Looking through your thermal device just confirmed my personal observation of the glass on the window conducting and transferring additional heat from the outside. Might as well insulate that from the outside. Hence making your ac not work as hard to cool down your area. I don’t think other people have that point in consideration and just totally focus on the unit for the problems. Thanks for posting this video.
@@krzywik13you need to work on your comprehension of the English language, the point I made has nothing to do with the unit location. Re-read and comment after you’ve fully understood the context. In which, you’ve obviously hadn’t yet.
Great idea. I bought a machine today - was amazed at the heat coming off the tube!! I just found an old foil backed foam ground sheet in my STASH! . I cut it into 8inch sections to make it flexible & wrapped each around the tube. Its 20¨wide so just enough to go around & affixed -with the traditional GAFFER TAPE. Foil side down & white side it to the room so don´t look too bad either!! ! Definitely makes a difference. Cheers From Madrid. It´s 2am & still 28´c outside.
Technology Connections has a really good video about this. I rigged up an intake and output system with my single hose unit. I had a large 12" aluminum duct that covered the intake really well. I squashed the other side a bit And made a window adapter that held both the intake and output. That dramatically increased efficiency once I was no longer sucking outside air into my conditioned space, then exhausting it outside. I further improved things by covering both hoses with some cheap blankets. Kinda quieted things down, too. Anymore I just don't feel the single hose units are worth the trouble. I have my original unit and a second one just sitting around, even in these record setting summer days.
I did that a couple years ago, no FLIR so hard to prove any gains. Next thing i did was put the portable on blocks to shorten the exhaust tube as much as possible, current setup has just 6" of double thick foil/bubble insulation between the AC and window.
Ya the FLIR was a fun way to confirm if it did anything and also verify I didn’t have any gaps/leaks in the insulation. This morning it did seem to drop the temperature faster in the garage than before. Shortening the duct was a smart idea you had too. It probably lessens air resistance for the exhaust air as another efficiency gain.
Great idea, I have a unit that draws indoor air and with the thermistor monitoring the room air I was thinking of rigging the intake evap coil air from outside but not sure that would work.
Fantastic, my mother uses one when the temperature gets really high and I couldn't fail but notice that the tube in the back is super hot essentially heating part of the room around it to an extend that i could feel it if ibstood behimd it... I will try your solution as I am sure it will improve the performance dramatically.
@@robertclark8546 Indeed! _Unless_ you actually want to pull in air from the outside, which _may_ be a goal for some. I'm actually considering just sticking with my single hose portable (instead of dual hose or even a mini-split) since a _second_ issue I have in my room (in fact, in my home which is well sealed and insulated) is that it doesn't get enough fresh air ventilation from outdoors; the bathroom fans only do so much. So in a way, this can work well both for cooling the hottest rooms in a top floor as well as forcing fresh air from outside, which might not necessarily be bad. That said: 1.) This guy's setup needs balanced air *very* badly, since he's in a super hot/humid climate and 2.) I'm in a very well insulated room in a well insulated house in a moderate (but sometimes warm) climate. Coincidentally, I'm in the Pacific Northwest and right now it's relatively comfortable outside and only hot on occasion. I only need a window AC precisely when it's moderate but only slightly warm outside, lol. So, 78-80 degrees for me spells discomfort, since my 140sqft office will ramp up to 82+ while the rest of the house sits at 71 (from the central AC cooling over night). 😅
thanks looks like the sleve is not one sise fit all but the silver role can fit any size do you have a comparison heat lost vire sleve and wrap but its still a fab idea will look for some foil wrap at homebase ty
noticed this as well. so i also wrapped the whole exhaust with an insulator 👍 then next thing i noticed after that was solved was that the area on the window near where the exhaust was blowing was warm as well. so i stuck some wall foam stickers to cover the hole thing haha. it wasn't perfect since the foam wasnt thick (it was made for decor) but it did help. Room has been a lot cooler now 👍👍 I'm gonna add some more insulation from the outside as well when the foam insulation i ordered arrives.
I've installed a 4 inch "dryer vent" for a number of people to use as vents for portable a/c's. I just run them straight through stucco/siding, right at the height the hose exits the a/c unit. Then I install the a/c unit right up against the vent so that there is almost NO hose at all to emit heat. Dryer vents are louvered so no bugs/critters get in while not in use. A 4 inch cap is put in place on the inside of the room during the months the a/c is stored (winter). Less hose = less heat loss.
I also had this on my flexible pipe and it helped a little. But the best thing to add to your portable AC is a stronger blower that you put at the end of the pipe to suck out the warm air within the pipes much faster. The stronger the fan, the better the efficiency will be.
Realize, you could put on a thousand mile an hour exhaust fan, and it would suck all the newly made cold air out of the room as soon as it's blown out the unit. There's a balance between the high temperature of heat per volume unit in the exhausted air, and lower heat temperature per volume unit of outside air being sucked through the house crevices to replace it. Ideally, you want hotter air exhaust with a lower air flow than less hot air exhaust with higher air flow. However, since the insulated exhaust pipe is holding the heat better now, it will also be hotter near the unit, and thus by back pressure, inside the unit will feel it, and run at a higher temperature, lowering the life and making the unit stressed and more inefficient. So it seems the extra outside fan on the exhaust rube might be warranted. How to determine the outside fans power needed is an issue. To get that super-heated air away from the unit's heat coils quicker, instead of adding an outside fan to increase flow to remove the heat better from the coils by using a higher volume of expensively room-cooled toom air - a better solution would be to use the smooth walled metal dryer ducting. Corrugated flex tube effectively creates a lower insider diameter, stratifying air near the inner walls due to turbulence trapped it in the grooves, reducing the effective diameter of the pipe. Also, notice the higher heat reading at the bend. Bends reduce flow by 30%. Ideally, the unit could be placed right on the window sill on a purpose-built shelf, with a short run of STRAIGHT smooth pipe through the window, with NO bends. It should go out the window a foot, angled downward slightly,- so rain doesn't enter - and then the heated air won't radiate back through the window pane. This is for a single pipe. A double pipe is much the same.
It is easier to purchase a box of 6" insulated ducting. It is much thicker and easier to work with. Use it to substitute the exhaust pipe that came with the A/C. Also, you can run it for longer than the original exhaust pipe.
As the RUclips video says, the duct connectors use brittle and plastic tabs. Trying to tape or connect insulated duct that doesn’t fit the connectors would result in hot exhaust leaking back into the room.
Great common sense video, I bought a huge piece of that mylar bubble wrap at a habit restore for $50. For a 6ft roll 10-12ft long, I used it mostly to cover my van, blocks the sun 100%, great for old windows, dashboard windshield cover ..
You're pulling hot air from outside into your garage as well, since you're decompressing it by taking air from that room so it can be used as exhaust for the compressor (which is pushed outside). You can probably optimize even further by ensuring the air pressure is balanced and ducting that intake to the outside as well. That unit may actually be built for that (and this is apparently not uncommon with some portable units).
I was thinking of doing this with mine. I'm using the portable unit as a last resort because my RV ac quit on me a few days ago and we are still in the middle of a heatwave in NM. I don't have the narrow roll of reflectix that you used so I am going to have to use much wider pieces and instead of wrapping and overlapping, I'll be wrapping it more like a gift. I have the metal tape so that should help. Ugh. I hate that I have to do this but we couldn't have lived had I not brought this portable thing back into our environment. Thanks for the video and info. Word to the wise: Don't buy these portable units, people. You're just throwing money out the window.
