Alright, scenario:

12 month lease (bulls***, I know), in a really nice refurbished house. One problem, it's totally un-insulated, and the whole house is polished wooden floorboards.

Bottom line, It is at least 10 degrees cooler sitting outside in the sun, than it is inside my f***ing house.

I'm not interested in installing aircon or anything, because a) it's a rental, and b) it's too expensive and annoying to attempt to remove the aircon once I'm finished.

I'm looking for other, cheaper cooling alternatives. I have about $200 to spend. I was thinking an evaporative cooler? I've heard mixed feelings about them, I was thinking if I had $200 to spend on one, I could get a decent one. Anyone have any suggestions about it? (It just needs to work like a fan, but blow cold air. Currently every fan in my house is just circulating deathly hot wind all over the place).

Anyone have any other suggestions for $200 that will, like I said, blow cold air around? I'm desperate.

Nothing will beat Air con, even if its just a window install job.

sit outside and buy 200 worth of goon

Evap coolers do f*** all in our climate, if a pedestal fan doesnt do it for you, aircon is the only option. get one of those jobbies you can jam in a window, or invest in a portable one.

Just dont go trying to cool the whole house with one and you should be okay power wise.

^^ only in cairns huh?

Aircon ftw nothing will beat it.

EDIT: Damn your quick dan.

last edited by 0z at 22:57:39 06/Dec/05

sounds like my house :(

it hit 43c last summer inside

buy $200 worth of ice. put it in the bath tub. get in.

Rent the house out as a sauna an get phat loot with which you can aircon a single room done

last edited by HERMITech at 23:07:18 06/Dec/05

Got myself a 1.5 hp LG window air-con about 4 years ago and it is awesome in even a large bedroom. It has been making my alot more pleasant through summer.


BTW I f***ing HATE summer.

evaporative coolers are alright if you fill the bottom of them with ice...

200$ worth of ice is a f***load of ice btw. get one of thoes portable airconditioner units. they are about 300$ if i remember correctly? very hand a rather sexy sounding.

sit outside and buy 200 worth of goon

Quoted for truth.

Evaporative coolers are ok. It's just like a fan but it blows cool air at you. It is only usefull if it is pointing right at you. I'd recommend getting a cheapy window unit and just air conning one room.

goon don't burn ya silly c***

aah good old wesley

farkun talkin armadillos

Get an air conditioner, just jam it in the window and make a little peice to cover the spot over or below it(usually plywood). Remove it when they do a house inspection if you can be bothered.

i like Death Rangers thinking : )

also yeah if youre renting window aircon thingo is your only option evaporative wont work in this hot sexy humid QLD weather cause the evaporative cooler cant evaporate properly into air thats already evaporated

http://nbcf.org.au/content/upload/images/corp/partners/Weight_Watchers/WW-low-res-logo.jpg

evap coolers are s*** as everyone says
even with ice, they dont last long

get a portable aircon

even a window mounted one is easily packed away and taken with you when you move on

^ agrees

Portable air-con is the only solution for you. It may cost more but in the long run its the cheapest option.

K-Mart and Bunnings sell 'em

What exactly would I need to install a window mounted aircon? And really, for somebody with absolutely NO technical / handyman knowledge, what kind of difficulties am I looking at?

The thing about an evaporative cooler that attracted me was that I could wheel it from room to room, and it didn't really have cool the whole room, just blow directly on me.

The rooms in this house are huge, so a portable aircon wouldn't cool anything except the bedroom or computer room really (from what I hear they're damn expensive too, well, way outta my "cooling" budget price range anyway), and it'd be all but useless in the living room as it's just one big open hot-box area.

Not trying to say no to the air con thing as it seems like a pretty unanymous vote for it, I'm just saying when all you guys say "it really isn't that hard", is that for an electrictian, or a completely handyman newb?

for a nerd you don't know much about google

was thinking an evaporative cooler?

Think about it for one minute and you will see why this is going to be a bad idea.

Here, I'll help.

Evaporative coolesr work by blowing air over what is essentially a giant sponge. The air gets cold because it picks up the cooling water vaport. This increases the humidity in your room.

It is true, the first 30cm in front of your fan is cooler. However, when the average ambient temp is 38c you are turning your lounge room into essentially a humid s***hole.

You can get window mounted aircons for a pretty reasonable price, maybe even 200(ish).

Move to Perth, where Summer has been officially cancelled (much like Spring was);

http://www.bom.gov.au/cgi-bin/wrap_fwo.pl?IDW12300.txt

What exactly would I need to install a window mounted aircon? And really, for somebody with absolutely NO technical / handyman knowledge, what kind of difficulties am I looking at?

