They also made a crapton of noise. The hotels often didn’t change the filter, so you’d instantly get a stuffy nose when you walked in. They were always right under the curtain, so it would recirculate the air caught in the curtain and cycle off and on too much because the air temp fluctuated too much.
I spend a lot of time in hotels. It was always a mixed bag with these. If you got a good one it was almost an exception rather than the rule.
and may god help you if the unit is right next to the bed
Yep. I see one and I know I’m not going to wake up on Hoth because if I leave it on, I’m not going to sleep in the first place.
The curtain thing was a major pain in the ass; same with the noise. I’ve mostly been lucky with decent ones I guess, but I’ve spent a ton of time in shitty hotels.
I live in hotels more than half the time, here’s the pro tip- take a hanger with clips from the closet and use it to clip the curtains above and behind the vents. Or just open the curtains, nobody cares what you’re doing in there.
The first thing I do every time I step into a hotel room is check the filter. If it’s dirty, then I bring it to the front desk to show them. I always get a free upgrade… to another room with an equally dirty filter. Which at that point I remove it and toss it in the stairwell to let it be maintenance’s problem. I can’t be bothered to put in more effort than that if the staff can’t be bothered to replace their filters.
Had one of these at a hotel in Utah. It was hot as balls outside, but damn did this thing keep it frosty inside. And yeah, its loud, but at least it drowned out my dads snoring.
at least it drowned out my dads snoring.
I love background noise. Drown out the road sound, people eating, snoring, get rid of it all. Bless the hums of modern industry
Road sounds are the worst. It completely surrounds you and there’s no escaping it. And there’s always those assholes with loud engines cranking their hogs.
“Cranking your hog” is a euphemism for masturbation.
You and I disagree with what scene you were painting.
It is a roadside motel. Someone probably was cranking their hog loudly
I am in the Netherlands and lately AC’s are getting more common. As someone with an appartement top floor flat roof, living room faced south the split AC installed this year is a blessing. Summers get hot nowadays.
Same in the pacific northwest. Had a heat pump put in this year thanks to an interest free loan from the city. Used to not hit triple digits here.
Dang, I need to get one installed. Just dont know who around Portland to trust. Had one estimate and it was like 20 grand for a 4 head install.
Our guy said splits are great for 2 or 3 units, any more a heat pump is more cost effective so that’s what we went for. Went with a city recommend installer and they were awesome.
Aren’t splits using a heat pump though? Or did you get central air installed? My place has no vents.
Exact same technology, just in different sizes.
Split systems use heat pumps. I think you might be talking about a wall- or ceiling-mounted split system vs a ducted system. It’s the same technology for both.
I’m sure it varies a bit by region, but that wouldn’t be a crazy price for the NE. HVAC is just expensive these days.
I’d recommend getting at least three quotes. If different companies propose different setups (e.g., all heads vs ducted vs mixed), try to get at least two quotes for each. I ended up getting six quotes due to how much they varied in both price and design. My highest and lowest quotes were more than 20k apart for a <1500 sqft space.
If you have access to a 0% financing program, don’t wait too long. Those run out quick because it’s such an amazing deal.
Yeah my issue is I have no ducts. My old house has no existing forced air anything. Just sketchy radiant ceiling heat.
I had a similar situation (except baseboard heat instead) and ended up with a mixed system. It’s really dependent on layout. I’d be careful with anyone who doesn’t take a good look around before giving you a recommendation, unless you have zero room for ducting for instance.
Yeah, At least around here, it seemed like no one was willing to install ductwork. At least based on the few places my dad was calling for his house.
Does it pump heat variably in both directions?
Most ACs are reverse cycle these days since it’s a very minimal extra cost to allow it to both heat and cool - it just needs a four-way reversing valve. There’s no point making it only cool when you can instead make it both heat and cool for a similar price.
The USA is weird though. Companies still make units that only cool, and strangely there’s a big price difference between cooling-only systems vs reverse cycle systems. I haven’t seen this in other countries.
Because heat pumps are popular now, and the government is helping people pay for them through inflation reduction act rebates. So they can jack up the price and price gouge the shit out of us, because they know they can and know that they will get away with it. And I bet they were never popular because the same people selling home AC units also sell gas powered furnaces for home heating. So they charge you for two appliances and two installations, with two maintenance calls every time something goes wrong and two upgrade cycles. But now that they come as one unit, they still have to find some way to return more money to shareholders than last quarter so the price goes up.
I just got whole home AC replaced with a heat pump with an integrated furnace backup because it can get very cold here, and also had all my baseboard heaters ripped out. Perfectly fine in the winter and it has freed up at least 1/4 of all my walls to have stuff right up against them if I so choose, but really annoyed that the whole thing costed $20k when it could and should have been built this way 60 years ago. Not to mention all the inefficiency of burning gas for heat when heat pumps move more energy than they consume, multiplied across decades for nearly every building on the planet.
Hooray for climate change.
And the fun part is that all those new ACs will accelerate it!
The only issue is the older ones tend to be very loud especially when they turn on in the middle of the night.
especially when they turn on in the middle of the night.
That’s a rookie move. Leave the fan on at full blast all night, and then you won’t hear the difference when the AC kicks in, plus it’s a free white-noise machine
Exactly what I do, I need a fan and white noise when I sleep. Plus it muffles my chainsaw snoring.
This.
better idea, just force it to run the AC all night so the compresser never changes in volume.
Yes, as I replied to Jikiya… Tinnitus.
10000000000000% this
There’s something about walking into a motel room with this AC blowing at full power after being at the beach all day that just can’t be beat.
My college dorm has one of these. Literally heaven.
When the housing market crashes I’m gonna get a house with one of these
Don’t hold your breath.
