the back yard. This will only work when the heating operation temp is above 41F.
The heat pump is 3 times warmer that the standard heater. This is possible because the compressor is doing all the work. How a compressor works is another story, but how a heat pump works is a quick store. All you need is a reversing valve and some check valves.
To best explain this I will use a window air conditioner. An installed window AC is mounted in a window, one side puts out cool air and the other side puts out warm air. Air conditioning 101. If you turn the AC unit around, you would have warm air in the room and cool air outside. 12,000 Btu's blowing outside means you have same amount of energy blowing warm air into the room. "Energy is never destroyed only transferred".
Back to the heat pump, by using reversing valve on the refrigeration piping inside the unit the portable AC blows cool air out its exhaust hose. The indoor unit is now a space heater, and you're cooling the back yard. This will only work when the heating operation temp is above 41F.
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