Can portable AC unit intake air from inside room?

bludshot · 08-20-2009, 01:04 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Killmore

How much is your energy bill?!

lol, well my portable AC gets the room down to the temperature I set it at, and then clicks off. So I don't see how it'd be any worse than normal...
It's not like it just runs and runs and never cools down enough to shut off...

portableac7 · 05-01-2010, 10:56 AM

You can do by disconnecting the hose.... But overall I think it is not smart idea (need more effort).

Just sharing my opinion (newbie here....)

my lovely portable air conditioner

**beenthere** · 05-01-2010, 11:12 AM

By using the room air. You are causing the room to draw in air from either other areas, or from the outside through leakage at your windows, door, and devices on your outside walls, or a combination of both.

IN some instances, the unit can't cool the room when that happens.

bludshot · 05-01-2010, 02:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by beenthere

By using the room air. You are causing the room to draw in air from either other areas, or from the outside through leakage at your windows, door, and devices on your outside walls, or a combination of both.

IN some instances, the unit can't cool the room when that happens.

Yeah, the only reason why it's ok for me to do it is that the rest of the house is being cooled by central air anyway. If the rest of the house was full of hot humid air - as would normally be the case with someone who has a portable AC, then I agree, it would not work. The amount of air that the AC pushes out of the room through the window pipe obviously has to get replaced into the room, and it comes through the cracks in the door from the rest of the house. It's a lot too, you can feel the wind basically sucking into the room.

gorkah · 05-12-2010, 11:54 PM

I have the exact same problem. I have an office with 4 screens, 2 servers, an xbox and it gets HOT.

What I did, which I think is ingenious, is that I put the intake under my desk where the servers are clustered into a tight knight group of heat emitting devils. When the AC kicks on, it sucks the hot air right out of the computers and cools the condenser and shoots it outside.

So for me running it on inside air makes it nice, yes it sucks in air from the hallway but the hallway and other room air is super cold, it's just my room that stinks.

As far as humidity goes I could care less I'm in CA and humidity is low. It may be running less efficient, but I don't see how sucking out hot air from my computers and blowing it outside is any worse than sucking in 120 degree Bakersfield air.

Maybe I'm missing something, but this setup works good for me bludshot.

**beenthere** · 05-13-2010, 05:41 AM

It makes the system for the house work harder. Because it has to then condition the hot outdoor air that is being drawn into the house.

When your having your scorcher days of 105 to 112 at 60%RH plus outside conditions. The amount of moisture your bringing into the house. Raises the humidity of the rest of the house. And makes that system work harder.