The house would have to have like 5-10 of them. One for every room in the house.
Tbf my dream house is only like 3 rooms plus a bathroom
You’re going to have to install that yourself.
I wish this were still the case. The last time I saw one of these was a year or so ago and I was excited to freeze. Unfortunately, the room AC was through a different, more modern, device. They just left the classic to toy with my emotions.
They just left it because it was cheaper. Toying with your emotions is just a free bonus.
Then don’t forget your tauntaun sleeping bag.
I thought they smelled bad on the outside
That does not look warm.
Ok, this is a personal thing for me. It might be just UK/Europe (I don’t know) that rejects this use of the apostrophe in this case. Throughout my North American (US, specifically) education into collegiate level English courses I was taught to use an apostrophe to pluralize initialisms and acronyms specifically. If it is not an initialism or acronym, carry on with just adding an “s.”
If there is an actual problem within this US variation of English that I have been taught, please let me know, because it’s become frustrating to see things such as: “you don’t need that apostrophe,” and “this is a sin against the apostrophe” etc. etc.
I’m not trying to be critical or harsh here, just get a better understanding.
The way I knew it in the UK is:
AC - singular air conditioner
AC’s - air conditioner’s [something]
ACs - multiple air conditioners
It’s the same in the US, people just aren’t very aware of/careful about grammar here.
it drives me nuts. please preserve grammar, people. it just descends into chaos without it.
Thanks. That helps quite a bit. The internet’s fury has made me question whether I am correct in this regard countless times, but I still have textbooks that say that the usage in this meme is correct. I’ve been curious for a long time.
People like simple rules, that’s all. So for most people it’s conjunction or possessive. The hanging apostrophe starts some fun conversations too.
It’s incorrect in American English as well, but people commonly use it this way anyway.
American checking in, this was also how I was taught to pluralize throughout my education.
The usage in the post title seemed correct to me fwiw
There is no apostrophe in the title…
The title in the image
Same! Sometimes, I get let down because I see a thermostat on the wall but these bad asses can be controlled by those too. 55 degrees! Stay frosty my friends.
Was in a ‘modern’ hotel recently. Hardwood floors, fresh paint, and warm embedded light fixtures.
Went to look for a thermostat. Nope. One of these AC/heater units. It was all analog, twisty knobs, faded labels, easily from the 1970s. Two options: regular, and high.
It was fine, but pretty obvious the remo budget had run out.
I spent the last year on the road in a touring band and let me tell you, these things are not what they used to be. They’ve hobbled them with thermostat limits of as high as 70 F. I need that shit to go to at least 68.
Sure wish they were quiet enough to sleep through.
The noise makes me forget having Tinnitus.
the reason I sleep with 2 fans
I wish I would be the only one carrying this burden
Nope, had it for several years now. Just woke up with it in my left ear one day. It must have been an ear infection or something. The doctors I went to didn’t seem to care or thought I was overreacting. Let’s hope stem cell research can solve our problem for somebody someday. In any case, life goes on.
Life goes on as you say, but it worries me, I feel sorry for you. I hope you have a routine to cope it daggermoon and I would like to know how you manage.
I play loops of music in my head to cope. It is tiresome, feels like a fairground. I wish I could experience just one day without tinnitus.
For me, it’s at it’s worse when I’m trying to sleep. Fans are pretty much required to sleep. Most of the day I don’t hear it because I’m rarely anyplace quiet enough. To be honest, I don’t really think about it much anymore. I have learned to live with it for the most part. There have been times I’ve had to sleep places where it’s quiet and that suuuucks. I do listen to music alot, that helps calm me.
If depression is what’s bothering you hobbies really helped me alot. I started playing video games which helped with the depression from my tinnitus and also my OCD. I’ve gotten better and then worse and then better again. I’m in an okay place right now. I’m looking forward to the future. I know what I want and I know I can get it if I put my mind to it.
Tinnitus sucks ass, but it can suck less. I don’t know how bad you have it but if its way worse than mine there are still ways to help cope. Brown noise is great and I can highly recommend it, even better than the fan maybe. There are certain types therapy that can help as well. I haven’t looked into it much however.
I’d focus most on doing things that make you happy. Also spending time with people that make you happy if possible. It’s kind of hard these days, I should know.
I never know how to end a wall of text so here’s the last paragraph and sentence.
Edit: I also remembered the rapper K.Flay went completely deaf in her right ear. She’s still out there making music and living her life. So, try not to let tinnitus keep you down. Never admit defeat, keep on living your life as best you can.
Most musicians have tinnitus too so at least we’re not alone.
Thank you for taking the time to give me such an elaborate response.
Ex musician and DJ here. I have a high screech and a low rumble. I can hear my own heart rate too. It is sometimes very claustrofobic so indeed I need noise to cope. Haven’t looked into noise generators as I cope with fans but I really need them to sleep. I know of therapy to cope mentally, but haven’t looked into it yet as I seem to manage with fan noise and the music loops. As for depression, my mom was a violent person so my depression comes mostly from there. It is also why I am early retired. Doing the housekeeping now and it does make me happy being there for my fam. I still make music and kept my studio but it is a hobby now.
All the best to you daggermoon!
Ok you are batshit crazy because fan noise is like the best way to get to sleep ever
After rain sounds.
Like sleeping with a lawn mower in the room. But I’d take that over being sticky and hot.
Honestly, I can’t sleep without any white noise.
Without it, it’s just quiet. Too quiet…
I have tinnitus and having no white noise basically will make things louder than without any noise. This has given me the ability to fall asleep in virtually any conditions. I don’t know whether that’s a good thing or not.
These usually have a horribly dirty filter inside, because the hotel never cleans it.