We bought one last night to help our AC units out. For nights it’s wonderful but the humidity summer days don’t mix well with it at all. Returning it today and getting a fan to help circulate the cold air from our bedroom AC unit.
You are right in recognizing that heat transfer from that exhaust duct to the space being cooled is one inefficiency of these portable AC units. But there is a much larger inefficiency that can be addressed. You mentioned that the AC unit pulls in cooled air from your garage to remove heat from the condenser coils and then pushes it out of the garage through that duct you are insulating. Stop and think. That cooled garage air that it is leaving through that duct to the outside has to be replaced from somewhere. Guess where the exiting cooled garage air is being replaced from? That's right, Your cooled air is being replaced by hot air from outside infiltrating into the garage through all gaps, cracks, and crevices around doors, windows, etc. The solution is to add another duct (also insulated of course) going from that inlet opening in your AC unit to a second opening in that window baffle. Ideally, you would connect the AC inlet duct to the lowest opening in the baffle, and the AC outlet duct to the highest opening in the baffle, allowing the hottest air to rise outside the window, upward and away from the lowest inlet opening, helping to minimize any potential re-circulation of hot exit air to your less hot outside air being drawn into the inlet. Hope this helps. 🙂
OK here's my question.... If that's the case....how the hell do these things work so well? I mean, it sounds like you're saying the AC is sitting there running, pumping the air it just cooled out along with the hot air....creating a vacuum drawing hot outside air back in to replace what air is being exhausted out.... This sounds like a complete losing battle......so again I ask... how do these work so freaking well? I don't get it.
@@One-Day-After-Another Well, it is not a "complete losing battle", just a major inefficiency that can be mitigated as I described. The magnitude of the inefficiency will vary according to your circumstances, such as the outside temperature, and location of the room in your house that you are trying to cool. I installed a portable AC in an upstairs room in my house that I am using as an office. There are also two other bedrooms and a bathroom upstairs that are not being used at all. Each of the the 4 upstairs rooms has recessed light fixtures which are by design not air tight, to keep the light fixture from overheating when incandescent bulbs are used. So they provide an air flow path to the highest/hottest part of the attic. The air in the attic when it is 95F outside, and the sun is shining, can be well over 140F. I closed the doors to the 2 bedrooms to reduce air infiltration to the office, so the portable AC would be trying to cool mostly just the office. When I hooked up the portable AC per the user manual instructions (pulling room air into the unit to cool the condenser, then ducted out the window) it did NOT do a "freaking well" job of cooling the room. Also, the 2 bedrooms that were closed off reached temps over 100F. (Thanks to the attic air and outside air being drawn in to replace the office air.) So, I added a 2nd duct (per my original comment) to bring outside air into the AC to cool the condenser. It then did a much, much better job of cooling the office. So, it boils down to just improving the efficiency of your setup wherever you can.
@@spud1 We have a hot attick single story house..and the house gets little shade.... Once during a heat wave our ac went out. someone had their portable AC in storage... I didn't even know those existed at that time... Anyway... we were desperate until our AC could get fixed... and not knowing anything about what I know now... We were shocked how well it worked.. We actually fought over it....we put it in one bedroom closed off and when you walked in that room it felt so cool...while the rest of the house was miserable... so that's what I meant by working well... It was so hot... yet even with the inefficiency it was still able to cool the room... I feel like dual hose units will start to take over instead of single hose... I've noticed this more lately.. even one of them has dual hose built into one big hose.. so it looks like single hose but it's dual..
@@One-Day-After-Another Yep. It's because it was siphoning that return air (i.e. air returning to your portable AC) from the rest of the house, which was depressurized. One test you can do is close the door in that room with the portable AC. You'll notice that there's quite a lot of air flooding into the room from under the door or the pass through grilles that connect that room to the rest of the house. That said, I'm sure the rest of the house might have already be a bit uncomfortable, but the portable AC was likely making it even worse due to how it's depressurizing. What is happening is that it is making up that air by pulling it in from the little cracks in the walls, around doors, windows and etc. That air is of course warm/humid. That's why dual-hose portable AC units are often far better in climates that are really hot/humid, since they ensure the pressure stays balanced in the home and your already conditioned air stays inside of your insulated envelope of your house.
I put that exact same stuff in my window to reflect the sunlight back out. Didn't even think about using it to insulate the exhaust itself.. Here's hoping it works!
Do you think it’s too loud for a medium size bedroom with high ceilings , I use for a massage room .. I don’t want it to over power the clients experience .. I do play soft meditation music .
I'm curious. Do you think a heavy duty aluminum foil would have done just as well? It would probably be much easier to apply and press onto it. Maybe I'll try that before the reflectix insulation. Thanks again.
I'm curious how pulling hotter air from outside (vs already cooled air from inside) would create an efficiency gain. Doesnt the unit have to work harder to cool warmer air??
I thought the same initially but learned from commenters that the intake air is used to cool the compressor and then exhausted using the second hose in a semi-closed loop. Without the second hose it creates a bit of a vacuum drawing in air from adjacent rooms or outside. Setup this way (with two hoses) the conditioned air is recirculated without introducing air from outside the room which may be hot or humid.
@@kristinlogan7509 the oposite. the way AC systems work, the way he has it set up, you're actually warming up already cold air because his hot and cold side are not isolated. And this is essentially the biggest problem with AC systems that don't have dual hoses. Even if it's hot air from outside, the way an AC system works is that it needs to remove heat from the air inside the room not so much move the air itself. the TLDR: AC systems shouldn't remove hot air inside a room. AC system should cool the air inside the room. AC systems shouldn't move air from inside the room to the outside of the room, AC systems should MOVE HEAT from the inside of the room to the outside of the room. The hot air outside the room is still cold enough to remove heat from the refrigerant of an AC enough to continue removing heat from inside the room. By not having an intake, from outisde, you're warming up the already cool air from inside to remove heat and send it outside, but now the AC has to cool new air. This is also why opening your refirgerator doesn't cool a room. because the refrigerator is still inside the same room you're trying to cool. this is why the "recirculate air" option inside your car helps cool the inside of a car faster than not recirculating air. It's not about removing hot air. It's about removing heat from the hot air. now here's the long version. Though I'm sure you can find youtube videos on how an AC system works but here's my attempt in simplified terms: An AC system works by having what essentially is two radiators (Let's call them that to make it more simple for people to understand, I know one is called a condenser and one is called an evaporator). One of the radiators is at high pressure, and the other is a low pressure. in an ideal system, the high pressure is outside the room you're trying to cool, and the low pressure is inside the room you're trying to cool. Prior to first starting up an AC system, both the low and the high pressure is at a ambient temperature. when starting the AC, the cycle begins, the compressor begins to push the gas into the high-pressure side, think of the gas as a wet rag, the gas holds heat like a rag holds water, before wringing the cloth, water stays in the rag because there's room in the rag to hold water. gas likewise is at ambient temp when it's been sitting stagnant. However, upon moving into high pressure, all that gas is squeezed into a tighter space causing all that heat energy to be squeezed into that same space. Heat energy wants to equalize, therefore the now hot high pressure in the outside radiator is now hotter than the already hot air outside. doesn't matter if the hot air outside is hot, it's still cooler than the now compressed gas. The heat energy moves from the hotter gas, into the hot air equalizing the compressed gas temperature to match again the outside ambient hot air. When the gas is now at ambient temperature again, the hot gas moves now to the cold radiator, or the low-pressure radiator. here the gas expands and think of it as a rag that has had all the water wrung from it ready to collect more water. In this case the gas is cool enough to be able to accept more heat from the room inside trying to be cooled. but keep in mind you're not sucking the air out of the room; you’re simply moving air through the radiator inside the room and but keeping the air in the room to remove the heat from that air. once the gas has collected all the heat, it's now pushed back outside to be squeezed again and have all the heat squeezed out of it again. And thus, the cycle continues. Each time this cycle continues the cold air inside the room gets even colder because it's continously having heat energey removed from it each time you pass it through the low pressure radiator. Because you're REMOVING HEAT, not the air itself. Therefore, an AC system doesn't work by introducing cold air. It works by removing heat from the air already inside the room. However, by him not having an intake hose, he's using the already cold air to remove heat from the AC and blowing that previously cold air back out to outside the room. why would you want to intentionally warm up already cooled air. Therefore, if your AC comes with two hoses, you ALWAYS want to use both hoses. therefore, a window AC always has to have the back of it sticking outside.
