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Portable A/C Recommendations?
tyen asks: "There is enough gear in my office that a dedicated air conditioner is called for. A standard window unit will not work for various reasons; I need a unit that will let me mount an intake/exhaust panel inline with the window. I am looking for recommendations of portable units as used in data centers for spot cooling; reliable, low-maintenance units preferred over simply cheap ones. While the DeLonghi Pinguino wins style points for its unintended Linux riff, US$1,000 and up is a bit much to spend just for the sake of staying 'tres Linux cool'."
Also consider, in lieu of a dedicated AC unit, a dedicated fan. I was having heating problems in my computer room so I just put a el cheapo fan in the door and it cooled off quite nicely. Since that's annoying to have a fan in the door, you could put some fan ductwork in the ceiling to distribute the hot air out to the rest of your building. This has the added benefit that a large building AC unit is going to work much better than a small portable AC unit.
Gentoo Sucks
I have a Delonghi Pinguino Classic PAC-85U in my apartment. It is one of the with/without water models (ie, it will cool without adding water to it... but not as well - only 7500 Btu instead of 8500 - and with a bit more noise). I've had pretty good luck with it. It doesn't seem to do as well as an in-window model, but it does get the job done. I just wish it hadn't cost as much as it did ($1000 at the time). Oh, Delonghi does have a section of their site in English as well. The A/C page is here.
Portable versions of Firefox, GIMP, LibreOffice, etc
I bought a Danby portable A/C from CompactApplicance.com and have been reasonablly satisfied with it (especially after I poked a hole in its condensate tank and ran 30 feet of 1/4 inch plastic tubing out to the downstairs shower so I wouldn't have to drain the tank...)
They have a couple other brands as well. More expensive than window units, but generally much easier to deal with.
Tom Swiss | the infamous tms | http://www.infamous.net/
Tom Swiss | the infamous tms | my blog
You cannot wash away blood with blood
We had some cooling troubles in our data center, so we added a few of these units: http://www.movincool.com/products/cl1824_o.htm I don't know about the cost, but I would suspect they're up there. One note: "Danger! Will Robinson! Danger!" --nbvb p.s. I don't recommend using them in a data center. They don't help the situation when it's too hot/not humid enough; they just exasberate the problem. Check with Worldwide Environment Services; they rock! (http://www.wes.net)... these folks know what proper equipment environments are all about!