The folks at Air & Water recently sent me a cool new portable air conditioner to test and review. The NewAir AC-12000E is a portable room air conditioner that uses environmentally friendlier R-410A refrigerant and boasts auto-evaporative technology.

The timing was perfect as I’m in the middle of building a new workshop at home and there’s no A/C available from the main house. This portable air conditioner is a great solution for the new shop!

Specifications

• Product Dimensions: 14.37″ (L) x 15.55″ (W) x 29.33 (H)
• Product Weight: 59 pounds
• Product Color: Silver
• Applications: Medium-size bedrooms, dens, dorm rooms or home offices
• Recommended Room Size: 300 to 425 square feet
• Cooling Capacity: 12,000 BTUs
• Power Consumption for Cooling: 1166W / 11A
• Air Volume (on Maximum Speed): 470m3/h
• Dehumidification Capacity: 1.2L/hour
• Voltage/Frequency: 115V, 60Hz
• Compressor Type: Rotary
• Refrigerant Type: R-410A
• Number of Fan Speeds: 2
• Timer: 1-24 hours
• Working Temperatures: 64 – 90° F
• Exhaust Pipe Dimensions: 5″ x 59.06″
• Control Type: Electronic with remote
• Window Kit Material: Plastic
• EER: 10.2
• Certifications: ETL-listed
• Warranty: 1-year manufacturer’s warranty
• R-410A refrigerant results in low energy consumption and increased AC performance
• Built-in dehumidifier offers increased comfort and helps prevent mold and mildew growth
• Keeps medium sized rooms and offices cool and comfortable
• Requires no permanent installation – window kit sets up in minutes

My Thoughts On The NewAir AC-12000E Portable Air Conditioner

As I said in the opening I’m in the process of building a new workshop located over the garage in our  home. The attic space above the garage is very warm in the summer so having an air conditioner is a really important necessity for the space. The new shop is about 375 sq. ft with only one window at the far end of the space.

The NewAir AC-12000E is really easy to set-up and get running. It took me about 10 minutes to un-pack the unit and set it up in the new shop. The unit can be vented in one of two ways. You can use the window kit that I used shown in the photo above or you can connect the 5″ diameter vent hose to a louvered vent. It plugs directly into any regular 15A or 20A residential outlet.

Another set-up consideration is condensation produced by the air conditioner. Window units are never a problem as they just drip outside the window but these portable units don’t have that luxury. The AC-12000E can deal with condensation in two ways. The unit can collect the condensate in an internal tank or you can pipe it outside. If you use the internal tank the unit will operate until the tank is full at which time it will shut down until you empty the tank.

This unit does a wonderful job quickly cooling down my shop. It has a nice built-in thermostat so you can set the room temperature and it automatically switches between fan and A/C mode. The unit does come with a remote control if you want to control it from across the room which is also a nice feature especially if you install it in a bedroom or living room and want to control it from the bed or couch.

The controls are really easy to use. You control the temperature, fan vs A/C, even set a timer to have the unit turn off after a certain amount of time. This unit definitely offers lots of great features and versatility.

Overall I really like the NewAir AC-12000E portable air conditioner. It’s really easy to set-up, it cools really well and it’s relatively quiet. If you’re looking for a portable air conditioner I’d recommend you give the NewAir AC-12000E a chance. I think you’ll be very pleased with it’s features and performance.

You can buy the NewAir AC-12000E from Air & Water Inc. at this LINK.

– Jan. 6, 2010 – Most people would agree that leaving a window open in the winter would not be a good idea.  However, homes with uncovered whole house fans are essentially doing just that – increasing energy usage and costs for the homeowner.  Now, Shuttercover™ Trim to Fit, a trim-to-fit fan cover from RH Manufacturing, offers homeowners an easy and affordable way to cover their fans and lower energy bills.

“While whole house fans use far less energy than air conditioners when in use, the systems provide little to no insulating value.  In the winter, when you’re heating the home, they let hot air out and cold air in.  In the summer, when the air conditioning is running, they let hot air in and cold air out,” says Rick Hedgpeth at RH Manufacturing, the largest manufacturer of insulation products for whole house fans in the United States.   “Homeowners can save a tremendous amount of energy – and money – by covering and insulating the opening.  Our Shuttercover Trim to Fit makes it easy to do just that, without ever having to enter the attic.”

Shuttercover Trim to Fit covers are made of ¼-inch thick, Low-E reflective foil insulation.  This type of insulation can stop up to 97% of radiant heat transfer, adding significant energy savings. One side has a white coating to blend in with the surrounding ceiling.  The square can be trimmed to fit any shutter size up to 48 inches by 48 inches.

The Shuttercover Trim to Fit attaches to the ceiling with a self-adhesive Velcro^Ò-like connector.  This means no more duct tape, plastic or trips to the attic.  Simply stick the cover in place on the ceiling.  Remove the cover to use the fan, and replace it when finished.

In addition to preventing air infiltration, Shuttercover Trim to Fit also helps lower bills by decreasing hot and cold spots that make the furnace or air conditioner turn on unnecessarily.    Most whole house fan shutters are in hallways, near thermostats.  Air coming in through the un-insulated shutters creates a hot or cold spot, which the thermostat detects, causing the furnace or air conditioner to come on when it might not actually be needed.  Shuttercover Trim to Fit can help prevent this.