@@kristinlogan7509 You are still pulling in hot air from the outside, because all the air you are pumping out has to be replaced from somewhere - guess what, the only source can be from the outside hot air. If it wouldn't be replaced from outside, you would suffocate in a vacuum. This is why whenever you can, you should forget moving air and move the heat instead with a proper split AC.
As i did, buy the ready insulated exaust hose. Made spiral wire, aluminum, pink insulation with kinda garbage bag exterior. Extendable, come in box of approximately 2 feet, once open out of box extend to 8 feet. You get ZERO, nada, none, no heat inside. Probably cost you same or less then the work here... called: Duct Sleeve, you don't need the duck pipe, yiur a/c will bloot it when hot air flows out Canada: 28$ for 6 inch x 10 feet. Easy...
You are supposed to use a second hose to use the outside air to cool your evaporator instead of inside air. That way you wouldn’t use the air you just cooled to cool the evaporator.
That is optional and depends on how hot the air is outside the room relative to the inside. If the inside air is 85 F and the outside is 95 F and humid it wouldn't make sense to use the intake duct (as in my case). As Whynter explains it on their FAQ page, "A dual hose portable air conditioner will cool a room faster and will help minimize negative air pressure situations in the room. If the outside temperature is much higher or more humid than the room, you can cover the intake hose with the included cover, and it will function as a single hose unit."
The inefficiency of a one vent portable AC or not using the intake hose on a dual, causes air from the outside to be sucked in from all the tiny gaps in the house. When you push air outside the air has to flow in from somewhere to equalize the pressure. A dual hose system makes a closed loop of the outside air flow when hooked up properly. Which is more efficient than causing a constant flow of outside air coming into your house.
@@reallyMello I don't think you understand. The air conditioned air has a different intake. It's a closed loop. If you properly use the dual vent then the outside air is second closed loop, like a central AC. The way you have it setup will cause outside air to get sucked into your house, losing efficiency. Using both vents will lower the humidity more too.
@recoveryguru For it to be a closed loop it would need to be recirculating the same air. When you are dumping out exhaust air through the window you have created an open loop that, as you state, needs replacement intake air from somewhere, either the surrounding spaces or the optional second duct connected to the outside--but that is fresh air, not a closed loop, not recirculating. So in situations where that input fresh air is significantly more hot and humid than the space you are conditioning there isn't a benefit of using the second hose. In cases where the intake air is milder or less humid, yes. A central A/C is a closed loop because it recirculates the inside air and transfers the heat out via the coolant loop to the outside compressor that is cooled off with the compressor fan using the outside air vs the compressor being housed in the same space as with portal units where you need to duct out that waste air which needs replacement air from somewhere.
@@reallyMello I guess I used the wrong terminology. I mean the inside and outside air are are kept separate in a dual system. You run an AC when it's cooler outside? 😲
will try that we have only two days of heat in england but when we get it unlike other places people tell me we get humid heat others get dry heat never been to other countrys but hate to sweat like a pig so will try any thing that may help
@@reallyMello We have a Media Duo the 2 hoses in one plus an inverter and it cools our bedroom down to a meat locker in just half an hour. The hose doesn't get hot because it draws in outside air and no pressure drop in the bedroom.
@@denisebrock6882 We live in Canada and we bought ours a Media duo at Home Hardware August 23 as they had them on sale, It cools our bedroom to a meat locker. Media makes several models for different manufacturers the Dandy version sold at Costco is basically the same unit.
I added a second hose for the intake air and added thermal insulation to the exhaust hose, i also use a 12 volts fan to blow outside air in the intake hose but recently am thinking about creating a thermal insulator in the portable air con for the condensor
I think the cold air from the evoporator coil is mixing With the Hot air from the condensor coil because of the poor insulation which seperate the two part
are you sure that inlet duct is not for letting in warmish outdoor air to cool the hot side side coils and be exhausted, and that air is not meant to be taken from the coolish room? i.e. circulated air comes in another inlet to be cooled by the cold side coils? what make model ac do you have there?
It can be used in either config, but as other have pointed out in the comments its generally better to hookup the inlet to a duct drawing in from the outside to cool the compressor and not create a vacuum in the room (drawing in air from adjacent spaces)
My issue is length, the only exit I have is a considerable distance away from where I can put the A/C unit. Everywhere I read they claim to not lengthen the exhaust hose but I was thinking that if I use the standard hose and then go bigger on the extension it'll reduce back pressure and the force required to push the air thru the extended hose. What'ca think?
Flex duct. Buy flex duct the size of your vent and intake hose, or go to a HVAC company where they might sell you a short length as flex duct is generally sold in 25' lengths. You could use R4.2 or R8 flex duct. To use, cut two pieces to the lengths needed to cover your intake and vent hoses, pull out and discard the inside liner. Now pull the insulation and outside liner over the vent, and intake hoses. You can secure the ends with duct tape, panduits, or hose clamps. This is way easier than what you did here, and there are no seams in flex duct.
Sweet Indian Clubs!!!… and, excellent job on an experiment proven worthwhile! 👍 I have pondered on this issue myself re: portable a/c’s and this seems like a pretty darn decent solution!
Insulating the exhaust hose is good thinking! You'll get the biggest efficiency improvement if you can convert that "single hose" unit, into a "dual hose" unit. The single-hosers pull conditioned room air into the unit, to cool the condenser coil, and blow that hot air out the (single) hose...which creates a lower pressure in the room, causing exterior (unconditioned) air to infiltrate into the room. In other words, they pull hot outside air into your conditioned room. A dual hose model pulls outside air via one hose, to cool condenser coil, and then blows that hot air out via the other hose. All the conditioned air stays in your room, and no hot outside air is pulled in. Your unit is built at least partially, to be assembled into a single OR dual hose model...the presences of two hose "sockets" on the back of the cabinet show that. I'd open the cabinet and see if there's internal ducting that can be manipulated or modified. to get those hose sockets to perform as intake and exhaust, and to get the room air intake routed to another vent grille on the cabinet. I'll bet you a dollar to a donut that it's do-able!
