Boring AC questions - please advise!

MrEd

I am moving into a small apartment in Delhi soon and stupidly, as summer heat is fast approaching, it is at the top of a five story building.

Currently there's no air cooler/air conditioning, and I was wondering if people have any experience or advice about renting single AC units? How much will I have to pay? Can I rent them on a monthly basis or will I need to get one for ages? How much power do they eat (in rupees)?

I am used to British weather and am afraid that I might well melt in the months of May/June/July! I'm constantly being given very stern warnings from locals about how awful it gets!

capt_mahajan

Wonder how long you are staying. Asking this because you may need an airconditioner in Delhi beyond summer, including August/September, when it can get pretty humid these days in Delhi.

If more than 4/5 months, I would say buy. Rentals should be possible, but I don't know costs of rentals. Buying will be about 12/14 k upwards. And, given the top floor, I would buy a slightly higher capacity unit than the size of the room warrants.

Running costs depend, of course, on how long you use the unit. Though not too familiar with Delhi electricity rates, I would say add another 1200/1700 or thereabouts to your bill, monthly- assuming it is used mainly in the night, and sparingly in the day.

The top floor will be especially hot, but you know that.

A cooler will be reasonably effective specially if installed in a window. Much cheaper to buy run (just a fan and a small pump) and can be used for longer hours without much thought about the power bills. Costs about 5k upwards, not as effective as an airconditioner, noisier, needs periodic water filling unless you make some arrangement- and some people have problems with the humid air it sends out.

Please add one more. It must be already getting awful.


Later-

Just found

Delhi: Air conditioner rental?

Maybe Shashank's is the way to go.

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camelgirl

Many years ago when we were in Delhi during the hot weather, we paid extra to stay in a room with a real air-conditioner. It barely touched the heat. The walls were pulsating with the heat. It was unbearable. We moved into a much, much cheaper small guesthouse that had a big air-cooler (what we used to call Swamp Coolers here in the US. My husband said they used to have them in Phoenix Arizona when he was a kid--same climate as Delhi).

It worked very well and we spent several more days there.

I did notice they now have much better a/c in India. The small condenser is outside and the flat a/c on the wall inside.

Probably no help to the OP but I'm basically agreeing that the swamp cooler works quite well because of the dry heat.

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capt_mahajan

To add to my previous post, one important point: the desert cooler will be useless once it gets humid, after approx mid July.

MrEd

thanks for the advise. still not really sure what to go for, although for either option I need to make sure that the landlord is cool with me ripping out half of the only window in the flat in order to install the thing!

capt_mahajan

He may ask you to restore it when you leave.

Cardamom

I'm ignorant - what exactly is this "cooler" you speak of? I did some google searches and came up with nothing.



C

capt_mahajan

http://img.alibaba.com/photo/11388575/Air_Cooler.jpg

this is a fancier brand; you get a lot of unbranded ones at half the cost.

brownboy66

It hit 38 degrees today in Delhi (in the shade) - so yes, the air-con is going to be vital to say the least. The forecast is that it will hit the 40s by mid week.

Chances are the landlord would be ok with your install since it is what happens to most places when the tenants want an A/C installed here. Plus depending on the company that does the job - the install can be relatively unintrusive (i.e a small hole through the wall for the pipes linking the fan unit to the compressor outside). Make sure the install a surge protector - power spikes and surges are very damaging. Also - you may want to consider an inverter/ small generator to run the A/C during power cuts.

Obviously the quality of the job will depend on the installers. And as the Capt said - chance are you'll need to restore the wall (fill in the hole and repaint) once you leave. Also to second another one of the Capt's comments - you'll definitely need in through to September. Once the monsoon hits - the tempreture goes down 5 degrees or so, but the humidity goes through the roof (which I think is actually worse then just plain dry heat). Good luck.

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MrEd

thanks for the useful advice mate. do you have any idea on costs tho? It's a v.small two room flat, so I'd just need one unit. I'm a poor student so on a budget - if cost is too much I might need to settle for an cooler and grin and bear it!

MrEd

An 'air cooler' is a big box thing that you usually put in a window which blows air from the outside into the room through a wet layer of straw stuff. Water is continuously pumped around and drips down through the straw to keep it moist. The idea is that the air from outside gets cooled this way, although it can make the room kind of humid and also doesn't work nearly as well as air-conditioning. On the plus side, air coolers are cheap and don't use nearly as much power as AC.

Nick-H

There are two kinds of AC generally available, and the comments so far are a little unclear about that.

The Window type, which is a combined unit that fits in half a window space, and the split type, which consists of an inside cooling unit and an separate external compressor unit.

If at all possible, go for the split type. It puts the noisiest part of the equipment outside the room, and that makes a big difference to noise levels. It is also considerably more expensive --- without looking anything up, I'd say at least 20,000-plus.

Being on the fifth floor probably presents its own installation problems which-ever type you chose, but most AC installers here can work whilst being held by the ankle from the terrace above.

brownboy66

Nick's absolutely correct. The split units are more expensive but having the compressor on the outside of the building does make for more peace inside. Having said that the window mounted units are much cheaper (but increadible noisy). As for cost, there are some good deals going around (saw a couple of adverts in the paper for split A/C units that were below 15k. For the window mounted units - you should be able to pick up something at sub 10k.

I would guess that if you're on a budget the window mounted unit will be easier to afford, easier to install, and easier to restore once you leave. Give yourself a few nights and you'll probably get used to the noise and not even notice it.

puchoo

Any AC which is sub 10k INR will not be more than a 0.8 ton unit which might be far too low a tonnage for you. I have lived on the top floor in a single room as well in Delhi pre wedding days and then moved on to a bigger place again on the top floor.

At the first place i had a 1 ton unit which wsa sufficient, but the size of the room was small 10 X 8. The minute we shifted to our current place and the rooms got bigger i.e approx 15 x 18 the 1 ton unit was unable to cool beyond a certain point and i bought a 1.6 ton unit to take care of this. Ideally i would have bought a bigger unit - maybe 2 ton so but then we caluclated the tonnage and took a close look at the BTU's bieng dvertises and concluded that 1.6 was enough for our needs...and it is.

Most landlords will not have a problem, its a standard alteration made by tenants but e wont pay for it.

A cooler is very effective till the rains come and then its as good (or bad) as a fan.

AC's for renting is a good idea if you are spending limited time in India but from a long term perspective its not worth it.

Window units while generally noiser than split are however not that bad at all. My 1.6 is very quiet and does not disturn us in a ny way plus you would need to see how easy/difficult it iwill be for you to install the external fan unit and yes like BB said split AC's are far more expensive.

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shashank.aggarwal

a nice 1.5 Ton window AC (O'General) was bought for Rs.18,500 couple of days back. The split type for the same would be around 25 K.

LG might be cheaper, buts its a pain in the ear..cheaper AC's are not very good...

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