Air Conditioning Install - Body Corporate Blocking

elliot91 on 03/10/2018 - 08:00

Hi All,
I'm wanting to get an air conditioning unit installed in my apartment. Its an older 80's style small block apartment. The only wall that I 'own' is one that is facing the driveway and hence my request to have the compressor side mounted to this wall was blocked for it being an eye-sore.

They have advised me to get the unit roof mounted, which (according to the 2/3 quotes I have received) would cost around $4k. I'm not wanting to spend this much but also not wanting to die this summer.

From what i've read portable A/C's are garbage and effectively do not work. So, I was looking at one of the window mounted A/Cs. Does anyone have any experience from these? Do you think I have to seek permission from body corp as this is effectively hanging out of my own window (ie. not fixing something to a common wall)?

Keen to hear your thoughts.

Home & Garden

Comments

  • tessel on 04/10/2018 - 19:34

    Portable are fine but it depends on the size of the area you are trying to cool.

  • kees2000 on 04/10/2018 - 20:04

    I think the OP is right on the portable ones, portable ones are garbage. Apart from the heat coming off the back pipe, and inefficiency, they crap out too quickly with humidity, so you'll have to wake every few hours on a humid night to empty a drip tray or it stops. About as relaxing as a newborn baby.

    Window one will probably do the cooling job with some cheap fans to move the air, at about 5kw they tend to jump up from needing a 10amp plug to a 15amp plug socket. Not sure what it would drain onto though at the front of the building.

    If the strata position is to do with impacting on appearance, then the window one will probably fall in the same category as the split I could imagine (if that's the term it's falling under, rather than something specific to air conditioners)

    Tongue-in-cheek maybe print off a photo of an air conditioner and stick in the window for a month, then swap it out for the real thing.

  • stumo on 04/10/2018 - 20:06

    Main thing with a portable unit is to get one with 2 hoses, they are quite rare. This way it isn't sucking hot air into your room. This is the main advantage of a window unit vs portable, but they are both noisy as hell.

    Some portable units you can modify yourself to be 2 hose. They just need to have separate vents for the condenser. Just ratchet strap a big plastic box over the condenser inlet vents. Then cut a hole in that box to run a 2nd hose out the window. The outside air comes in that hose and into the box, then its drawn through the condenser vents, and then gets spat out the normal stock hose.

    Without the 2nd hose, the air being sucked into the condenser vents is air from your room that you have/are trying to cool down. That cool air is spat out the stock hose to outside, and it gets replaced through all the nooks and crannies in your room, by toasty hot air from outside.

    Thats why portables are very inefficient.

  • picklewizard on 05/10/2018 - 11:39
    -1

    OP - here's the score:

    Every other unit owner has used their personal space that they own to install their air-cons.

    You want to use common space to install your air-con.

    Other unit owners likely see this, quite reasonably, as unfair, because of course they'd prefer their AC on the back wall than on their patio or whatever.

    You have been provided with a reasonable compromise. Take it.

  • huit on 05/10/2018 - 14:33

    Like others have said, portables do work reasonably well in a smaller area, especially if you keep the exhaust tube length as short as possible and are able to create a good seal at the window. I was able to hide the tube behind a thick double layered curtain and it worked a charm during the hottest days of summer when we needed it, if you could tolerate the noise.

  • LUTSlit on 05/10/2018 - 16:43
    +1

    Polocool 6kw portable works excellent. See product review website.

    • elliot91 on 07/10/2018 - 09:10

      Thanks, this is very interesting; I've never seen such positive reviews for a portable unit. There a several 5.5w versions for sale on Gumtree near me. I might take a gamble on those and see how I go.

      • LUTSlit on 07/10/2018 - 11:16

        I've also had the 5.5kw and it is just as good. Get in now on gumtree before the prices really go up in the heat of summer. To think when I moved out 3 months ago I just chucked mine in the skip, as I was sick of tyre kickers on gumtree. And this was giving away items! When you get one, to ensure maximum efficiency, grab a packet of blue tax and completely seal around the hose exhaust. You'll know what I mean when you get one.

        • elliot91 on 07/10/2018 - 14:26

          Yes, I was wondering about that. I have a crank window (so the opening forms a triangle), have you got any ideas how to cover the gap?

          • LUTSlit on 07/10/2018 - 19:35

            @elliot91: I'm sure there is plenty of ways you can rig it up with that style window. Google and YouTube it mate, I'm not tim the tool man.

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