Run it straight outside. No hose. Raise the unit so it can exhaust straight out with out the hose. I'm doing that in my trailer works good. One problem is these units create a negative pressure. To me they should create a positive pressure
Would replacing it with a dryer tube work better since its already insulated? its 8 dollars? Also the second tube for your unit shouldn't that be connected to the outside wont that add a significant 30-40% more effective?
They typically aren’t insulated to the same degree and you need to be careful on opening diameters. Connecting a second tube would help in my case as well yes.
I bought a new unit and it wasn't cooling the room at all so I did the same thing you sid however I wrapped with a few large towels and duct taped it and rhat didn't work. The towels don't get very warm but the unit atill blows warmish air. I think I bought a turd.
I don't know that you're getting an accurate reading off of that reflective surface. If you touch it with your hand does it feel warmer than the ambient temperature? Either way, I'm still disappointed with the efficiency losses compared to a window unit.
That’s kind of the concept behind hybrid water heaters sort of in reverse. They use the a compressor to heat the water and actually exhaust cold air-which is nice because it helps cool down my garage a little.
I’m with you Mick, I get shortest route is preferred but I don’t get why a vertical run is a problem since heat rises unless you just want to avoid 90 degree bends which would make sense since that would add resistance to flow
I'm trying to find information on leaving the plug out with the drain hose in a bucket. I tried it just now on mine the last couple days and oh my God the water that comes out
Bought portable a/c unit last year and had it draining into a really big plastic round storage tub. Dumping the accumulated water out twice a day was annoying. Looked at getting small aquarium style pump with long tubing to drain the water possibly out the window. Window screens in my home are pretty old. When I can afford a new window mount a/c unit or a mini split I plan to upgrade. But for most of last summer & again this summer…. cut a small hole in window screen & attached a hose to the drain at the back of portable a/c unit. Put the a/c unit on an old end table (it’s solid heavy wood), and put the water drain hose out the hole in window screen. That window is just off of my concrete front porch and the water from a/c drain now waters the flowerbed adjacent to porch, under that window. Mine isn’t the prettiest diy insulation job around the window air hose vent & the a/c water drain. But it’s a temporary solution until can save up for home improvement.
But you are still sucking the air from the room and pushing it outside, hence creating vacuum. Thus the hot air from outside will enter through the walls to equilibrate the vacuum. Thats why this system cannot work.
While I agree that leaking in of outside air from the vacuum they create lowers the efficiency when compared to sealed recirculating systems that doesn't mean they "cannot work". It's fair to say they wouldn't reach the efficiency of a window unit, mini-split, or central A/C that recirculate the air without creating a vacuum. However, when a portable unit is what you have to work with insulating the exhaust duct, as shown here, is a way of helping improve the efficiency of the given system as well as keeping the duct short. The vacuum aspect is an important consideration though so thank you for mentioning it.
@@reallyMello I literally taped a cardboard box over the condenser coil intake and routed a 6" duct from outside into the box improve efficiency. It works a LOT better this way and can cool a larger space.
@@donovanhill7367 I think all these units should have 2 air tubes. It's incredible no company producing these ACs has ever thought to that solution. EDIT: I just discovered they invented them and are called "dual hose" but I don't find them here in italy.
you got it, these units are flawed by design. In the past there were portable split systems on the market, with external condenser, now they are very rare and cost at least 5 times these with tube, I think they were much much better
Single hose units are so inefficient it should be illegal to sell them. They just pull more ambient ( ie warm) air into the room from the vacuum created by pushing the exhaust out. That said, even on a dual hose unit the insulation would be a huge improvement so well done.
Interesting observation, but the heat coming thru the skin of the pipe is the least of your worries with a SINGLE HOSE unit. One of the two hoses in a TWO hose unit takes warm outside air and cools the condenser which is much hotter, and blows the hotter air back outside. The indoor intake just takes the room air and keeps cooling it more and more and putting it back into the room. A single hose unit takes the air to cool the condenser FROM THE ROOM, (air your just paid to cool) and pushes it outside. That creates a vacuum in the room, and the replacement air has to come from outside, usually past the weatherstrip in the window because it is half open. Very energy inefficient! These single hose units should be outlawed! It costs almost nothing more to add a hose for the intake of the condenser cooler, and indeed, they only cost about 10% more.
Ya the hoses are a bit pricey relative the DiY approach but have a cleaner look if it’s going somewhere that may matter more I suppose. The efficiency gain of an insulated hose or the foil roll will pay itself back eventually.
![I.N "HALLUCINATION" | [Stray Kids : SKZ-PLAYER]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/n5B5q1Hwt_U/mqdefault.jpg)
Looking through your thermal device just confirmed my personal observation of the glass on the window conducting and transferring additional heat from the outside. Might as well insulate that from the outside. Hence making your ac not work as hard to cool down your area. I don’t think other people have that point in consideration and just totally focus on the unit for the problems. Thanks for posting this video.
You’re welcome!
Lazy man, just move the unit lool
@@krzywik13you need to work on your comprehension of the English language, the point I made has nothing to do with the unit location. Re-read and comment after you’ve fully understood the context. In which, you’ve obviously hadn’t yet.
You have no idea how much this helped me!!!! 1 key word was all it took. I was on the verge of tears. THANK YOU!!!!
Great idea. I bought a machine today - was amazed at the heat coming off the tube!! I just found an old foil backed foam ground sheet in my STASH! . I cut it into 8inch sections to make it flexible & wrapped each around the tube. Its 20¨wide so just enough to go around & affixed -with the traditional GAFFER TAPE. Foil side down & white side it to the room so don´t look too bad either!! ! Definitely makes a difference. Cheers From Madrid. It´s 2am & still 28´c outside.
Nice job!
Is it humid in Madrid as well?
@@Jordan-or8wu Not a chance!! This month its about 25-30%. Madrid is 660m above sea level & 500km from the ocean!
Technology Connections has a really good video about this. I rigged up an intake and output system with my single hose unit. I had a large 12" aluminum duct that covered the intake really well. I squashed the other side a bit And made a window adapter that held both the intake and output. That dramatically increased efficiency once I was no longer sucking outside air into my conditioned space, then exhausting it outside. I further improved things by covering both hoses with some cheap blankets. Kinda quieted things down, too.
Anymore I just don't feel the single hose units are worth the trouble. I have my original unit and a second one just sitting around, even in these record setting summer days.
I did that a couple years ago, no FLIR so hard to prove any gains. Next thing i did was put the portable on blocks to shorten the exhaust tube as much as possible, current setup has just 6" of double thick foil/bubble insulation between the AC and window.
Ya the FLIR was a fun way to confirm if it did anything and also verify I didn’t have any gaps/leaks in the insulation. This morning it did seem to drop the temperature faster in the garage than before. Shortening the duct was a smart idea you had too. It probably lessens air resistance for the exhaust air as another efficiency gain.
Great idea, I have a unit that draws indoor air and with the thermistor monitoring the room air I was thinking of rigging the intake evap coil air from outside but not sure that would work.
Fantastic, my mother uses one when the temperature gets really high and I couldn't fail but notice that the tube in the back is super hot essentially heating part of the room around it to an extend that i could feel it if ibstood behimd it... I will try your solution as I am sure it will improve the performance dramatically.
I noticed the same thing which is what led me to try this. Good luck.
Another issue is that it's removing air (also cooled) from the room. Resulting in a lower pressure, which will draw in warm air from elsewhere.
