Cool Room A/C unit

Anyone have experience using a portable A/C for their cool room? Ours runs at 20C, 24/7. Moisture is really building up though and humidity is at 70% without dehumidifier running at the same time. We used one for 8 months without turning it off and worked good, then started leaking water like crazy so we got a backup, but im concerned it will breakdown eventually.

Thinking about putting in a window unit and run it during the day, and run the portable unit at night.

Cool room is 170 sq. ft.

Any cool room pro's think the dual units alternating would relieve their stress?

Do the pics work?

The blue 55 gal. drum was converted to a sink. We poured a cement bottom with a drain and use a hose that is next to it.

The challenge with the dehumidifier is it heats up the room to 23c instead of 20

Just get a higher BTU window or portable unit. Alternating is pointless. Get one that can handle the room.

The circuit right now is only 120. Possible higher BTU's will trip breaker? If not, then im sold

9,000 BTU system right now

how many amps? Cause pretty much all ac units are 120 now. I'd guess your fine on amps, too.

Not sure, but Home depot has a 10k BTU portable that runs at 115V, not sure is thats the needed info for the problem. Does 120 and 220 means volts?

ok, both systems both run at 115v, the 10K is 9.5 amps and the 9K is 9.2, not much difference

But the real question is how many BTU's is enough

120 is volts. A 115 runs there. Get a window unit if you have a window. 14000 btu or better it seems. Upping just 1000 is nothing. Why the obsession with portable units? Are you moving them around?

No, bad luck with loud, leaky window units. Portable seems much easier to deal with and noise is kept in brew room

But obviously it doesn't work well. Just don't buy a crappy used one and get one sized right.

How well insulated is that cold room? Might want to look at lining the inside walls with rigid foam insulation board?

Two issues I can see that say your wasting electrons, Portable unit are notoriously in-efficient compared with window rattlers (aka window mounted AC). The process of making things cold requires the generation of heat, inside the room you are trying to make cold. Secondly, insulation, for every cent you spend on insulation you get two back over the course of the year.

If you try a A/C calculator on line and then add a bit to make up for the fact you are cooling it beyond normal room temps.

An accurate assessment of room would require a lot of information on location in country (for ambient temps), insulation, location in the house, does it share walls or does it have an exterior wall, windows (assuming none) door seals (if any) etc etc.

Clem

well, time to go spend 500 bucks at home depot

Didnt see the last two post's

Yes, i agree with all of it. Seems though my brother just wants Q and D, quick and dirty

I tried to tell him to get a real A/C guy to check it out, but he's stubborn, you know.

As of right now, the room is pretty sweet. Professionals built it just for brewing. Very sealed.

Looks like were going to try 13K BTU. I will let you know how much were wasting here! Warranty for this kind of buying is our specialty though, you can spend little in the long run with receipts and all but you end up wasting time through trial and error.

It looks like the entire room is used for brewing. Why don't you section a portion of it off for your fermenting area. That way you can insulate the bejeezus outta it, and I bet that unit doesnt run barely at all. 170 SF is a lot to ask a window/in-room AC unit to cool to fermenting temperatures.

Here's the scoop on the portable AC units. The unit that I have draws some air from the room and exhausts it outside through a flexible duct. This is what cools the condenser coils. So, basically you are sucking cool air from the room and pushing it out the window. The make up air will come from everywhere and it will be warm. IOW, these portable units are bogus and do a very poor job of cooling a room. I would advise avoiding them at all cost. I have one for sale very cheap if you are interested. I think I may cannibalize it for the internal cooling components. It's worthless to me otherwise.

Are you talking about a swamp cooler? Very different from what im talking about

kpr121 said:

It looks like the entire room is used for brewing. Why don't you section a portion of it off for your fermenting area. That way you can insulate the bejeezus outta it, and I bet that unit doesnt run barely at all. 170 SF is a lot to ask a window/in-room AC unit to cool to fermenting temperatures.

Click to expand...

This is a pretty good idea we never thought about...

