Tips for cooling down a particular stuffy room?

[johnjohn320]

My gf and I live in a small, one-bedroom apartment in an oldish (50s-60s?) building. There's a living room with a wall A/C unit, then the floorplan kind of snakes/curves down a hall where there's the kitchen and bathroom, and the bedroom's on the other side. Because of the A/C unit, the living room is perfectly comfortable. The bedroom, on the other hand, is perpetually hot, stuffy, and stifling. Extremely uncomfortable, to the point where she and I have moved to the living room and slept on the pull-out couch a couple times.

My gf's generally uncomfortable with leaving the windows open all night because we're on the first floor, but no matter--when she's caved and we've opened them, almost nothing changes anyway. It's like no air comes in or out. We've put a couple fans in the room-nothing. They just blow hot air around. Even leaving the living room A/C on all day and night, making the living room frigid-none of that cool air seems to make its way to the bedroom. It just stays ridiculously hot and stuffy. Window A/Cs, I believe, are not an option, as our windows in the bedroom are the big, sideways-sliding kind (like these: http://www.tritonwindow.com/images/types/horizontal-sliding-window-3.jpg). I don't know of any A/C units that fit those.

Any suggestions? Would like to sleep comfortably in our own bed...

 

[Matthiasa]

While not actually cooling down the room a fan that are properly placed, unlike how it has to currently be, will help it feel more comfortable at least if the moving air can contact skin.
Place them blowing directly at onto each of you.

 

[Zodiark1593]

Got a room like that myself, my laptop hates it during summertime. On the bright side though, it's the coldest room in the house during Winter (I'm a fan of the cold, hate the heat).

Anyway, on particularly bad days, what I do is stick a strong desk fan in the window aiming down at me (I rigged a book stand and a counterweight to achieve this), and I keep the ceiling fan on, and my door open to reduce the pressure some and allow air more freedom. Makes a hot night somewhat bearable.

Another idea is that you could try having both the door and window open, and set up your fans so that air is blown out of your room, perhaps the reduced pressure will allow cool air from the living room to flow in.

 

[Mixolydian]

Get a window fan to blow in cool air from the outside.

 

[T9D]

I got this one from Home depot:

http://www.homedepot.com/p/LG-10-00...-LP1013WNR/203656277?N=c4m4Z1xr5#.Uiz8WMbIU64

Works awesome. A bit loud though. Only needs a small opening for the hose. And it dehumidifies. It evaporates the water so no pans.

I think what would majorly help at the moment before you spend more money is if you had two fans. One high in the door blowing hot air out and one low on the floor in the door blowing cold air in. You'll get a nice circulation going.

 

[RockinZ28]

I use this: http://www.newair.com/products/AC-12000E/

Just has like a 5" wide by 30-48" or so adjustable strip you can put in the window vertically or horizontally for exhaust. Pretty much invisible from the outside, which is good cause HOA doesnt allow window units. Way cheaper than running the central AC. I have to cover myself with the blankets after a while. And its nice I can roll it into my man cave.

 

[Murloc]

just get a portable AC unit, open just slightly the window to fit the hot air tube, and cool down the room every evening.

*cue the pinguino de longhi*

 

[SlitheryDee]

I'd get a portable a/c for the bedroom like mentioned above.

 

[Thebobo]

They make window AC units for sideways sliding windows. Just google "AC units for sideways sliding windows."

Also you can get a portable

http://www.todayshomeowner.com/how-to-choose-a-portable-air-conditioner-for-your-home/4/

 

[ViRGE]

Portable A/Cs are rubbish compared to a good window unit (they suck air out of the building and let too much heat from the compressor escape into the building). My vote would be to get a window unit that works in that specific window, similar to what Thebobo listed.

 

[effowe]

Another vote for the portable. A couple apartments ago I had a similar situation, except my bedroom was cool and the living room was unbearably hot. After I got a portable AC unit it was perfect in both rooms.

 

[Imp]

My room is stuffy as hell and we are cheap so don't always turn on the central AC when it's 30+ C outside. I just got used to it because we didn't have A/C my entire life growing up. Oh, and my room has no windows.

You can get a portable A/C like the ones mentioned above, but they are freaking loud. We got one and it was annoyingly loud.

You said you tried fans, but how did you set them up? Just inside to blow the hot air around?

Have you tried getting a big fan, maybe a box fan (also loud), and having it blow cool living room air into the bedroom? It might be too loud to put in the window to exhaust air out -- big waste of A/C though. I've actually tried this with my room and it feels cooler even with A/C off because of the air movement.

 

[zerocool84]

Portable a/c units just don't cool down well for how much they are. Just get a fan that you can put on the window to bring in the air.

 

[shortylickens]

 

[herm0016]

can you put a fan blowing down the hallway into the bedroom? that helped a lot with heat in my old apt. the bedroom would be 8 to 10 deg. colder than the living room. the fan helped a lot.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Portable A/Cs are rubbish compared to a good window unit (they suck air out of the building and let too much heat from the compressor escape into the building). My vote would be to get a window unit that works in that specific window, similar to what Thebobo listed.

Yeah if you get portable you'll want to mod it like I did:



I don't know why they're not standard that way. You CAN get them that way but you pay a premium and they're rare.

If you have slide windows just get a window unit though, takes up less room and makes less noise. These portable units are LOUD. Like data centre loud.

Eventually I'd like to replace this unit with a through the wall unit, but I may also move my PC in the server room and just run long cables. If I do that I wont need 12,000 BTUs in here anymore. I eventually want to get central AC anyway.

 

[Red Squirrel]

That motor probably puts out over 1kw of heat.

 

[shortylickens]

That motor probably puts out over 1kw of heat.

OUTSIDE the house.

 

[gotsmack]

You're going to need a series of fans to move the air around the dead spots. Not the $20 box fans, you need the $50+ non-oscillating fans that REALLY move air.

 

[shortylickens]

You're going to need a series of fans to move the air around the dead spots. Not the $20 box fans, you need the $50+ non-oscillating fans that REALLY move air.

I got a Vornado that does good work.

 

[Ken g6]

I have two rooms like this next to each other. I use two fans, one in each room, blowing toward the other room. In the hot room the fan sits on something tall near the ceiling. In the cold room the fan goes on the floor.

 

[lxskllr]

I use the cold death of antique threads to keep my house cool.

 

[eastwoodisme]

I have a 384 Square Foot Shaved Ice stand with a single Mini Split unit in the kitchen. The A/C is plenty big for the square footage but of course does not circulate the air all the way around the stand. I installed an inline fan and custom duct work in the attic that works as a return air system. It removes hot air that has stratified above the freezer and dumps it into the top of the Mini Split to recirculate and recondition it. It works amazingly well. I hope this helps!