How To Choose The Perfect Portable AC

By Doug Freedman


If you are thinking about purchasing a portable air conditioner there are some things to consider and some tips to really think about before making that final decision. Obviously style and color will play a part in this decision, but it should not be the main reason for buying it. You will find below some hints and tips that you may not have been aware of, that will hopefully help you in your decision.

Simply the most important thing when you are buying a portable air conditioner is its BTU. BTU is the amount of energy needed to heat or cool a room or space. BTU stands for British Thermal Energy. Choosing the correct BTU for your room space is very important. If you get this incorrect, it means you may not cooling the room properly or you may be cooling it too much leaving it feeling humid and not very comfortable.

Fortunately finding out the BTU needed is really quite easy once you know the size of the room. Say, for example, you have a room measuring about 35 square meters, you will need a portable air conditioner with a BTU of 12,000. If you are concerned about calculating this, don't worry there are plenty of easy to use BTU calculators online to help. There are other things that will influence the BTU you get, for example you will need a higher BTU if you have a really sunny room or extra high ceilings can make a difference to it too.

Condensation is produced during the cooling process and this needs to be taken care of or you may end up with a damp problem. Fortunately the portable air conditioners can deal with this quite easily. They do this in 2 different ways, and it's up to you to decide which one works best for you. There is the non-drip and the drip models. Firstly the drip model, quite simply gets rid of the extra water produced into an in-built bucket. This needs to be emptied more if you use the unit more. The non-drip model tends to be more expensive than the drip model. This is because it reuses the moisture produced and turns it into cool air.

Excess heat is also produced during the air conditioning process, and this will need to gotten rid of too. One way this is achieved is by using ducted condensers. Inbuilt into the unit is a duct, which blows out the hot air produced in the cooling process. Ducted condensers need to be placed near a window or on a window to vent the hot air. There are remote condensers, which are slightly more portable in that they have a tubing that can be hung out of a window or opening allowing you more mobility than the ducted condensers.

Lastly but not least, cost and energy efficiency should play a part when choosing your model. Try and choose a model with a high energy rating efficiency. This will tend to cost more but is much more environmentally sound. It will also save you money on your energy bills. Always check the energy rating label on the unit itself, this will give you a good indication of how energy efficient it is.




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