celebrity writers

Portable Air Conditioners

A Home Cooling System that Fits all Types of Windows

May 21, 2007

Why portable air conditioners may be the ideal solution for beating the summer heat in your home.

We’d all love to have state-of- the-art central air conditioning but for some people, this is not feasible. Apartment and condo dwellers do not have yard space or perhaps have restrictions on the placement of the outdoor chilling unit. The next choice is portable or window AC units. There are some windows that are not suitable for window air conditioners or at least require a lot of modification in order to fit. This is where a portable air conditioner may be the answer.

How Portable Air Conditioners Work

The warm air is drawn into the unit, then chilled and blown back into the room. The warm air is exhausted through a tube placed in the window. Most portable air conditioners act as a dehumidifier, thus making your room feel and smell less damp. The water extracted through the dehumidification process is collected in a drip tray or in some models; it is heated back into vapor then exhausted out the window through a second tube. Some models have air purifiers and can also operate as fans with no chilling or they can serve as heaters in the winter.

Air conditioner units are rated in BTU (British Thermal Units). This measures how much heat is removed by the hour. The compact models (7500 to 9000 BTU) can cool rooms up to 200 sq. ft and the more powerful models (10,000 to 12,000 BTU) can work up to 500 sq. ft.

Advantages of Portable Air Conditioners

Compared to a window air conditioner, a portable AC unit can fit windows that slide from side to side and crank windows.

The unit is easy to install. There are one or two tubes (depending on the model) which fit into a spacer bar supplied with the unit and are placed in the window. The adjustable spacer bar is approximately 6 to 8 inches wide. If the bar is too short or narrow for your window, you can insert a piece of wood, rubber, foam or insulation in the gap. You can leave the screen in your window.

You may need help in carrying the unit from your car to your home (they weigh 50 to 80 pounds) but once inside, it is easily moved on mounted casters and you will not need help again. A window unit weighs the same and it usually takes more than one person to lift it into the window but this process has to be done at the beginning and end of summer.

For storage, the hoses can be easily removed from the window and the unit wheeled into a closet.

Disadvantages of Portable Air Conditioners

A portable air conditioner usually costs more than a window unit, especially when looking at high end models.

There must be sufficient floor space in your room for the unit. Most portable cooling units take up a 12-inch to 18-inch of floor space and are about 30-inches tall.

Some people would rather see the grill face of a window air conditioner, as opposed to large tube(s) in the window and a unit situated amongst the furniture.

Unless you buy a no-drip model, you will need to empty the drip tray where the water is collected through the dehumidification process. Some models allow you to install a drainage hose. When the drip tray is full, the unit shuts off.

Portable air conditioning units require more BTU than window units for cooling a room of comparable size.

Choosing a Portable Air Conditioner Model

To get the most from your portable air conditioner, look at the models that are self drip and have air purifiers. Buy according to the room space. If the unit does not have the capacity for the room, it will run constantly and never effectively cool the room. Units that are too powerful will continually cycle off and on. This is bad for the compressor and does not allow proper dehumidification.

Other desirable features are multi speed fans, directional louvers and heating functionality if you live in a temperate climate. If used as a heater, no window vents are necessary.

To determine what BTU you need, you have to factor in room size, how much sun it gets and the general use of the room. Here is a cooling capacity calculator that can help you choose the model that is correct for your room.

If you have a window, you can have a portable air conditioner!

The copyright of the article Portable Air Conditioners in Home Management is owned by Maureen K. Fleury. Permission to republish Portable Air Conditioners in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.