“Shuttercover Trim to Fit is a wonderful product.  I installed one…right before it turned cold,” says one happy customer in Jefferson City, Missouri.

Available for less than $30 at retailers including Lowes, Westlake, Ace Hardware, WW Grainger, Sutherlands, Meeks and Herrman Lumber, Shuttercover Trim to Fit is an easy and affordable solution for homeowners.  Homeowners and contractors may also purchase products online at www.lowes.com and www.grainger.com.

For additional information, including a full list of retailers, visit http://shuttercover.com or email customerservice@shuttercover.com.

Learn what kind of blinds or shutters would fit in right for your windows at home.

According to Dave Spitler, assistant park manager, he was searching for a better way to heat buildings other than using wood-burning stoves. “There was a big cost factor in man hours to have staff members cut and split wood for the stoves,” says Spitler. “The Clean Burn furnace that we’ve installed is an economical and ecological solution for Five Rivers MetroParks.”

Used oil storage tanks now collect hundreds of gallons of recycled motor oil from the park’s 99 fleet vehicles, 98 small motorized vehicles (including Gators and lawn mowers), as well as community contributions. After being refined, the oil is pushed through a filter and pre-heated. Then the oil is injected into the Clean Burn furnace and burned at 1,800 degrees. The high temperatures create low emissions (less than one percent allowable by EPA standards) and generate enough heat to warm the park’s 2,400-square-foot facility.

Prior to obtaining the Clean Burn system, the park hired contractors to haul away and dispose of used oil. That costly process had the potential for environmental damage through spills and used more fossil fuels for transporting the waste oil. The furnace saves labor hours from the cutting of timber and provides an environmental, on-site system for recycling used motor oil.

“I’ve sent oil recycle barrels to all MetroParks facilities to collect their used oil,” says Spitler. “Each park saves money since they no longer have to pay anyone to properly dispose of the oil. We bring the full barrels to the central furnace area and replace them with empty barrels. This is a sensible solution that would be viable for other parks nationwide to adapt in order to save money and close the loop on recycling efforts.”

There are 80,000 Clean Burn functional furnaces and boilers located throughout the world that burn millions of gallons of used-oil each year on-site, at the point of generation. This volume of used-oil would otherwise be transported on highway systems and pose a considerable risk to spills and/or contamination to the environment.

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Clean Burn is an ENERGY STAR® partner. The company holds numerous industry certifications and works with the U.S. government, the Environmental Protection Agency and various associations to help coordinate the establishment of standards and regulations related to heat recovery and recycling efforts involving used motor oils. For more information on Clean Burn, visit www.cleanburn.com or call 1-800-331-0183.

Geothermal HVAC

The other day I attended a seminar on renewable energy systems for residential and commercial buildings. One of the topics that interested me the most was Geothermal Heating and Cooling. Geothermal heating and cooling is a system that relies on the earth as a heat source and heat sink using heat pumps.

Geothermal Energy

You might ask yourself where does all this “free” energy come from? The answer is actually quite simple. The energy from the sun that hits the planet every day is absorbed into water vapor, dust, clouds and the ground. Almost 50% (46%) of the suns energy that hits the planet is absorbed and stored in the ground (crust of the earth). That’s an amazing amount of energy that’s stored in the ground just like a giant battery.

Geothermal heating and cooling just takes advantage of the stored energy in the ground and harnesses it to reduce our need for fossil fuels. By using a heat pump and some type of ground contact interface we can actually capture some of that stored energy in the ground to heat and cool our homes.

Geo Exchange System

The basic concept here is to think of the ground as our on personal power plant. In the summer time we want to capture the cool temperatures of the ground and “dump” our hot home temperatures into the ground. Basically we’re exchanging cool for hot. In the winter time we want to extract the warmer temperatures of the ground for the cooler temperatures in our homes. Again we’re going to be exchanging energy.

In order to make this exchange we need to connect our homes to the ground. This is accomplished in a variety of ways including open and closed loop systems. The systems can be created with deep wells or shallow trenches. In either case we’re trying to make contact time with the grounds constant 50 degree temperature.

Heat Pumps

Heat pumps have been around for years and the technology is fairly straight forward. Heat pumps are very similar to air conditioners in the fact that they use a refrigerant, a compressor and a condensor to transfer heat (energy) from one medium (air or water) to another. Heat pumps are great because they can work in either direction so it’s easy to use them for both heating and cooling. Check out the following two diagrams for heating and cooling.

Depending on where you live and the type of ground you have there are different ground loops. You might end up with and open loop well system where you pump out water back to the heat pump and they return the water to the same well. You could have a closed loop well system where the refrigerant travels in a closed loop between the well and heat pump. Or you could have a closed loop system that uses shallow trenches (8 ft deep).

Over the coming months I’ll be writing more about these geothermal heating and cooling systems. In the mean time check out the Energy Star site for more information. One of the nice things about Geothermal heating and cooling are some of the Stimulus Home Improvement Tax Credits.

Recommended Books On Geothermal Heating and Cooling

Check out thise geothermal books:

• Geothermal Energy: An Alternative Resource for the 21st Century
• Geothermal Heat Pumps: A Guide for Planning and Installing