Air conditioner saga

I initially did not have an air conditioner on our container because the Japanese in Chile warned me from getting an american unit that cannot be serviced in Chile. I also hoped that we could 'get by' but this summer has proven to be a scorcher, and so began the air conditioning saga.


I started with this lousy 8000 BTU unit that I stuck in the vent opening. This thing was only psychologically effective, the temperature did not go down inside at all.


Unit #2 was supposed to be a 14,000 BTU portable unit. After the unit was late by 1 week, I started calling the shipper every 3 hours, and finally decided that Yellow Freight had lost the shipment somewhere in LA. Amazon did finally refund our money.

Unit #3 was an emergency acquisition from Kmart, another 8000 BTU unit, which worked only if you were in line-of-sight. The container is so air tight, that it also caused a serious vacuum in the container, so every time you opened the door, your ears would pop.


And finally, I just in stalled this a couple of days ago, what I should have done 6 months ago, a split, ductless, R410a system. It is actually not that expensive if you install it yourself. It is 24,000 BTU, runs on 208V 60Hz, and is surprisingly quiet, because the compressor is outside.

I installed it just in time for it to get fridgid here, so I haven't really been able to test it in 100 degree weather.

If I installed the refrigeration lines with a leak, then it is legal for me to top off the system with R410a, a non CFC based refrigerant. The only problem is that if we want to run this unit in Chile, we will need a 60-50 Hz frequency converter. I think we might already need one for the water chiller anyway.