Portable air conditioners will prevent cash and lower your energy bills, however provided that you're strategic in however use it. Okay, currently that we tend to got the cliff-notes answer out of method, let's dive a touch deeper into however you'll use a conveyable air-con unit to avoid wasting cash on your monthly energy bills. that does not mean that you simply cannot use this kind of air conditioning to assist you economize and lower your energy bills. If a conveyable air conditioning is such an energy hog, then however can it save money? If you propose on moving a conveyable air conditioning from space to space, these area unit powerfully suggested. what proportion cash does one assume you've got lost, by cooling rooms that do not really want to be cooled? Instead, attempt setting your thermostat at an inexpensive, nonetheless still comparatively snug, temperature, so use a conveyable air conditioning to quickly quiet down the foremost vital rooms. It's true that they're not the foremost energy economical air conditioning accessible, however if you're clever in however you utilize the device, there's little question that it will prevent quite little bit of cash and lower your energy bills.

Running on low fan speed might also be a better mode for humidity control. My strategy would probably run at low speed and night and see if it helps. Let it run at low speed until it gets too warm/it is running constantly and then turn up the blower. You want to be below 50% and better in the low 40s. Consumer Reports has a difficult time these days compared to yesteryear because model and brand choices are so extensive and change so frequently. Nonetheless, this is probably something that they can bite off and chew for the consumer quite well. I suggest you try there. You might find that one brand or another stands out in reliability as well. It seems to me that a slinger could be disabled by adding a drain in the right place. The drawbacks would be lower efficiency and assign a rust point. A simple hole would work or a tubulation might be added via some fitting that I see commonly in laboratory supply catalogs, but may be difficult to find "on the street". This is bigger than what I had in mind: 1/2-Inch Double Threaded Bulkhead You could make your own: improvised bulkhead fittning

The thing about needing coolant (refrigerant) is that's not necessary unless there's a leak in the system. Refrigerant doesn't wear out or get used up such that it must be changed or refilled. A tiny leak that doesn't cause an adverse effect until enough leaks out over a couple/few years is somewhat less of a concern, but it's still a leak that shouldn't be there.

Re: Symie “Can any one of you answer the question of how to install a HP without the need for backup or fossil fuels? That was the original question.” I see you’ve already made your choice, that’s great. As you have already chosen a gas system, I’ll try to give you the short answer. An Air-Source Air-to-Liquid HP utilizing Variable Speed Compressor technology (VRF) & Enhanced Vapour Injection (EVI), that you already indicated that you know something about, is the choice of HP able to operate at very low Outdoor Temperatures averaging a ‘Seasonal’ COP fairly close to that of geothermal - without the need of a ground loop (geothermal is still the Gold Standard - but at a price). The indoor distribution is via hot or chilled water feeding in-floor radiant, heat emitters (radiators) fan coils units to change indoor temperatures quickly (heating or cooling), hydronically fed central fan coil units (to condition an entire floor), chilled beams or any combination there of. The way the Defrost Mode can work without backup is that in heating mode, the only mode requiring Defrost, is that a hydronic system employs the use of a buffer tank that stores hot water. The buffer tank can have many functions besides the prevention of short cycling (as when one small zone such as a bathroom in-floor radiant zone or even just a hydronically heated towel warming rack calls for heat), depending on design of the system. It can be configured that during Defrost Mode, the thermal energy stored in the Hot Water Buffer Tank is diverted and used to defrost the HP condenser coil while simultaneously continuing to heat the home, as there is enough stored thermal energy to do both. Depending on the design of the buffer tank system there might be as much as a 5˚F -10˚F drop in temperature of the stored hot water - but that temporary drop in water temperature would hardly be felt in the home because unlike a ‘Conventional’ Air-Source HP that completely switches over to Air-Conditioning, the Hydronic system might see that drop in buffer tank stored water from possibly 120˚F to say, 110˚F - not enough to feel any real difference in the home for perhaps the 20-minutes it takes to defrost and even less so with a system designed with all emitters operating at a design water temperature of 110˚F. Afterwards, the buffer tank quickly recovers when the HP fully switches back to heating. Keep in mind that when doing things the ‘Conventional’ way you still have at least 2-separate systems, such as a gas furnace and an air-conditioner. The system described above can be 1-fully integrated system for space heating, air-conditioning, Domestic Hot Water production - all with 1-source of energy, 1-utility entrance and 1-bill. It can also be designed to perform all functions all at the same time. “Current HVAC has 88K BTU and can't keep up as we get down toward single digits and 3 ton cooling which struggles to keep up over 90 degrees.“ Given your situation, I personally would be looking to do something quite different. While you should be able to sort out your HVAC challenges with conventional forced air technology, I would be concerned that some issues while ameliorated were not quite resolved leaving me unhappy. I might therefore choose water knowing that if I could deliver the right temperature water to all distribution points within the envelope, an easy task with proper design, that I could with the right emitters and fan coils, control the temperature in all parts of the home - heating and air-conditioning. Keeping to a specific temperature, water is easier to control than airflow. A modern water ECM circulator (pump) might drawing 50-watts (small incandescent light bulb) for the whole house instead of a ½-HP Blower Motor. Hydronics are much easier to zone and control than forced air. A 1-inch insulated pipe might be easier to install than duct work. "A given volume of water can absorb almost 3500 times a much heat as the same volume of air, when both undergo the same temperature change.” 3/4"tube = 20"x12" duct 3/4"tube = 18" ø duct Having said all this, I would still insist on an electric boiler backup in case of a real Emergency, such as a Compressor Lockout Condition or if for any reason the HP could not keep up with the envelope or DHW heat loss, if that were part of the design - but not for reasons of Defrost! While I’m not on-site to first hand evaluate your situation, if this were my home, I would look to do something cutting edge and radially different, rather than ducted forced air that has given you no real satisfaction. Please keep in mind - I am NOT trying to sell you anything. A HP Hydronic conversion would be a much more expensive Premium solution! ‘Think Water’ (But don't drown in the details) IMPO SR