Portable air conditioner question

[slackerinabox]

I have a small room (10x10) that has no windows - it basically turns into an oven during the summer. I ordered a 7,500 BTU portable AC unit but noticed that there's an exhaust hose. I was told that I could run the hose out a window or through a wall to the open air, but can I instead run the hose to an adjacent room that has windows (and a large a/c unit in there)?

 

[So]

one entire side of the thing will get hot. If you need to cool the room, cut a hole in the outside wall and stick the rear out.

 

[KK]

Originally posted by: So
one entire side of the thing will get hot. If you need to cool the room, cut a hole in the outside wall and stick the rear out.

I don't think he's talking about a window unit.

 

[GuitarDaddy]

It would cool your room that way, but it would seriously diminish the cooling in the room to which you vent it. Much better if you can vent it to the attic or outside

 

[Minerva]

You will add another 7,000 btu/hr plus "heat of compression" on top to that room on its a/c unit. In other words, unless that unit in the other room is VERY oversized (which in itself is bad) that room will get hot. If the walls are not insulated this could lead to a very inefficient operation. The vent hose (condensor heat blow off) on those standalone units is not big. It's like installing a dryer vent kit. Even if the wall is cinderblock a hilti or even a star drill can make short work of it.

The only other alternative if you cannot vent to the great outdoors is a koldwave unit that has a watercooled condensor. Of course then you have to run supply and return lines and/or have a sink and just blow the warm return water down the drain.

 

[OutHouse]

my wifes friend got one of those 499.00 portable A/C from Home depot. It kept blowing the circuit breaker, she took it back and the same thing happend on the replaced unit. The box says it draws 10.5 amps and it was a 20 amp breaker. I made sure nothing else was plugged in on that circuit and replaced the breaker with a brand new one and it still popped it. so she just took it back.

anyway to answer your question, for the 20 min or so when that A/C was running the hot air that was venting out the window was hotter than my dryer vent when the dryer is turned on HI, so i would not recomend you vent it to another room.

 

[Malfeas]

Originally posted by: Citrix
my wifes friend got one of those 499.00 portable A/C from Home depot. It kept blowing the circuit breaker, she took it back and the same thing happend on the replaced unit. The box says it draws 10.5 amps and it was a 20 amp breaker. I made sure nothing else was plugged in on that circuit and replaced the breaker with a brand new one and it still popped it. so she just took it back.

anyway to answer your question, for the 20 min or so when that A/C was running the hot air that was venting out the window was hotter than my dryer vent when the dryer is turned on HI, so i would not recomend you vent it to another room.

I probably would have just replaced the 20amp breaker with 30 or 40 amp single pole for $8.

 

[BigJ]

Originally posted by: Malfeas

Originally posted by: Citrix
my wifes friend got one of those 499.00 portable A/C from Home depot. It kept blowing the circuit breaker, she took it back and the same thing happend on the replaced unit. The box says it draws 10.5 amps and it was a 20 amp breaker. I made sure nothing else was plugged in on that circuit and replaced the breaker with a brand new one and it still popped it. so she just took it back.

anyway to answer your question, for the 20 min or so when that A/C was running the hot air that was venting out the window was hotter than my dryer vent when the dryer is turned on HI, so i would not recomend you vent it to another room.

I probably would have just replaced the 20amp breaker with 30 or 40 amp single pole for $8.

And then when his house burns down because it fries the wire that's not the proper gauge and his home owner's insurance doesn't cover him, I bet he'll think to himself "well at least we had cool air for a few weeks."

 

[OutHouse]

Originally posted by: Malfeas

Originally posted by: Citrix
my wifes friend got one of those 499.00 portable A/C from Home depot. It kept blowing the circuit breaker, she took it back and the same thing happend on the replaced unit. The box says it draws 10.5 amps and it was a 20 amp breaker. I made sure nothing else was plugged in on that circuit and replaced the breaker with a brand new one and it still popped it. so she just took it back.

anyway to answer your question, for the 20 min or so when that A/C was running the hot air that was venting out the window was hotter than my dryer vent when the dryer is turned on HI, so i would not recomend you vent it to another room.

I probably would have just replaced the 20amp breaker with 30 or 40 amp single pole for $8.

i thought about that, but the house was built in the 60's and didnt want to run the risk of causing a fire. one of two things are wrong, either the unit pulls more than 20 amps, or there is a problem in her wiriring.

 

[V00DOO]

I bought a sharp portable a/c from Costco and returned it the next day. It was noisy and it didn't do a very good job cooling the 100+ Souther Cali weather. Instead, I got a 12000 BTU split A/C system from a local A/C distributor for around $400. These split units are where the main noisy A/C unit reside outside the house (much like the central A/C) and the controller and fan hang inside the house. The kicker is you'll have to drill a small hole through the wall so pipes and elecitrical wires can pass from the 2 units. I spent the whole July 4 installing the A/C unit. It kept my whole house cool and it is very quite, much like the noise of a small fan. :thumbsup:

 

[Malfeas]

Originally posted by: Citrix

Originally posted by: Malfeas

Originally posted by: Citrix
my wifes friend got one of those 499.00 portable A/C from Home depot. It kept blowing the circuit breaker, she took it back and the same thing happend on the replaced unit. The box says it draws 10.5 amps and it was a 20 amp breaker. I made sure nothing else was plugged in on that circuit and replaced the breaker with a brand new one and it still popped it. so she just took it back.

anyway to answer your question, for the 20 min or so when that A/C was running the hot air that was venting out the window was hotter than my dryer vent when the dryer is turned on HI, so i would not recomend you vent it to another room.

I probably would have just replaced the 20amp breaker with 30 or 40 amp single pole for $8.

i thought about that, but the house was built in the 60's and didnt want to run the risk of causing a fire. one of two things are wrong, either the unit pulls more than 20 amps, or there is a problem in her wiriring.

Eh, you're right I didn't think too much about that did I? I would rule out that either of the AC units were malfunctioning and drawing more amps, but the manufacturer specs could be wrong as you said. But one thing that comes to mind is a high resistance ground at one of the outlets or j-boxs(dust, water collection, poor installation or material degradation), the possibility of some other load on the circuit that you are unaware of, or the Smurfs are secretly diverting power from you for their underground marijuana growing operations.

You could try and do a continuity check on the circuit, open the breaker and remove all known loads, you should get infinite resistance on a multimeter between the Hot and ground.

 

[0roo0roo]

put a window fan in the other room..costs what? 20bucks? perfect solution..assuming no ones in there

 

[Tiamat]

buy an extention to that hose so you can take it out of the closest window.