The title is a rather bad joke, I’m aware of that. It would be better suited for The Onion, but whatever. Attic apartments are nice, and in the summer, they’re nice and warm. Too warm to work in during the day, even with the blinds down.
An attic apartment with a second floor is even nicer. In addition to our main apartment on the second floor, we have another room directly under the roof, with a skylight facing east. Besides being a guest room, this attic room is also my office. You can imagine the temperatures that build up there in the summer. Actually too high to even sit there, let alone wearing clothes.
Until now, on particularly hot days, I would just escape to the air-conditioned office. But since January, I’ve been with a new employer, and the nearest office is 400km away—so not really an option. I’m already glad I only have to go there once a week.
The Solution
An Air Conditioner
If I can’t go to an office with an air conditioner, then the air conditioner has to come to me. But that’s not as straightforward as it sounds. A “proper” air conditioner consists of two units, one installed inside and the other outside. These units are connected by small hoses and cables. The problem is, you’d have to drill through the wall and mount a unit on the building’s facade. This requires approval from the landlord and the other homeowners. Not something that can be done quickly. Not to mention, the question of who pays for the unit would also need to be settled.
But there is an alternative. Not perfect, but it should work: the monoblock air conditioner. Here, everything is built into one unit. The device draws air from the room, cools it, and blows it back into the room. At the same time, it draws in more air to cool the compressor. The heated air produced in this process is vented out of the room through a plastic hose leading to the window. And this is where the biggest drawback comes in: the warm air being blown out the window must be replaced—by other warm air. So, the cooling must be stronger than the incoming heat, which reduces the efficiency of the monoblock air conditioner.
Still, I simply can’t work in my office when temperatures are well over 30°C (86°F), and in the peak of summer, the balcony isn’t an option either. Just in time before the first heatwave, the associated customer demand, and rising prices, I decided on a unit from Amazon.
At 30kg (66 lbs), the unit is no lightweight. We had actually planned to use it mobilly across both floors—we’ll have to see about that now. Unfortunately, the description was also a bit misleading. I had assumed that the mentioned installation materials included the window seal kit. It did for sliding windows, but those aren’t very common in Germany. So, a window seal kit had to be purchased separately.
Conclusion
Critiques and Review
This is also my biggest criticism of the air conditioner. Currently, it’s in the office, an attic room with a center-pivot skylight. With the seal kit, the window can’t be closed completely, which means I have to install and remove it every day. It’s a bit fiddly, but ultimately done in two minutes. Definitely better than sweating.
The second drawback? The unit sits in the room and operates there. And it’s not quiet. 70 dB at my desk and 75 dB right next to it is not quiet. And far more than the 50 dB promised on the product page. I’m keeping the unit anyway. I won’t find an alternative at this price, and it’s just so much more pleasant to work at 22°C (72°F) than at over 30°C (86°F). However, the unit is not suitable for cooling a bedroom all night long. For that, I would cool the room down before going to bed.