That's why you should only buy a dual hose system
@@robertclark8546 Indeed! _Unless_ you actually want to pull in air from the outside, which _may_ be a goal for some. I'm actually considering just sticking with my single hose portable (instead of dual hose or even a mini-split) since a _second_ issue I have in my room (in fact, in my home which is well sealed and insulated) is that it doesn't get enough fresh air ventilation from outdoors; the bathroom fans only do so much. So in a way, this can work well both for cooling the hottest rooms in a top floor as well as forcing fresh air from outside, which might not necessarily be bad.
That said: 1.) This guy's setup needs balanced air *very* badly, since he's in a super hot/humid climate and 2.) I'm in a very well insulated room in a well insulated house in a moderate (but sometimes warm) climate. Coincidentally, I'm in the Pacific Northwest and right now it's relatively comfortable outside and only hot on occasion. I only need a window AC precisely when it's moderate but only slightly warm outside, lol. So, 78-80 degrees for me spells discomfort, since my 140sqft office will ramp up to 82+ while the rest of the house sits at 71 (from the central AC cooling over night). 😅
I sewed a sleeve for the exhaust pipe from a thick white quilted blanket. It works perfectly.
There’s also the insulated sleeve you can buy and put over it! Helped mine immensely
where can i get one the unit just came with the pipe and a plastic bag type window seal
@Paul-hl4cj check my video description 👍
thanks looks like the sleve is not one sise fit all but the silver role can fit any size do you have a comparison heat lost vire sleve and wrap but its still a fab idea will look for some foil wrap at homebase ty
noticed this as well. so i also wrapped the whole exhaust with an insulator 👍
then next thing i noticed after that was solved was that the area on the window near where the exhaust was blowing was warm as well. so i stuck some wall foam stickers to cover the hole thing haha. it wasn't perfect since the foam wasnt thick (it was made for decor) but it did help.
Room has been a lot cooler now 👍👍
I'm gonna add some more insulation from the outside as well when the foam insulation i ordered arrives.
I've installed a 4 inch "dryer vent" for a number of people to use as vents for portable a/c's. I just run them straight through stucco/siding, right at the height the hose exits the a/c unit. Then I install the a/c unit right up against the vent so that there is almost NO hose at all to emit heat. Dryer vents are louvered so no bugs/critters get in while not in use. A 4 inch cap is put in place on the inside of the room during the months the a/c is stored (winter). Less hose = less heat loss.
Makes sense but I’d probably just go the extra step and install a mini split at that point
@@reallyMello . What size hole does the smaller mini-split require? I'm curious....I've not done one yet...
Depends on the unit but much smaller since it just needs to run the refrigerant loop to the outside unit and the condensation line
I also had this on my flexible pipe and it helped a little. But the best thing to add to your portable AC is a stronger blower that you put at the end of the pipe to suck out the warm air within the pipes much faster. The stronger the fan, the better the efficiency will be.
Realize, you could put on a thousand mile an hour exhaust fan, and it would suck all the newly made cold air out of the room as soon as it's blown out the unit. There's a balance between the high temperature of heat per volume unit in the exhausted air, and lower heat temperature per volume unit of outside air being sucked through the house crevices to replace it. Ideally, you want hotter air exhaust with a lower air flow than less hot air exhaust with higher air flow.
However, since the insulated exhaust pipe is holding the heat better now, it will also be hotter near the unit, and thus by back pressure, inside the unit will feel it, and run at a higher temperature, lowering the life and making the unit stressed and more inefficient. So it seems the extra outside fan on the exhaust rube might be warranted. How to determine the outside fans power needed is an issue.
To get that super-heated air away from the unit's heat coils quicker, instead of adding an outside fan to increase flow to remove the heat better from the coils by using a higher volume of expensively room-cooled toom air - a better solution would be to use the smooth walled metal dryer ducting. Corrugated flex tube effectively creates a lower insider diameter, stratifying air near the inner walls due to turbulence trapped it in the grooves, reducing the effective diameter of the pipe. Also, notice the higher heat reading at the bend. Bends reduce flow by 30%.
Ideally, the unit could be placed right on the window sill on a purpose-built shelf, with a short run of STRAIGHT smooth pipe through the window, with NO bends. It should go out the window a foot, angled downward slightly,- so rain doesn't enter - and then the heated air won't radiate back through the window pane. This is for a single pipe. A double pipe is much the same.
Thanks for this. Concise, straight to the point, good useful information.
It is easier to purchase a box of 6" insulated ducting. It is much thicker and easier to work with. Use it to substitute the exhaust pipe that came with the A/C. Also, you can run it for longer than the original exhaust pipe.
As the RUclips video says, the duct connectors use brittle and plastic tabs. Trying to tape or connect insulated duct that doesn’t fit the connectors would result in hot exhaust leaking back into the room.
Great common sense video, I bought a huge piece of that mylar bubble wrap at a habit restore for $50. For a 6ft roll 10-12ft long, I used it mostly to cover my van, blocks the sun 100%, great for old windows, dashboard windshield cover ..
You're pulling hot air from outside into your garage as well, since you're decompressing it by taking air from that room so it can be used as exhaust for the compressor (which is pushed outside). You can probably optimize even further by ensuring the air pressure is balanced and ducting that intake to the outside as well. That unit may actually be built for that (and this is apparently not uncommon with some portable units).
I was thinking of doing this with mine. I'm using the portable unit as a last resort because my RV ac quit on me a few days ago and we are still in the middle of a heatwave in NM. I don't have the narrow roll of reflectix that you used so I am going to have to use much wider pieces and instead of wrapping and overlapping, I'll be wrapping it more like a gift. I have the metal tape so that should help. Ugh. I hate that I have to do this but we couldn't have lived had I not brought this portable thing back into our environment.
Thanks for the video and info.
Word to the wise: Don't buy these portable units, people. You're just throwing money out the window.
We bought one last night to help our AC units out. For nights it’s wonderful but the humidity summer days don’t mix well with it at all. Returning it today and getting a fan to help circulate the cold air from our bedroom AC unit.
You are right in recognizing that heat transfer from that exhaust duct to the space being cooled is one inefficiency of these portable AC units. But there is a much larger inefficiency that can be addressed. You mentioned that the AC unit pulls in cooled air from your garage to remove heat from the condenser coils and then pushes it out of the garage through that duct you are insulating. Stop and think. That cooled garage air that it is leaving through that duct to the outside has to be replaced from somewhere. Guess where the exiting cooled garage air is being replaced from? That's right, Your cooled air is being replaced by hot air from outside infiltrating into the garage through all gaps, cracks, and crevices around doors, windows, etc.
The solution is to add another duct (also insulated of course) going from that inlet opening in your AC unit to a second opening in that window baffle.
Ideally, you would connect the AC inlet duct to the lowest opening in the baffle, and the AC outlet duct to the highest opening in the baffle, allowing the hottest air to rise outside the window, upward and away from the lowest inlet opening, helping to minimize any potential re-circulation of hot exit air to your less hot outside air being drawn into the inlet.
Hope this helps. 🙂
OK here's my question.... If that's the case....how the hell do these things work so well? I mean, it sounds like you're saying the AC is sitting there running, pumping the air it just cooled out along with the hot air....creating a vacuum drawing hot outside air back in to replace what air is being exhausted out.... This sounds like a complete losing battle......so again I ask... how do these work so freaking well? I don't get it.