We had an aircon wedged into a window with some cardboard sealing the rest of the window. It has a normal powercord that we ran into a normal power socket. When we turned it on, it make things cold. Stinky used to stand in front of it nakid sometimes.

if u really wanna just bodge a window rattler, stick in the windows (ala sienfield), close the ramaining part with cardboard and duct tape.

^^ beaten. we did this at xmas one year.

last edited by möoby at 00:26:43 07/Dec/05

Yeah, it works pretty well too. Although, the window we shoved it in was a pretty solid window, so it could handle the weight. But all in all it worked pretty well and required no skill to install.

If you get a smallish aircon you can just aircon the smallist room in your house and live in there during summer. I've done that before too.

we had one of those fan things you put water into, it blows air through a water covered sponge or some crap, it made the room it was in all damn, everything smelled like it'd been left out in the rain & hadn't dried properly. After a while the machine itself got all smelly, tried putting some deoderant s*** in there but then that smell mixed with the other bad smell and made it worse so we got rid of it.

You could always get a bowl of ice water, a fan and a cloth, not a towel its gotta have holes in it like a chux type cloth thing. Sit the bowl above the fan with ice water in it, put the cloth in the bowl, let it soak up the water & hang out the bowl, dangling over the fan. Might need a bucket underneath I dunno if any water will drip off.

If you want a window air conditioner, my brother has one hes selling. Its in good condition (ask Saint, its the one we used to have at Sherwood). I'm not sure exactly what HP it is, but its pretty decent, did a good job of cooling that entire downstairs room we had. I dont really know what he wants for it, but if you're interested I can ask.

Get one of those pedestal aircon machines.. they work ok. They plug into ac power and are movable.. Not sure if they have been mentioned yet.

AC ftw as everyone says. Have 2 units, one large, one bout 60% size. Covers whole house after a little while. Feels great.

Dont want AC??? Just go for fans then.

Ask khel. I'm sure someone will be interested.

i'm sure Acetame would install one for the small fee of a bucket of KFC - thats what he does for a living.

i wouldn't want acetame in seeing distance of me to save myself from being raped

also spidz what is you're obsession with acetame? it seems much more than a 'friendship'....fag

Wow. Death Ranger you're just a big ball of f***wit aren't you?

Sub-100 posts and here you are having a go at just about anyone on the forum.

Stop s***ting in my f***ing thread you derailing cockholster.

Harvey norman, Retravision and Clive Peters all have protable air cons, for about $799, these are not the crappy evaporative air cons, they are real airconditioners and they require almost no installation, just need to put them somewhere you can extend a pipe out so the hot air can been sent out of the house..

last edited by Irhabi at 09:54:10 07/Dec/05

Im looking into the same thing as you phar, and after getting some info from some aircon people my parents know, iv decided just to get a window unit and live in that room for summer (at least the xbox is there)

Reasons is because portable AC is like, $600min, and the compressor is in the room with it , so its already trying to cool itself, let alone the rest of the room, so apparently they are crap.

Evap coolers are useless, bought one last summer, its at the dump. Nothing makes it decent and it turns pretty nasty after a while.

Plus, AC units are only like, $200 to start with.

Khel, how much is your brother selling his for? im interested.

last edited by Eds at 09:57:10 07/Dec/05

aircon ftw, I have mine set to start 30minutes before I get home from work

weve got a portable aircon for our study and wheel it into the bedroom at night. 700 bucks, but yeah coz of rental, its the only way we could go.

quite liking it actually, just a bit loud at times

I live in a rental as well, just taking the sliding part of the window out, replacing it with ply and cutting a hole for the AC. when rent is up, take my ac and board out, put the window back in and move on.

What is the ventilation like? Open a few windows? Having wooden floor boards doesn't that mean you would get a nice up draft?

No Kat, assuming the house is raised, it means the warmer air from under the house moves up through the floorboards, and the cooler air that is in the house, moves down through the floorboards.
So you get a much hotter house with warm air coming in and cool air leaving.

Well having the breeze through the boards and the windows open in my mums queenslander usually dropped the temp by 5-10 degrees most days.

Yeah, I get what you're saying and you are right Kat. It's dependant on airflow through the house.
The cooler air is still going to fall through the floorboard cracks though and hotter air rise up through it, but as long as there is decent ventilation as you say, to remove that hot air all should be sweet.

The question is, If there was no airflow through the house, would it take off?

Anyone have any other suggestions for $200 that will, like I said, blow cold air around? I'm desperate.

funny how the heat never bothered me when I was 20-ish and super fit.


