Indoor Portable Air Conditioning, Cooling and Heating Units in London and the South-East

At Chilly Pepper Hire, we like to make things as easy as possible for you. That’s why we provide the best indoor portable air conditioning service for homes and businesses in London and the South East. As well as delivering straight to you, we also offer a hassle-free, jargon-busting guide to make choosing the right unit even easier. Use the information on this page and our calculator to ensure you get the perfect indoor portable air conditioning unit to match your requirements.

Getting Started - Which Type of Unit Should I choose?

Hose Type (air to air)

The hose type cooler is by far the most common, with about 85% of the office market in London choosing this unit. With this unit, there are no water bottles to empty, but a window, doorway or false ceiling is required to vent the hot air. Hose type coolers can run 24 hours per day unattended, making them ideal for offices and server rooms. Hose type units are also known as “air to air” units because the moisture created during operation is evaporated and blown into the hose with the hot air. In other types of hose units, the moisture is collected in a bucket. Systems with internal buckets have a safety feature to prevent over-filling, but the bucket must be manually emptied. For external bucket systems, a pipe takes the waste away with no need for manual emptying.

Split Type

A split type is similar to a hose type, but often more powerful. Instead of expelling the hot air using an air hose, the unit has a small box connected to the main indoor unit by a small flexible pipe. The box can be hung out of a window or fixed onto an exterior wall with the pipe fed through a hole. The moisture is pumped through the flexible pipe to the outside, and this system can run unattended 24 hours per day. Split type units generally require a great deal more involved installation than portable hose type units. Please contact us if you need more information about this type of unit.

Water Evaporative (water cooler)

Water evaporative units work using the principle of evaporative cooling. The units have an internal tank that needs to be topped up with water approximately every 2 to 5 days. There is no hose or external box, meaning water evaporative units are completely self-contained. This type of unit can create some humidity, meaning it can only be used in areas with lots of natural ventilation. The unit’s capacity to cool depends on the humidity; the lower the humidity, the better the cooling effect.

Helpful Terminology

• Air to air: a unit where moisture created from the incoming air is evaporated and blown into the hose with the hot air.
• Bottle or bucket type: a unit that requires a bottle or bucket to be emptied as a result of moisture produced by the cooling process.
• BTUs / Kw: BTU refers to British thermal units and Kw to Kilowatts. On average, each person in an office requires 4,000 BTUs; a standard portable unit is 8,000 BTUs or 2.34 KW (1,000watts = 1 Kw = 3,418 BTUs).
• Defeat the heat: you must “defeat the heat”, for example if you need 15,000 BTUs of cooling, you require 2 x 8,000 BTU machines, 1 unit of 8- 12,000 BTUs will not suffice and will offer only spot cooling relief.
• Monoblock: a hose type unit but with water buckets which are required to be emptied.
• Spot cooling: Localised cooling that only cools the local area and has insufficient capacity to cool an entire area.
• Twin pipe: one intake and one exhaust pipe. The first pipe, the hot air exhaust, is installed as a one pipe unit; the second air intake pipe can be fitted if you wish to draw air into the machine from another area, such as outside. This can be a benefit if the outside air is cooler than inside.

Machine Specifications

Technical Specifications

Note: There are 3 types:- Hose Type, Water Based Evaporative Coolers and Splits,

SPECIFICATIONS	HOSE-TYPE	WATER-BASED	SPLITS
Air to air (ATA) = no water bottles to empty
Mono hose type - water bottles to empty
Water tank to "fill"
Electronic control pad
Thermostatic control
Timer
Manual control
Automatic control
Swing louvers
Dehumidifier mode
Easy installation
Quick connect couplings
Swap in / swap out hire service
Technical support

Frequently Asked Questions

Q. What areas do you cover?

A. Chilly Pepper Hire deliver to Greater London and the South-East of England. We are willing to consider contracts in other areas, please contact us to confirm you are in our delivery area.

Q. How soon can you deliver to me?

A. Generally we can deliver units within 24hrs during the working week. Normally if you order in the morning we can deliver to you in the afternoon. If you order in the afternoon we can normally deliver the following morning. Please contact us to confirm your requirements.

Q. Do I need to have a window or vent available?

A. All portable air-conditioning units need to blow hot air from an exhaust hose. However if you have non-opening windows or no windows at all please contact us, and we can discuss some of the novel solutions we have used with customers in the past.

Q. What if I decide I want to extend the hire period?

A. We are well aware that requirements change. If you want to extend the hire period you need do nothing at all. Our hire agreement is a rolling agreement. If you do not contact us to arrange for us to collect your units, they remain on hire to you. Note: It may be worthwhile giving us a call, as an extended hire period may reduce your weekly hire costs.

Q. I don’t have an electrical outlet near where I want the machine, is this a problem?

A. Chilly Pepper do not supply extension leads. Please contact us to check the specification of your hire unit so that we can recommend an extension lead capable of safely running your hire unit.

Q. What if I have a problem with my hire unit?

A. All our units are regularly serviced and PAT tested, however in the unlikely event that you have a problem that we can’t sort out on the telephone, we will attend your premises and swap the machine. We repair the unit during our time not yours. We normally attend within 24hrs during the working week, and this service is free of charge to all our customers.

Q. Do I need to service the unit whilst I have it on hire?

A. No. If you have the unit on long-term hire then you merely need to periodically check and if required clean the dust filters. Similar to your tumble drier at home.