@@One-Day-After-Another Well, it is not a "complete losing battle", just a major inefficiency that can be mitigated as I described. The magnitude of the inefficiency will vary according to your circumstances, such as the outside temperature, and location of the room in your house that you are trying to cool.
I installed a portable AC in an upstairs room in my house that I am using as an office. There are also two other bedrooms and a bathroom upstairs that are not being used at all. Each of the the 4 upstairs rooms has recessed light fixtures which are by design not air tight, to keep the light fixture from overheating when incandescent bulbs are used. So they provide an air flow path to the highest/hottest part of the attic. The air in the attic when it is 95F outside, and the sun is shining, can be well over 140F.
I closed the doors to the 2 bedrooms to reduce air infiltration to the office, so the portable AC would be trying to cool mostly just the office. When I hooked up the portable AC per the user manual instructions (pulling room air into the unit to cool the condenser, then ducted out the window) it did NOT do a "freaking well" job of cooling the room. Also, the 2 bedrooms that were closed off reached temps over 100F. (Thanks to the attic air and outside air being drawn in to replace the office air.)
So, I added a 2nd duct (per my original comment) to bring outside air into the AC to cool the condenser. It then did a much, much better job of cooling the office. So, it boils down to just improving the efficiency of your setup wherever you can.
@@spud1 We have a hot attick single story house..and the house gets little shade.... Once during a heat wave our ac went out. someone had their portable AC in storage... I didn't even know those existed at that time... Anyway... we were desperate until our AC could get fixed... and not knowing anything about what I know now... We were shocked how well it worked.. We actually fought over it....we put it in one bedroom closed off and when you walked in that room it felt so cool...while the rest of the house was miserable... so that's what I meant by working well... It was so hot... yet even with the inefficiency it was still able to cool the room... I feel like dual hose units will start to take over instead of single hose... I've noticed this more lately.. even one of them has dual hose built into one big hose.. so it looks like single hose but it's dual..
@@One-Day-After-Another Yep. It's because it was siphoning that return air (i.e. air returning to your portable AC) from the rest of the house, which was depressurized. One test you can do is close the door in that room with the portable AC. You'll notice that there's quite a lot of air flooding into the room from under the door or the pass through grilles that connect that room to the rest of the house.
That said, I'm sure the rest of the house might have already be a bit uncomfortable, but the portable AC was likely making it even worse due to how it's depressurizing. What is happening is that it is making up that air by pulling it in from the little cracks in the walls, around doors, windows and etc. That air is of course warm/humid. That's why dual-hose portable AC units are often far better in climates that are really hot/humid, since they ensure the pressure stays balanced in the home and your already conditioned air stays inside of your insulated envelope of your house.
I put that exact same stuff in my window to reflect the sunlight back out. Didn't even think about using it to insulate the exhaust itself.. Here's hoping it works!
Do you think it’s too loud for a medium size bedroom with high ceilings , I use for a massage room .. I don’t want it to over power the clients experience .. I do play soft meditation music .
This model is very noisy yes. There are less noisy makes and models.
They also make insulated wraps on Amazon for this for about $30
I'm curious. Do you think a heavy duty aluminum foil would have done just as well? It would probably be much easier to apply and press onto it. Maybe I'll try that before the reflectix insulation. Thanks again.
I don’t think it would do as well no. The airgap in the roll insulation I’m using would be more effective at preventing heat transfer then foil alone.
Great idea, I will try that first, sounds like a great idea
You have a dual hose capable unit. Connect a 2nd hose and you will see 30% efficiency gains.
I laughed so hard when I saw it, like it's already setup for it!
I'm curious how pulling hotter air from outside (vs already cooled air from inside) would create an efficiency gain. Doesnt the unit have to work harder to cool warmer air??
I thought the same initially but learned from commenters that the intake air is used to cool the compressor and then exhausted using the second hose in a semi-closed loop. Without the second hose it creates a bit of a vacuum drawing in air from adjacent rooms or outside. Setup this way (with two hoses) the conditioned air is recirculated without introducing air from outside the room which may be hot or humid.
@@kristinlogan7509 the oposite. the way AC systems work, the way he has it set up, you're actually warming up already cold air because his hot and cold side are not isolated. And this is essentially the biggest problem with AC systems that don't have dual hoses. Even if it's hot air from outside, the way an AC system works is that it needs to remove heat from the air inside the room not so much move the air itself.
the TLDR: AC systems shouldn't remove hot air inside a room. AC system should cool the air inside the room. AC systems shouldn't move air from inside the room to the outside of the room, AC systems should MOVE HEAT from the inside of the room to the outside of the room. The hot air outside the room is still cold enough to remove heat from the refrigerant of an AC enough to continue removing heat from inside the room. By not having an intake, from outisde, you're warming up the already cool air from inside to remove heat and send it outside, but now the AC has to cool new air.
This is also why opening your refirgerator doesn't cool a room. because the refrigerator is still inside the same room you're trying to cool.
this is why the "recirculate air" option inside your car helps cool the inside of a car faster than not recirculating air.
It's not about removing hot air. It's about removing heat from the hot air.
now here's the long version. Though I'm sure you can find youtube videos on how an AC system works but here's my attempt in simplified terms:
An AC system works by having what essentially is two radiators (Let's call them that to make it more simple for people to understand, I know one is called a condenser and one is called an evaporator). One of the radiators is at high pressure, and the other is a low pressure. in an ideal system, the high pressure is outside the room you're trying to cool, and the low pressure is inside the room you're trying to cool. Prior to first starting up an AC system, both the low and the high pressure is at a ambient temperature. when starting the AC, the cycle begins, the compressor begins to push the gas into the high-pressure side, think of the gas as a wet rag, the gas holds heat like a rag holds water, before wringing the cloth, water stays in the rag because there's room in the rag to hold water. gas likewise is at ambient temp when it's been sitting stagnant. However, upon moving into high pressure, all that gas is squeezed into a tighter space causing all that heat energy to be squeezed into that same space. Heat energy wants to equalize, therefore the now hot high pressure in the outside radiator is now hotter than the already hot air outside. doesn't matter if the hot air outside is hot, it's still cooler than the now compressed gas. The heat energy moves from the hotter gas, into the hot air equalizing the compressed gas temperature to match again the outside ambient hot air. When the gas is now at ambient temperature again, the hot gas moves now to the cold radiator, or the low-pressure radiator. here the gas expands and think of it as a rag that has had all the water wrung from it ready to collect more water. In this case the gas is cool enough to be able to accept more heat from the room inside trying to be cooled. but keep in mind you're not sucking the air out of the room; you’re simply moving air through the radiator inside the room and but keeping the air in the room to remove the heat from that air. once the gas has collected all the heat, it's now pushed back outside to be squeezed again and have all the heat squeezed out of it again. And thus, the cycle continues. Each time this cycle continues the cold air inside the room gets even colder because it's continously having heat energey removed from it each time you pass it through the low pressure radiator. Because you're REMOVING HEAT, not the air itself. Therefore, an AC system doesn't work by introducing cold air. It works by removing heat from the air already inside the room. However, by him not having an intake hose, he's using the already cold air to remove heat from the AC and blowing that previously cold air back out to outside the room. why would you want to intentionally warm up already cooled air. Therefore, if your AC comes with two hoses, you ALWAYS want to use both hoses. therefore, a window AC always has to have the back of it sticking outside.
