While a permanent split AC system is the long goal, the Finance Minster tells me that’s not happening this year.
What are SF’ers experiences with portable AC units with an exhaust hose that needs to be routed outside?
Any recommendations regarding make and model?
We have had a few and they have never been that great to be honest with you, not that quiet, there is a lot of heat off the hose, you really need the hose fitted properly as having a window open just let’s heat back in.
We fitted the ones in the link below to our last house and they were cheaper, more efficient and effective than the portable type and will be fitting them at the farm later this year.
We’ve had them in the two bedrooms of our gite for the last three years so our guests can sleep in some comfort with the recent June nights (especially) where the temperature has stayed in the twenties. I recommend that they put the unit on early evening at minimum temperature, close the bedroom door and let it cool the room while they have supper. When they go to bed the bedroom is really cool and for many people that’s enough to let them turn off the unit and get off to sleep. Others do keep the units on all night.
No way are they quiet - I’ll check what make / model later and let you know but it’s a matter of price - I chose them in our local brico and they were a middle range price. (Like you I hope eventually to install an AC system, when funds permit.)
We’ve certainly had no complaints and our guests have been able to sleep. Mind you, I do manage their expectations about the noise level.
I use a clear Perspex plastic sheet wedged in the bedroom window (our windows are small). I made a hole in the Perspex so that the exhaust hose could be fixed in place and vented to the outside and at the same time there is some light coming into the room. This means that the windows stay open but the window opening is sealed by the Perspex. In previous years the shutters just stayed ajar to let the hot air pass and our guests coped with some light coming in. This year I’m making blackout curtains so the shutters can stay fully open.
The unit has a hose for the excess water that feeds into a large water canister so they don’t have to worry about emptying it all the time. No way could one call any of this elegant, but it is functional and we have returning guests, which I’m sure they wouldn’t be doing if it was a problem for them.
I would second all that Sue has said. We have brought over the 2 portable air conditioning units that we had in our offices. The most recent one was described in the blurb as “extremely quiet” which was why we chose it -with the other one it was impossible to hear ourselves speak in the meeting room. However, there was no way you could describe it as other than very noisy. It’s their main drawback in my view, as it’s always possible to make arrangements (as Sue has done) for the vent but there is s*d-all you can do about the noise!
Having said all that, it did rescue a friend we had staying last year as her asthma became so bad in the heat we were about to get her to Urgences before we managed to unearth the unit from the barn. She was ok after an hour or so but conversation wasn’t possible…
Edit: The second one we bought was expensive around £800 as I recall. Doubt if it was any better than the cheapos at about £300
We have a Delonghi Pinguin 6, which was about €550 when we bought it a few years ago. It’s used in the guest bedroom when friends visit in hot weather. It claims to be very quiet, which it isn’t, but it’s certainly not noisy and nobody has reported any problems with it. The tube snakes out of the french windows and it is pretty effective, I must say, keeping the room pleasantly cool. I wouldn’t like to rely on it full time, but for occasional use it’s absolutely fine.
You always need to be very careful about the external vent hose and it’s proximity to anything combustible - they get extremely hot.
We had two of these devices in our rental property before our new home was built… they were very heavy to get upstairs and noisy and we were glad to offload them.
Thanks all. It’s the Delonghi models we’re looking at just to cool our bedroom. Planning to use as per Sue’s suggestion - run on min temp/high fan for an hour or so before bedtime and see how we get on.
As we’re used to a variety of cooling fans, any noise level below that of a Chinook taking off will be fine.
Not sure how old you are Guy, but I am now finding that increasing deafness helps too 
Just says Thomson on it. My recollection is that they were about 300€.
Have you considered an evaporative cooler?
I’d looked at those, but I don’t like the idea of them adding additional moisture into the room.
Running a vent hose into a window sealing kit or plate isn’t going to a problem for the room it’ll be fitted into.
I’ve just been down to the cottage and heard our scops owl for the first time this year. It sits outside the bedroom windows and makes this “wop, wop, wop” noise day and night. After about ten minutes of this the portable aircon noise is a positive boon - as it drowns out the owl.
We had one in Oz and thought it was crap! The evaporative coolers seems more efficient even though we were right on the coast! And a fraction of the price!
I am interested to know if people have found that a VMC works well to extract the hot air from the top of the room and therefore cool the room. Thanks
My experience with VMCs being used to clear steam from bathrooms is that they have 2 settings.
Low: Which is quiet, but moves about as much air as single butterfly’s fart.
High: Sound level is equivalent to having a small helicopter flying around the attic above, but the steam is extracted at reasonable speed.
The more expensive VMCs might be quieter than the basic Casto/Leroy/ Weldom models I’ve met though.
A VMC-A won’t cool the room. It’ll probably make it hotter. You have vents to let air in from outside to balance the air extracted by the VMC. If your indoor temperature is lower than outside (which is the point I expect) then you’re just pumping in hotter air from outside.
Solves the problem of mosquitoes at night too!!!
Well I certainly can’t hear them BUTthey absolutely adore me 
Even with mesh thingies across doors and windows I wake up with bites. Grrrr…
(Or perhaps you meant that the aircon deters mosquitos?)
No, our aircon is shutting doors, windows, curtains, shutters, etc. They only adore me when the other half is away so my mozzie deterrent is marriage! We have arched windows in parts of the house so cannot order screens to fit - very frustrating!!
I just wonder how portable portable ones really are, if it is necessary to have an extractor hose vented and sealed to the outside.
I am perfectly happy with my air to air heater unit which switches to cool air at a touch of the remote. So much so that we have just had another installed in the other room. That 2nd one was so noticeably more efficient than the first that we had them come back and service it. Now both are working really well and I can sit in a cool place whenever I want.