This portable air conditioner is a heatwave saviour with plenty to offer
Portable air conditioners are a tricky thing to find in the UK, but they can be a marvellous way to cool small spaces when the weather heats up.
EcoFlow is one of the few companies that offers such a device, and its new Wave 2 portable air conditioner looks, on paper at least, like the perfect solution for that holiday heatwave.
I've been testing one for a few months in my motorhome, and also in my garden room and, in short, it does what it says on the tin.
It's a small unit that can effectively cool a space down using genuine air-conditioning technology - no evaporative cooling gimmicks here, this is the real deal.
That means you have to mount at least one air duct to it to pipe hot air away from the unit as it exchanges the hot air for refrigerated air, but I'll come back to that.
Apple TV release MLS Season Pass worldwide and announce free opening weekend
Another thing you need to know about the Wave 2 is it's incredibly compact. For a fully-functioning air-conditioning system, it takes up a footprint that could sit comfortably on the average car seat. It also sits neatly on a counter-top or workbench.
The main unit, then, is heavy, but a manageable size, and surprisingly easy to carry around. And, if you want to and you can afford it, you can add on a battery which makes the Wave 2 completely portable.
This battery will give you up to two to three hours of off-grid cooling, which is impressive stuff and, of course, you can hook it up to one of Ecoflow's portable power stations for a true off-grid setup, especially if you add in solar panels. Solar-powered air conditioning - what a time to be alive.
The battery is also a heavy beast. It slots neatly beneath the Wave 2 unit, so there's little in the way of extra size to worry about, but the pairing does weigh a lot, and makes it slightly less easy to carry around.
The ventilation ducts, which come in the package along with a selection of baffles and adaptors, are something of an essential item, and adds a bit of awkwardness to your setup. Wave 2 is capable of putting out a seriously impressive 5,100 BTU, which is similar to a small domestic upright air-conditioning unit, but it can only do this effectively if you're able to expel the hot air - otherwise you'll just keep recycling it.
That means, in a house or motorhome for example, you'll need to find a vent somewhere. In my motorhome it was really easy to send the hot air out of the passenger window, but we could have used a skylight. In a house, you'll need to mount it next to a window in an ideal world.
There's a second duct pipe too, but I found I didn't need that - even on a really hot day, the Wave 2 did a brilliant job of sending out very cool air. The display on the unit gives you an output reading so you can see how efficiently everything's running, and it'll also tell you the current power consumption and the battery level.
At one point, on a particularly hot holiday, the temperature in my motorhome reached an uncomfortable 30C - but the Wave 2 brought this down to 22C in a fairly short space of time.
I had less success cooling my south-facing bedroom at home because 5,100 BTU apparently isn't enough - but the cold blast of air was a welcome comfort. In my small garden room it fared much better. I was able to shave over 10C off the interior temperature within just over an hour. And that's where the Wave 2 impresses the most. In small spaces, its cooling power is quite remarkable. And even in large spaces it's far better than using a fan or an evaporative cooler.
There's a quiet mode, which lets you run the unit on low, but you might find you need to ramp it up in hotter weather. Even on max mode, it's far from noisy though. And the addition of EcoFlow's excellent app means you can keep an eye on its performance and levels from wherever you are.
Woman's blood boils as date stands her up over her response to innuendo text
As with any genuine air-conditioning unit it will generate moisture as it cools. This can either be piped away and into a container, or the Wave 2 will be able to deal with it in-house through an evaporation system. It's clever, but getting the angle of the unit right is important, or liquid can escape and soak your surface.
As with most air-conditioning units, the Wave 2 can be used as a fan only, which draws very little power, or even reversed and turned into a heater. It's effective in this mode, but it could be argued there are simpler ways of heating a space.
Another thorny issue to confront is the price. A decent standalone, vaguely portable air-conditioning unit you'd buy for your house would cost around £500, and potentially give you around 10,000 BTU. The Wave 2 might be a quarter of the size of such a unit, but it costs double the price. They're up for £1,049 at the moment. And that's just the unit and accessories - if you want to add a battery the price jumps to £1,799.
EcoFlow does some tempting deals if you buy the Wave 2 as a bundle with, say, a Delta power station, but there's no getting around it, it's a sizeable investment.
Is it worth it? It rather depends on how you'll be using it. If you want to cool a home office or bedroom, then no. Just buy an upright air-con system and save over £500.
However, if it's for camping, for moving easily around a shed or workshop, or if it's for use in a small space like my garden room or motorhome, then absolutely, yes.
We don't get a lot of hot weather in the UK but when we do we're never really ready for it and air-conditioning is an absolute godsend.
The more you use the Wave 2 the more uses you find for it. Its compact size makes it versatile, and the technology built in makes it surprisingly effective.
It might not be right for every scenario, but if you need a compact air-conditioning system there's no two ways about it - this is the best device money can buy.
Read more similar news:
Comments:
comments powered by Disqus