@@kristinlogan7509 You are still pulling in hot air from the outside, because all the air you are pumping out has to be replaced from somewhere - guess what, the only source can be from the outside hot air. If it wouldn't be replaced from outside, you would suffocate in a vacuum. This is why whenever you can, you should forget moving air and move the heat instead with a proper split AC.
THANK YOU for the WRAP idea 👏it WORKS !
Nice 👍
Very nice. I should have thought of this myself. Well done.
Thanks 👍
As i did, buy the ready insulated exaust hose. Made spiral wire, aluminum, pink insulation with kinda garbage bag exterior. Extendable, come in box of approximately 2 feet, once open out of box extend to 8 feet. You get ZERO, nada, none, no heat inside. Probably cost you same or less then the work here... called: Duct Sleeve, you don't need the duck pipe, yiur a/c will bloot it when hot air flows out
Canada: 28$ for 6 inch x 10 feet. Easy...
You are supposed to use a second hose to use the outside air to cool your evaporator instead of inside air. That way you wouldn’t use the air you just cooled to cool the evaporator.
That is optional and depends on how hot the air is outside the room relative to the inside. If the inside air is 85 F and the outside is 95 F and humid it wouldn't make sense to use the intake duct (as in my case).
As Whynter explains it on their FAQ page, "A dual hose portable air conditioner will cool a room faster and will help minimize negative air pressure situations in the room. If the outside temperature is much higher or more humid than the room, you can cover the intake hose with the included cover, and it will function as a single hose unit."
The inefficiency of a one vent portable AC or not using the intake hose on a dual, causes air from the outside to be sucked in from all the tiny gaps in the house. When you push air outside the air has to flow in from somewhere to equalize the pressure. A dual hose system makes a closed loop of the outside air flow when hooked up properly. Which is more efficient than causing a constant flow of outside air coming into your house.
@@reallyMello I don't think you understand. The air conditioned air has a different intake. It's a closed loop. If you properly use the dual vent then the outside air is second closed loop, like a central AC. The way you have it setup will cause outside air to get sucked into your house, losing efficiency. Using both vents will lower the humidity more too.
@recoveryguru For it to be a closed loop it would need to be recirculating the same air. When you are dumping out exhaust air through the window you have created an open loop that, as you state, needs replacement intake air from somewhere, either the surrounding spaces or the optional second duct connected to the outside--but that is fresh air, not a closed loop, not recirculating. So in situations where that input fresh air is significantly more hot and humid than the space you are conditioning there isn't a benefit of using the second hose. In cases where the intake air is milder or less humid, yes.
A central A/C is a closed loop because it recirculates the inside air and transfers the heat out via the coolant loop to the outside compressor that is cooled off with the compressor fan using the outside air vs the compressor being housed in the same space as with portal units where you need to duct out that waste air which needs replacement air from somewhere.
@@reallyMello I guess I used the wrong terminology. I mean the inside and outside air are are kept separate in a dual system. You run an AC when it's cooler outside? 😲
Why not get 6 inch insulated and flexible dryer vent hose.?
Hell I've used old blackout curtains, wrapped it around mine and then used the foil tape. No heat excape at all.
will try that we have only two days of heat in england but when we get it unlike other places people tell me we get humid heat others get dry heat never been to other countrys but hate to sweat like a pig so will try any thing that may help
why didnt you connect the second hose?
I misunderstood what the advantage was supposed to be of the second hose at the time.
@@reallyMello We have a Media Duo the 2 hoses in one plus an inverter and it cools our bedroom down to a meat locker in just half an hour. The hose doesn't get hot because it draws in outside air and no pressure drop in the bedroom.
That’s great!
@@MHdollrevievswhere did you buy it? I'm not seeing dual hose model.
@@denisebrock6882 We live in Canada and we bought ours a Media duo at Home Hardware August 23 as they had them on sale, It cools our bedroom to a meat locker. Media makes several models for different manufacturers the Dandy version sold at Costco is basically the same unit.
I added a second hose for the intake air and added thermal insulation to the exhaust hose, i also use a 12 volts fan to blow outside air in the intake hose but recently am thinking about creating a thermal insulator in the portable air con for the condensor
Interesting. Where are you ducting the intake in from in your setup?
From the condensor intake vent
I think the cold air from the evoporator coil is mixing With the Hot air from the condensor coil because of the poor insulation which seperate the two part
@@devtechsavvy7125does using the fan to blow air into the air intake help any?
are you sure that inlet duct is not for letting in warmish outdoor air to cool the hot side side coils and be exhausted, and that air is not meant to be taken from the coolish room? i.e. circulated air comes in another inlet to be cooled by the cold side coils? what make model ac do you have there?
It can be used in either config, but as other have pointed out in the comments its generally better to hookup the inlet to a duct drawing in from the outside to cool the compressor and not create a vacuum in the room (drawing in air from adjacent spaces)
Can I use this Supershield Reflective White Foam Core Pipe Duct instead
They actually make insulated hoses and also have a sleeve foe the hose. Much easier
Does this hurt the pipe at all? Like the plastic melting?
Nope
How did it impact the room temperature? You only showed the surface temp of the pipe
It allowed it to cool the room in less time than before and also when I'm near the duct I'm not feeling the radiant heat coming off the it
My issue is length, the only exit I have is a considerable distance away from where I can put the A/C unit. Everywhere I read they claim to not lengthen the exhaust hose but I was thinking that if I use the standard hose and then go bigger on the extension it'll reduce back pressure and the force required to push the air thru the extended hose.
What'ca think?
@@therealthreadkilla adding a booster fan to the duct is maybe an idea to overcome the increased pressure from having a long run
Thank you. Very helpful to me. 🎉
Flex duct. Buy flex duct the size of your vent and intake hose, or go to a HVAC company where they might sell you a short length as flex duct is generally sold in 25' lengths. You could use R4.2 or R8 flex duct. To use, cut two pieces to the lengths needed to cover your intake and vent hoses, pull out and discard the inside liner. Now pull the insulation and outside liner over the vent, and intake hoses. You can secure the ends with duct tape, panduits, or hose clamps. This is way easier than what you did here, and there are no seams in flex duct.
How did you make the thing for the window??
I cut rigid foam insulation from the hardware store to make that
Thank you. had no idea you could do this ..always was worried about safety..going to do this tomorrow.
its warm air its not exhaust so it’s perfectly safe
why cant you use the duct for a dryer vent. It is the same size I think
Sweet Indian Clubs!!!… and, excellent job on an experiment proven worthwhile! 👍 I have pondered on this issue myself re: portable a/c’s and this seems like a pretty darn decent solution!
Thanks I love my clubs
Thank you for the info. Blessings to you.
install an inline extractor fan may help .
Insulating the exhaust hose is good thinking!
You'll get the biggest efficiency improvement if you can convert that "single hose" unit, into a "dual hose" unit.
The single-hosers pull conditioned room air into the unit, to cool the condenser coil, and blow that hot air out the (single) hose...which creates a lower pressure in the room, causing exterior (unconditioned) air to infiltrate into the room. In other words, they pull hot outside air into your conditioned room.
A dual hose model pulls outside air via one hose, to cool condenser coil, and then blows that hot air out via the other hose. All the conditioned air stays in your room, and no hot outside air is pulled in.
Your unit is built at least partially, to be assembled into a single OR dual hose model...the presences of two hose "sockets" on the back of the cabinet show that.
