Ferdinand

Lordy £22. Bit pricey for what it is ! I shall look for a tabletop or hanging one.

Do you have a link for that? The laws of the universe guarantee that my kitchen and conservatory which get the problem sometimes when cooling down first or last thing are north facing !

Outside, yes. Inside .. not always. We have mint in jugs to discourage them, but it beats fly spray (which has been used once this month chez Ferdinand.). And we are of course endeavouring to avoid using air conditioning. F

Does anyone have any experience and recommendations? I am after something that will help on the occasions that we get some of the bug-gers in when the doors are open for ventilation. It seems to make sense to go for one that could either sit on a table or hang on a hook, and that uses a common type of zapper bulb, if such exists. I want something a little domestic looking, rather than suitable for the offal-hall at Pork Farms. Cheers F

We seem to be back in Hogwarts. if this is still the unico tower 12 HP one, it weighs 54kg, but is Afaics designed to sit on the floor against the wall, not dangle.

i have a T who temporarily disconnects the tumble dryer vent pipe, and uses that. F

I guess that one thing to add here is rid of any remaining halogen bulbs, and switch to LEDs, as they put out a fair amount of heat.

Are these any good? I see that the sports ones are about double the price of the work ones ! https://gsworkwear.com/products/portwest-cooling-vest-cv01 It might be something to try for mum. Ideally it would be a back-support as well.

I come close to that with a patio door on N side, and skylights on E side - but it needs a certain amount of juggling. Sometimes works with an exposed door on the S side - but last night it would have been backwards and the warm side would have rushed in. I did wonder if there is a separate thread about creating watery environments (eg water wall feature in your Winter Garden) which would work with airflow, and may have more effect on a low-E house as all the numbers are sometimes smaller. That may be a separate thread. F

Perhaps suitable for the cooling season, does anyone have any systematic thoughts on this? My little list of considerations. Maintainabilty. Ease of use. Automated? Power opening and closing, but also detecting conditions. Security. In sight or hidden? Prevailiing winds. Insects. Interlock with air conditioning? (see - Tenants and District Heating victims cooling the house / flat by opening the window not turning it down) Control systems that are obsolete in less than 10 years - simplicity or switches not whole house systems? To me one idea is skylights easily openable at opposite ends of the prevailing wind direction. Ferdinand

Also watch out vertically or horizontally in line with switches, plugs etc. These are "safe zones" where electrical wiring goes (in theory). ie unsafe if you drill in. Personally I specialise in hitting water pipes not electricals. F

Ooh. What a story to have. Did you video the glass elevator?

i seem to have discovered a limitation of the Bear Freezer (Lee-Bear). Normally if you leave it on SuperFrost by mistake. It is down at -30C within a few hours .. this time it took most of the night with an ambient of 27C. It seems to have given me a nice cool draft for 2 cups of coffee with the door open, and the bit of the room with the thermometer near the freezer is about a fraction of a degree cooler. An an idea very much from the ‘solve global warming by opening our car windows with the air on on’ school. F

My feeling is that it would do it, but that that would depend on everything else being equal. And I do not know if that is the case in your house. Ferdinand

Back from appliances direct ... no sound of gouging but a bit of scrimmage. Several people demanding that they had been instructed to collect the air on they had ordered over the telephone. Yeah right. Temperature outside has been at 31.5C. Inside in the kitchen at about 27.3 at 65% RH. Opened skylights .. not a sausage on temp, but dropped RH by 10% quite sharpish. Experimenting with how good the Liebherr Supercool Function is when applied to a whole room. F

it is reported on the grapevine at the local timber merchant that Appliances Direct who are 4 miles away have temporarily hiked the prices of their portable air con units. No idea if it’s true, and not going to find out. Ferdinand

OK. Couple of hours looking. I am *not* shelling out the best part of 2k without some careful research, especially as I am so wallspace-constrained. Can anyone recommend a decent portable 1 room aircon unit that I can have as a holding strategy this summer? I guess that - like sports cars - this is something to buy pre-owned in the winter when someone has just barked their shin on it. (Has anyone installed something and now has an unwnted portable unit?) ? Any comments most welcome. But damn that puts me back to hoses out of windows ? . Ferdinand

How much of a breeze would one of these generate outside. Does it need to be kept away from where people? eg If one (different room - S Facing potential downstairs bedroom) came out into the open front porch would it blow the postman away? Ferdinand

cache:https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/insight/insight/an-inspector-falls-what-the-building-control-insurance-crisis-means-for-the-housing-sector-62279 (sorry: does not seem to work. Put this into Google search, and the direct link should allow you to see: "A large building inspection firm has filed for liquidation. Luke Barratt explains what it means for those involved in building new homes." ) F

Good job you checked ! Recommend a misspent retirement watching Countdown. 55 sqm is about the size of my lounge - conservatory - kitchen - utility when I add it up. But it is north facing so should be a bit more resilient.

I make that 140 cubic metres. F

My main considerations for what to put where and how to attach it are normally: 1 - What is the impact on the light from the window when the whatevers are open, esp. in the darker months. Unless they are removable easily. 2 - Avoiding fouling the window or door, depending partly on how often it will be opened. 3 - How to attach in a way that will not cause problems in the future eg by drilling of lots of holes into plaster. And the answer would be different depending on the exact circs, what the window is made from and if it is actually a door, slide or hinged etc. My normal answer involves a batten inside or outside the reveal, and sometimes good quality curtain poles leaving space to put in cup hooks into the batten below that. But that is driven mainly by surviving potentially frequent changes of occupant with ease of repair, and preventing my walls being repeatedly drilled by possibly not brilliant DIYers. In your circs I might be looking for something nearly or entirely damage free, which might even be suckers on the glass. I wonder whether command.com surface hooks could do it? Can you do it such that you just take the whole thing down, rather than open and close it? Just thoughts. Ferdinand

Yes, just talked to a chap, and it would need to be a tower unit. It seems that there is flexibility for the pipes. F

Another basic question. Can the inside half of these units be mounted vertically, or the pipes fed in from the end not the back? My 400-500mm width of wall where it has to go, which actually has a drainpipe on it as well, is going to be a big constraint if I am not careful. Whilst one can build a custom shelf unit to hide it, far better if the unit can mount suitably. Ferdinand

Just a marker for a project thread.