Portable air conditioners work a lot like any other kind of air conditioner, whether a window unit or a central air conditioning system. Chemical refrigerant flows through a series of coiled tubes and absorbs the heat from indoors. The heat is then released outside through an exhaust hose. The main difference is that with window AC, the heat is released by the portion of the unit that hangs out of the window. For portable units, warm air is guided outdoors through a single or dual hose that looks like a flexible dryer vent. A portable AC unit will typically come with a single hose and a window kit that allows you to set up the venting system quickly and easily.
It’s a bit of a misconception that portable air conditioning systems can be moved into different rooms on a whim. Because of the need to exhaust air through a window, moving a unit around will require also moving its exhaust vent. This is simpler with a window kit, but many people will not find it as convenient as carrying a space heater from room to room.
Factors That Will Determine How Effective Portable Air Conditioner Is
1. The Cost of Electricity
How much you spend to run your portable air conditioner will vary greatly based on the price of electricity in your area. These costs tend to rise with demand during the hottest summer months, so getting cool during a freak heat wave in May probably won’t cost you as much as seeking relief in August. If you’re subject to prices that fluctuate during peak periods, it may even be cheaper to run your portable AC at night than it is during the day. This is all to say that your mileage may vary as to whether you find the cost of running a portable air conditioner to be a reasonable concession on a hot day or if you’d prefer to stick things out with a fan or an evaporative cooler instead.
2. Room Size
For your air conditioning to have enough cooling power to actually make your rooms noticeably more comfortable, it needs to be sized properly. One window air conditioner, for example, will never provide enough cooling for an entire house. An undersized air conditioner will run all the time, cost you big bucks and still not make you happy.
To make sure your portable air conditioner is sized properly for the room you plan to cool, you need to look at its BTU rating, which measures the unit’s cooling power. For smaller rooms of 200 square feet, a unit with 8,000 BTUs should suffice. For a large living room of 600 sq. ft., look for a portable air conditioner with 14,000 BTUs.
If you’re trying to cool a kitchen, you should size up when it comes to cooling power. All those appliances create a lot of extra heat, which will make your unit work even harder to get the job done.
3. Quality of Air
The portable air conditioner that you are going to buy must have a good dehumidification unit. The task of the dehumidification unit is to reduce the humidity of a room so that it offers higher cooling along with comfort. Another important factors to consider before buying AC is the quality of the filters. If your air conditioner will have good quality filter then obviously your air conditioner will provide you with better cooling. In addition to this, good quality filters will even improve the efficiency of your portable air conditioner unit.
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