Summer Cooling

[Grylls]

Appreciate any info on good portable AC units for when we are well south in europe and the climate is a little sticky. I know they are easy to get in middle east but not sure who retails in UK.

[BGD]

Certainly in Spain there are bucketloads of them in every single large electrical shop/Carrefour etc all over the country every year, from about April onwards. They already have them this year by the palletload in our local Carrefour just inland from Benidorm.

 

They really are brill!!

 

Price would be about 400 euros ish for a good one, maybe 300 for a cheapo unknown brand or for "Bluesky" which is Carrefour's own brand over here.

 

On any that I've seen in the Uk or Spain, remember you do need to route the vent pipe through a partly open window.

 

Remember also that if you are coming down this way and want to buy one here rather than carting it all the way from the UK, although the mains voltage is the same here as the UK, plugs are not.....but then all electrical shops and supermarkets sell a Spain-to-UK plug adaptor for about 2 euros (or just cut off the Spanish plug and fit a UK one instead).

 

We don't use the portable AC unit that we've got in our MH, as we're pretty much acclimatised to Spanish heat now....also we wild camp rather than use sites, so we don't have access to mains hookup most of the time (and we're not daft enough to go MHing in the oven that is July and August over here in Southern Spain)

But we used it in our apartment for a summer before we bought the house, and then in the house main bedroom for 2 summers before we had fitted AC installed, and it's a great bit of kit for nights in high (40 degree) summer.

 

One other thought hich might help people coming down this way in the summer and staying on sites in Spain:

I would suggest that on arrival at a site in high summer (or if pre-booking)you always ask for a pitch that's got sunshade netting above it ("puedes ponerme una plaza cubierto") - these are pitches with a big green net strung above the place where you park your MH.

The netting may not look pretty, but it hugely reduces the suns heat hitting your van roof throughout the day. They make a BIG difference.

So far as I'm aware, there's no extra charge for these pitches, but they normally go first, so on a crowded site you may not get one unless you are prepared to wait a day or two until someone else moves out and then you can move pitch.

 

 

 

 

 

[colin]

Start at about £180 in Argos, not sure how much power they consume.