$200 would definately do a lot to get you started on your way to super-fittyness dude :D

i lucked out coz my old man demolished his shed that had an old... real old AC unit attached & i grabbed it before he threw it out. took out on of my bedroom french windows (old 50s colonial house) & made a quick pine wood frame & boxed the hole up with some partical board. nps! cost = $0 :D

with old qlders with floorboards & good ventilation it is pretty dependant on whether the house has good shady varandahs & the area has a good breeze to stay cool. if the sun can hit the outer walls of the house & there isn't much of a breeze then you are gonna get what loki said... if the walls are shaded by varandahs or trees or whatever & there is a decent breeze you will get decent cooling just as kat says.

Fitness has nothing to do with it (With people of the same build).

It's the humidity that makes the heat goddamn impossible, maybe someone can find old weather reports, but I'm sure the heat in the last couple of years has been alot more humid than previous years.

Rubba, Evis and myself used to ride around in 40+ degree heat with no problem, can't even drive a car without aircon in this heat without dying anymore.

GG Ozone, global warming and and all that stuff that contributes to hotter temperatures and humidity.

Demon, do you live northside near mitchelton by any chance o_O

last edited by Loki at 10:59:09 07/Dec/05

I have been sleeping with my AC on 18 degrees every night. Sweet cool dreams, so dreading the power bill.

Demon, do you live northside near mitchelton by any chance o_O

closish... taigum. all those 50's style colonials look the same eh :P

I have a portable one phar .. they cost ~$700-800 takes 10mins to setup or remove and you need no skills. Come round and check it out.

Also evap coolers only work in dry heat.

You could just buy a wading pool and sit out in the backyard. :P

Yea, ditto with the streets around there it seems :)

obes, hows the noise on yours? our convair one goes pretty hard, doesnt freeze the room down to 18 but definately makes it very easy to fall asleep at night, my gf complains about the noise though.

The question is, If there was no airflow through the house, would it take off?

No *the* question is would it be an advantage to you if you switch your closed doors?

On topic get portable aircon or window mounted one. I found the window mounted tend to work better and slightly cheaper than the portable one when you compare the horse power between the 2 etc.

aircon ftw, I have mine set to start 30minutes before I get home from work

damnit, why didn't I think of that!

I have a window mounted unit... but because I'm in a rental I'm not sure how to go about getting it installed. Looks like I'll have to figure something out quickly cause its getting too damn hot.

but because I'm in a rental I'm not sure how to go about getting it installed

Have a talk to your landlord about it. Air con can be a good investment for your landlord.

For example, when I signed my lease, I agreed to pay $10 extra rent a week, if the owner decides to install air con. The air con unit probably only cost $1000 or so which is tax deductable, and they get more rent to pay it off, win/win.

Otherwise just get a good fan.

obes, hows the noise on yours? our convair one goes pretty hard, doesnt freeze the room down to 18 but definately makes it very easy to fall asleep at night, my gf complains about the noise though.

haha, petal is the opposite

she complains about the noise i make at nite and needs a fan or the aircon on to sleep

even in winter, she has the fan running, else my nose breathing gets her all upset

i often wake up in teh nite and shes sleeping down the other end of the bed

what a weirdo

Fitness has nothing to do with it (With people of the same build).

I would have thought that good blood circulation would do wonders to evenly distribute the heat throughout the body, allowing maximum surface area for use in cooling down the body. Kinda like a radiator, a blocked raditator is pretty bad at removing heat.
I also assume that fitter people have better blood circulation. Also wouldnt being fitter generally mean less body fat, so would that mean less insulation for better removal of heat?

I have air conditioning in my bedroom as well as in my computer room (with 6 pc's running by god you need it) and its the best thing in the world!!

Toll, Body fat and fitness aren't one and the same.
Anorexics that are all bone don't have much body fat.

Blood circulation you'd have to have serious dysfunction for it to really make that much difference as far as regulating body temperature went.

If you think of it like a radiator as you put it, you can have one that has all it's fins intact, and one that has some broken from stones or whatever, the difference that a few mashed fins causes is negligable overall.

Spose, you do have a point, still every little bit helps in this weather :D

Perhaps distribution of body fat?

I know that I can deal with the heat alot better when I'm fit then when I'm not.

Perhaps breathing has an impact. When I'm unfit I tend to have shorter breaths, I think.

Also about your humidity question loki:
Brisbane Weather

You will find further down the page links to previous months also, with a little exploration you should find achives that date back further then last year. I used it for an assignment last semester.

Body fat and fitness aren't one and the same.
Anorexics that are all bone don't have much body fat.