RJS said:

Are you talking about a swamp cooler? Very different from what im talking about

Click to expand...

No, I'm talking about an in-room portable AC unit as you show in the pics. That big corrugated tube coming out the back of the unit that looks like a dryer vent hose is sucking air from the room and it is supposed to be exhausted outside through a window or whatever. Check the heat coming out of that exhaust duct. That's the heat being removed from the room. The make up air has to come from somewhere. Window units have the condenser unit outside and outside air is used to cool the coils, not room air. The room air is normally circulated through the unit and back into the room with a window unit. IMO, these portable units are next to worthless and very inefficient.

Where does that exhaust duct terminate the way you have it set up now? If it's exhausting back into the room, then you would not be gaining anything at all.

The water issue is from the condensation tank overflowing in the bottom of the unit. On the back is a small black cap that is the drain plug, modify that with 1/4" plastic tube drain hose to get rid of water buildup and overflow problem. Whenever the room is cooler than the surrounding area moisture will flow in and condense on the cooling coil, more air exchange, more condensation to deal with, you need some where for that to go as it will not stop happening.

Catt22 said:

Here's the scoop on the portable AC units. The unit that I have draws some air from the room and exhausts it outside through a flexible duct. This is what cools the condenser coils. So, basically you are sucking cool air from the room and pushing it out the window. The make up air will come from everywhere and it will be warm. IOW, these portable units are bogus and do a very poor job of cooling a room. I would advise avoiding them at all cost. I have one for sale very cheap if you are interested. I think I may cannibalize it for the internal cooling components. It's worthless to me otherwise.

Click to expand...

I never thought about how those portable AC units just pump cooled indoor air past the coils and then push it outside. It's hilarious that they even exist as they must be so much less efficient than a window unit. If they just had two ducts (one pulling outside air past the coils and the other pushing it back outside) they would probably be almost efficient as window unit.

kevink said:

I never thought about how those portable AC units just pump cooled indoor air past the coils and then push it outside. It's hilarious that they even exist as they must be so much less efficient than a window unit. If they just had two ducts (one pulling outside air past the coils and the other pushing it back outside) they would probably be almost efficient as window unit.

Click to expand...

Yeah, you got it. I paid about $300 for the stupid one I have and I am extremely disappointed in it's performance. It would cool a single bedroom somewhat, but never enough for my satisfaction. It took me awhile to figure out that it was blowing the room air out the window! Duh!

I agree that it is surprising that these things are even manufactured at all. I also agree that two ducts might make it workable. Separate intake and exhaust would make sense. I also noticed that the exhaust duct radiates considerable heat back into the room. It needs insulation, but that would make it too bulky to be practical. It's bulky enough the way it is. Having to vent the thing out a window kinda negates the portability advantage.

I'm about to dismantle mine and see if I can use the guts for something. I will document the demolition.

Oh yeah, the other downside is having to empty the 1/2 gallon condensation holding tank unless you have it rigged for continuous draining which obviously, requires an accessible drain at floor level. The unit will shut off when the tank is full.

RJS said:

This is a pretty good idea we never thought about...

Click to expand...

Yeah brother. No sense of cooling the whole room down. Do you brew in there too (burner/ electric kettle)? If so, you need to look at separating that area. Im working on a fermentation chamber using an AC Unit (link here). Plan on placing it in the same area that I brew in, an insulated but unheated/cooled garage.

kpr121 said:

Do you brew in there too (burner/ electric kettle)? If so, you need to look at separating that area.

Click to expand...

Luckily no, we have a wonderful commercial Wolf Range oven, can bring 6.5 gallons to a boil in minutes. Pretty much just as fast as my outdoor propane burners.

Catt22 said:

I paid about $300 for the stupid one I have and I am extremely disappointed in it's performance. It would cool a single bedroom somewhat, but never enough for my satisfaction.

Click to expand...

Hmmm, ours made tons of beer and wine for almost a year, needed no hole for a window where possible air leakage could happen, little maintenance, very quiet, and extremely light. Seems worth it to me, if i had a bigger BTU unit then I'm sure i wouldn't have posted this thread at all.