I'd open the cabinet and see if there's internal ducting that can be manipulated or modified. to get those hose sockets to perform as intake and exhaust, and to get the room air intake routed to another vent grille on the cabinet. I'll bet you a dollar to a donut that it's do-able!
Run it straight outside. No hose. Raise the unit so it can exhaust straight out with out the hose. I'm doing that in my trailer works good. One problem is these units create a negative pressure. To me they should create a positive pressure
Hey thanks man! Imma get some and do this this afternoon!
Great, let me know how it goes
@@reallyMello Works great! The exhaust pipe is now no longer warm, and the room feels cooler too!
@@95ellington nice! Thanks for letting me know.
Would replacing it with a dryer tube work better since its already insulated? its 8 dollars? Also the second tube for your unit shouldn't that be connected to the outside wont that add a significant 30-40% more effective?
They typically aren’t insulated to the same degree and you need to be careful on opening diameters. Connecting a second tube would help in my case as well yes.
Just put the air con on a table shorten the hose and shove it near the window a lot easier
thats what I did. It helps but hose is still releasing a lot of heat. im insulating mine for this summer.
does the hose have to go outside for heating?
Exhaust yes. Intake no.
I had one of those. They suck the exhaust hose cancel the cool air. Get a window A/C
Can I use anything else instead of R22 for my portable?
So cute
Wow very nice, definitely investing in this setup this summer with the heat how it is already
I bought a new unit and it wasn't cooling the room at all so I did the same thing you sid however I wrapped with a few large towels and duct taped it and rhat didn't work. The towels don't get very warm but the unit atill blows warmish air. I think I bought a turd.
I don't know that you're getting an accurate reading off of that reflective surface. If you touch it with your hand does it feel warmer than the ambient temperature? Either way, I'm still disappointed with the efficiency losses compared to a window unit.
Just random thought in mind...can the hot exhaust air be used to cook food or the least heat a pan of water ? 😇
That’s kind of the concept behind hybrid water heaters sort of in reverse. They use the a compressor to heat the water and actually exhaust cold air-which is nice because it helps cool down my garage a little.
Thanks bro just got mine gonna try this
Awesome
fire content, i love it
Try moving the unit ckoser to window. Never run hose vertically
Why shouldn't you run hose vertically? Doesn't heat rise? Excuse me if a silly question.
I agree with the shortest root to the window exhaust.
I’m with you Mick, I get shortest route is preferred but I don’t get why a vertical run is a problem since heat rises unless you just want to avoid 90 degree bends which would make sense since that would add resistance to flow
Make exhaust hose as short as possible.
They sell insulated double wall ducting, its not expensive.
I'm trying to find information on leaving the plug out with the drain hose in a bucket. I tried it just now on mine the last couple days and oh my God the water that comes out
Mine is supposed to self evaporate with the exhaust air but there have been a couple rare times I’ve needed to drain via the plug
I have mine elevated up on an old solid end table and have the tubing Into a deep bucket so water runs out
Bought portable a/c unit last year and had it draining into a really big plastic round storage tub. Dumping the accumulated water out twice a day was annoying. Looked at getting small aquarium style pump with long tubing to drain the water possibly out the window. Window screens in my home are pretty old.
When I can afford a new window mount a/c unit or a mini split I plan to upgrade.
But for most of last summer & again this summer…. cut a small hole in window screen & attached a hose to the drain at the back of portable a/c unit. Put the a/c unit on an old end table (it’s solid heavy wood), and put the water drain hose out the hole in window screen.
That window is just off of my concrete front porch and the water from a/c drain now waters the flowerbed adjacent to porch, under that window.
Mine isn’t the prettiest diy insulation job around the window air hose vent & the a/c water drain. But it’s a temporary solution until can save up for home improvement.
But you are still sucking the air from the room and pushing it outside, hence creating vacuum. Thus the hot air from outside will enter through the walls to equilibrate the vacuum. Thats why this system cannot work.
While I agree that leaking in of outside air from the vacuum they create lowers the efficiency when compared to sealed recirculating systems that doesn't mean they "cannot work". It's fair to say they wouldn't reach the efficiency of a window unit, mini-split, or central A/C that recirculate the air without creating a vacuum. However, when a portable unit is what you have to work with insulating the exhaust duct, as shown here, is a way of helping improve the efficiency of the given system as well as keeping the duct short. The vacuum aspect is an important consideration though so thank you for mentioning it.
@@reallyMello
I literally taped a cardboard box over the condenser coil intake and routed a 6" duct from outside into the box improve efficiency. It works a LOT better this way and can cool a larger space.
@@donovanhill7367 I think all these units should have 2 air tubes. It's incredible no company producing these ACs has ever thought to that solution. EDIT: I just discovered they invented them and are called "dual hose" but I don't find them here in italy.
you got it, these units are flawed by design. In the past there were portable split systems on the market, with external condenser, now they are very rare and cost at least 5 times these with tube, I think they were much much better
I only have one hose!
Single hose units are so inefficient it should be illegal to sell them. They just pull more ambient ( ie warm) air into the room from the vacuum created by pushing the exhaust out. That said, even on a dual hose unit the insulation would be a huge improvement so well done.
Great idea, thank you
I am not sure why my unit creates so much water that I have to empty a pail of water from the unit every couple of hours?
Sounds like there is a lot of humidity in the space you are conditioning
Amient Humidity
Try cleaning your filters.
What happens if I use only the upper drain port?
i go shopping rn and try to do this too.
Thank you so much!
You’re welcome
How about pvc pipes replacement
PVC wouldn’t insulate by itself either and would make it harder to connect to a portable unit
Interesting observation, but the heat coming thru the skin of the pipe is the least of your worries with a SINGLE HOSE unit. One of the two hoses in a TWO hose unit takes warm outside air and cools the condenser which is much hotter, and blows the hotter air back outside. The indoor intake just takes the room air and keeps cooling it more and more and putting it back into the room. A single hose unit takes the air to cool the condenser FROM THE ROOM, (air your just paid to cool) and pushes it outside. That creates a vacuum in the room, and the replacement air has to come from outside, usually past the weatherstrip in the window because it is half open. Very energy inefficient! These single hose units should be outlawed! It costs almost nothing more to add a hose for the intake of the condenser cooler, and indeed, they only cost about 10% more.
I dont think the warm outlet makes much of a difference..
It did for me. Very noticeable especially when working closer to the unit. It will depend on how long your duct is as well.
@@reallyMello fair enough..👍
It would have been a lot easier with wider insulation
@@shannonRoy-x7k not with the angles I had to work with at the time
@@reallyMello oh that makes sense 😊
You are way better off getting an 8" insulated duct to run that exhaust through. this wrap does work some but not that well
I take it a towel or a blanket would be better than nothing in a pinch
This guy, this fucking guy right here. Absolute fucking legend.
There sure is a nicer way to make your point
Yea
I just wish they don’t use soooooooooooo much electricity my last bill was $500.
Just use dryer duct my guy
That’s maybe an option if it’s matching diameter but they aren’t typically as well insulated either
Good clubell 😂
Why don’t you just get a window ac. It will be far more efficient!
In my case the unit was free so making the best use of it. Second, when the window is a slider instead of single/double hung your options are limited.
here i spent £40 for 2 extra hoose
Ya the hoses are a bit pricey relative the DiY approach but have a cleaner look if it’s going somewhere that may matter more I suppose. The efficiency gain of an insulated hose or the foil roll will pay itself back eventually.