In article . com,
Jules writes:
We had one at our previous house - I uncermoniously threw it in the shed
as it was power-hungry, and looked like a piece of crap :-)

They are very common this side of the Pond, however. I'm not sure if their
inefficiency is down to the majority of them being old (i.e. design has
improved over the years), the poor sealing between them and the window, or
the level that they tend to be mounted at (i.e window height; perhaps
floor-level or ceiling-level AC does better)

A good proportion of their cooling effect seems to be to countract
the hot mains lead and plug they all seem to have on the left side
of the pond. ;-)

8 or 9 years ago when self-install aircon didn't exist over here, a
friend bought one of the through window ones in Frys (USA) and carried
it back on a plane as excess luggage. The excess luggage charge was
more than it cost, but still vastly cheaper than anything over here.
Last time I looked, they were still vastly cheaper than anything
here. So was driving across to France to buy one -- they're still
thought of as luxury items here, whereas they are bog standard
white goods in continental Europe, particularly as you get into
the warmer parts.

--
Andrew Gabriel
[email address is not usable -- followup in the newsgroup]