Just installed a 13K BTU and cools too much! On 20C the room goes to 18C. Also has an auto clean function on the remote. Looks like i got the BTU i needed and spared the hassle of putting a huge unit through my brew wall. Installed the drain in the back for water to go out as well. Surely not all of these units are bogus, besides, I can replace it every 4 years if something happens to it...for free, only $100 extra.

Look at John Beers sticky for his walk-in system. His window unit couldn't go long before he had to modify it with cooling fans, seems my unit came with fans built in already.

Booya

i forgot...:rockin:

Seriously though i don't want to come off like im saying im right and your wrong. Thats not the point of this thread. Im pretty sure you know more about the subject then i ever will anyway and it sounds like were both speaking the truth for our own situation.

Maybe this thread can bring awareness to the community about Brewers in my situation needing a brew room and for some reason or another cant seem to work with a window unit (noise, instillation issues, apartment dwellers). The portable A/C could be a solution to our challenges. Imagine a small studio apartment or something, you could fit a portable unit in a closet and ferment away.

I dont know, i think i really just like the little dancing banana...Is that a banana?

RJS said:

Hmmm, ours made tons of beer and wine for almost a year, needed no hole for a window where possible air leakage could happen, little maintenance, very quiet, and extremely light. Seems worth it to me, if i had a bigger BTU unit then I'm sure i wouldn't have posted this thread at all.

Just installed a 13K BTU and cools too much! On 20C the room goes to 18C. Also has an auto clean function on the remote. Looks like i got the BTU i needed and spared the hassle of putting a huge unit through my brew wall. Installed the drain in the back for water to go out as well. Surely not all of these units are bogus, besides, I can replace it every 4 years if something happens to it...for free, only $100 extra.

Look at John Beers sticky for his walk-in system. His window unit couldn't go long before he had to modify it with cooling fans, seems my unit came with fans built in already.

Booya

Click to expand...

Seriously? You bought another one of these lemons? I only got suckered once and that was enough for me. You have my deepest sympathy. Good luck with your white elephant!

RJS said:

Seriously though i don't want to come off like im saying im right and your wrong. Thats not the point of this thread. Im pretty sure you know more about the subject then i ever will anyway and it sounds like were both speaking the truth for our own situation.

Maybe this thread can bring awareness to the community about Brewers in my situation needing a brew room and for some reason or another cant seem to work with a window unit (noise, instillation issues, apartment dwellers). The portable A/C could be a solution to our challenges. Imagine a small studio apartment or something, you could fit a portable unit in a closet and ferment away.

I dont know, i think i really just like the little dancing banana...Is that a banana?

Click to expand...

I could never recommend one of these portable AC units to anyone. IMO, they majorly suck no matter what the circumstances.

BTW, you never did say where you have the hot air exhaust directed. Does is just dump the exhaust back into the room or what?

I cannot recall the website, But I have been reading up on building a walk in cooler or cool room. One of the things they are most adamant about is to never ever ever use one of the portanle AC units like you have for this application.

RJS said:

Look at John Beers sticky for his walk-in system. His window unit couldn't go long before he had to modify it with cooling fans, seems my unit came with fans built in already.

Booya

Click to expand...

But mine was setup up to pump below freezing air to keep the cooler at 34 degrees F - the fans were used to de-ice it.

I used two of the portable a/c units in a house that i lived in without a/c. They worked just fine. One of the units had a drain hose that was built into the exhaust hose, i never had to drain it.

Catt22 said:

Seriously? You bought another one of these lemons? I only got suckered once and that was enough for me. You have my deepest sympathy. Good luck with your white elephant!

Click to expand...

You may say im a dreamer...

rossi46 said:

I used two of the portable a/c units in a house that i lived in without a/c. They worked just fine. One of the units had a drain hose that was built into the exhaust hose, i never had to drain it.

Click to expand...

But im not the only one...