Who's in the UK and has caved in and bought air conditioning?

kmikemoo said:

Where I would like to install it, there the little problem of the center I-beam that is the main structural support of the first story.

how are your welding and gas axe skills coming along ?

kmikemoo said:

The second part of challenge one is that my wife doesn't want me opening up the walls to install ductwork.

how are your negotiation skills coming along ?

robogary One challenge is the ductwork to pull it off.  Where I would like to install it, there the little problem of the center I-beam that is the main structural support of the first story.  The second part of challenge one is that my wife doesn't want me opening up the walls to install ductwork. 

Someday, she may decide that we need to remodel - maybe an upstairs laundry room.  That will be my opportunity.

What's your longest drill bit ?

kmikemoo said:

My temptation is the opposite - to get the warm ceiling air in the Winter and pipe it down into the basement.

Under ceiling to under floor heating system ?

Mike's going to need a longer drill bit...

Thats what geo-thermal is all about.  

Fred27 said:

It doesn't seem to do much compared to opening some windows.

If you connect the inputs to the window vents it might

Isn't that mode aimed at filtration though ? I thought one of the advantages of those hot air systems beyond low latency heating, was air filtration ?

Fred27 said:

If you still have the ducting and a fan for the system, then it's definitely worth trying to distribute the output of your portable aircon around.

We do that here at work in the main hall for the Summer graduation ceremonies. Hire in a big aircon unit and pipe the cold air into the hot air heating system. (Just a pity the system it doesn't reach the control room, where we quietly get roasted whilst everyone else complains of being too cold.)

It sounds like the e14 house needs a multitude of temperature sensors (indoor and out) that can work out the temperature differences and turn on the appropriate ventilation fans, window openers, shutter/blind closers and aircon units as appropriate.

My house is still cooling down from last week. I guess that the bricks are acting like storage heaters. Either that or there is a volcano below me.

It sounds like we all have very similar systems. I can also turn a fan on manually to circulate ambient air around, and the air is pulled in from a couple of internal inputs, so a closed loop system. It doesn't seem to do much compared to opening some windows.

stanto If you still have the ducting and a fan for the system, then it's definitely worth trying to distribute the output of your portable aircon around.

Fred27  What you suggest is exactly how my air conditioner works.  We have "central forced air" - one furnace and a bunch of ductwork.  The air conditioner coils are mounted in the furnace outlet ductwork.  The system uses the furnace fan to circulate the air.  Our thermostat also allows us to just turn the fan on and circulate air.  If you have a cellar, you could draw your intake air from there.  You may not get good distribution of the air in the rooms the air is blowing into, but my basement is easily 10 degrees F cooler than upstairs.  It could be worth a try.     My temptation is the opposite - to get the warm ceiling air in the Winter and pipe it down into the basement.

Is that a "closed circuit" thing? I mean, during the winter, does it circulates the house air while heating it? Or does it take outside (very cold) air, heats it, blows it into rooms, effectively pushing out ambiant air out of the rooms?

From an efficiency point of view, it'd be better to have a closed circuit with a "calories exchanger" but I'm not sure how your system is designed.

Same. There are vents everywhere, and yet, no airflow. We used to have the hot air for heating and a separate water boiler for hot water.

We now have a combi condenser boiler, thankfully, but the old setup is still there. Perhaps I should do as you're suggesting and hook up the aircon to it, since the heater unit resides in the kitchen already, I could exhaust the heat through the cooker hob unit... maybe, its a bit greasy, something to ponder.