Blood circulation you'd have to have serious dysfunction for it to really make that much difference as far as regulating body temperature went.

and again we'd all rather force our surroundings to change rather than adapt.


meh - each to his own. I moved back to Qld to enjoy this beautiful weather.. dunno why the locals can't seem to hack it :/

last edited by koopz at 14:49:08 07/Dec/05

This is great at the moment. To all the people complaining, go out and get yourself a can of toughen the f*** up.

nah it's f***ed, summer can die in a blizzard

haha spook, yeah my snoring sometimes interrupts the dead quiet required for sleep, but meh :p

you guys require dead quiet to sleep? i can't sleep unless there is some sort of noise, my mind gets bored otherwise,

Khel im also interested, msn - mywhitewolf@gmail.com

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/BRAND-NEW-WINDOW-or-WALL-AIR-CONDITIONER_W0QQitemZ6019769993QQcategoryZ20711QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem#ShippingPayment
$249 if you include postage.

If you're going to get a window unit, sit down with someone (i did at retravision as the service there was great) and go over what the requirements would be. The amount of wallspace your windows take up, the size of the room and where the sun rises and sets factor in it all. Then you can shop around and get the best price.

Dopefish, i doubt that would be able to cool a room for longer than 2 months before dieing. 0.58kw and 1/2hp... i'd be too scared to cool my bathroom with that.

I ended up getting an Electrolux 2hp, 2.5kw (off the top of my head) for my room, its a bit bigger than whats required, but i don't want the thing to collapse anytime soon. Another bonus is the Electrolux can stand up to 40 degree weather, compared to many of the other models of 35 degrees.

afaik bunnings have a 2.5kw portable for $400
ring them if you're interested cause i cbf finding more info for you.

you guys require dead quiet to sleep?

meh, i can sleep wtih noise or without
with light or without

skillz u pick up doing shift work!

Same wih me spook.....14 years of night shift has taught me where ever i lay my head is home =)

http://img223.imageshack.us/img223/7825/globalwarmingiskillingme3cb.th.jpg

Something you can do is freeze a crapload of water (fill up 3L milk bottles and freeze those) and place them in front of a fan that is aimed at you. It works like the "if I blow on this icy pole, the air comes back at my face cold" thing you did as a kid, except on a larger scale.

lol, great piccy Fish

can't even drive a car without aircon in this heat without dying anymore.

GG Ozone, global warming and and all that stuff that contributes to hotter temperatures and humidity.

Maybe if we all got a hold of one of those cans of toughen the f*** up and stopped using AC willy nilly our ozone layer would be in better shape

Tung is quieter then a box unit and it definately gets my room down to 18 ... I had to have a blanket and quilt on the other night!

If only there was enough Tung to go around.

I just sleep naked with a fan going. Yeah that's right girls, naked.

He is that cool

Step knows the score. If you do choose to get AC, get one that's more powerfull than you need. You'll actually save money on power bills. My grandparents got an underpowered split system for a room in their house. The far end of the room always stays a bit warm adn the thing is always running at full pelt.

I also heard somewhere taht you're supposed to fire up your air con once every couple of weeks over winter so the seals don't dry out. Any truth to this?

I'm pretty lucky in terms of summer heat. In the share house I live in, my room is downstairs and there's a MASSIVE shady tree outside my window. The sun never touches my wall so during summer a fan is usually enough for me. I also have a few other tricks for when it gets uber hot, like getting few wet face cloths and sitting them in the fridge and cycling through them for a wipe down.

I'm another one of those people who can't sleep in pure silence. If it's too quiet I can hear my own pulse and it freaks me out so I can't sleep. I usually fall asleep watching a few anime or TV eps on my PC (my PC is at the end of my bed with the monitor set to shut off after half an hour) or listening to some tuneskies. I've also found that listening to or watchign something I enjoy as I fall asleep helps to give me good dreams.

GG Ozone, global warming and and all that stuff that contributes to hotter temperatures and humidity.

haha, you mean stuff like rising Air Conditioner usage?

QLD power price hit $8000/MWh yesterday mostly due to the softcocks with their A/C's blasting. Add in the transmission, distribution costs etc. and your aircon was costing roughly $16 per hour to run!

Good thing you're all (sort of) protected from those prices :)

PS. I have a 6.4kW A/C but I'm scared to turn it on :P

last edited by orbitor at 12:33:54 08/Dec/05

PS. I have a 6.4kW A/C but I'm scared to turn it on :P

Does it take off though? That is the real question!

Maybe if we all got a hold of one of those cans of toughen the f*** up and stopped using AC willy nilly our ozone layer would be in better shape

Yeah, it's a godo thing my car doesn't have aircon, i'm already on the road to success..

-_-

Does it take off though?

heh, only ever turned it on once when buying the house, to check that it worked. It did, but it seems to be nailed to wall pretty effectively :P

I'd like a small aircon unit to attach to my case :(