Portable air conditioner hot and cold

When buying a portable AC unit, among the first things you need to know beforehand is how many watts will be just right for you to cool a room efficiently. To be able to determine how many watts for portable air conditioner, it’s essential that you know some key basics such as the unit’s BTU, EER rating, and Energy Star rating (whichever is applicable).

Why do BTUs matter?

First of all, a BTU (British Thermal Unit) is the energy unit that describes the power of the cooling (and heating) systems. Knowing a portable air conditioner’s BTU will help you compare the power of different (with similar specs) appliances.

Let us note that at this point you cannot compare the BTUs of portable air conditioners exactly to those of window units. Given that the first are less efficient than the latter, you need approximately 20% more BTUs to cool a room with a portable air conditioner than with a window unit. This means that if you want to get the cooling power generated by a 10,000 BTU window unit, you will need to use a 12,000 BTU portable AC model.

In general, portable air conditioners have cooling capacities that can start from as low as 5,500 BTUs and climb to 16,000 BTUs.

How many BTUs for your Square Footage?

Below is a chart to help you match your room size to a portable AC unit’s BTU.

Note that if you have additional heating factors such as an excess number of windows, a skylight, a ceiling fan higher than 8ft, computers, a major appliance, poor insulation, or direct sunlight, increase the required BUTs by 2,000-4,000.

Why does the EER rating matter?

EER (Energy Efficiency Ratio) is the rating that will tell you how energy-saving your portable AC unit is. In other words, it rates a unit’s cooling capacity and refers to the ratio of the produced BTUs to the input power in Watts. The higher the EER rating, the more energy-efficient the model (according to the national appliance standards, the minimum EER is 8.0, so anything above 8.0 is great).

The EER is a crucial rating to know as it can help you calculate just how many watts a portable AC unit uses. Simply flip the formula mentioned above (it should go like this: BTUs/EER=Watts). For instance, a portable air conditioner that produces 12,000 BTUs and comes with a 12.9 EER rating uses 953 watts.

Why is the Energy Star rating important?

Air conditioners that use at least 10% less energy than the units that have been rated at 8.0 are labeled with an Energy Star. This means that they are even more energy-saving than the models with an EER of 8.0. It’s highly recommended to consider portable AC units with an EER of at least 10.

Now when it comes to the average power consumption of portable air conditioners, this is around 1,000-1,100 watts. However, this varies per model. For instance, you may find 8,000 BTU portable AC units with a rated input of 850 watts while others with the same specs featuring a rated input of 900 watts or higher. So always make sure to check the manufacturer’s specifications or use the tips mentioned above (EER rating) in order to calculate the overall wattage requirements of the portable air conditioner you wish to purchase.

If you live in an area prone to intensely hot summer seasons, you know that the only way to get by is by having high quality air conditioning. Central units and window units are by far the most popular air conditioning solutions for homes throughout the United States, but they are not always available and can malfunction from time to time. Ordering parts for these machines can sometimes take weeks leaving homeowners to resort to alternative AC solutions. Portable AC units have become an excellent way to temporarily relieve your heat woes. But you may be asking the question “How long can I run a portable air conditioner?” Read on to find out.

Location Matters

When you have a large central AC unit, you do not really think about where it’s positioned. Generally, these units are placed in the back of the home out of the view of the public and provide adequate air conditioning to the entire home. However, when using a portable air conditioner, location is key. You will want to position the unit at a window so proper ventilation can be provided and you will want to ensure that it has plenty of space around the unit without dust and debris becoming a problem. Dust can make the unit lag in its cooling ability. You may also want to check temperatures throughout the room and place it in a place that does not get too much sunlight as heat from the sun can cause the unit to turn on and off too much.

The Right Power Source is Essential

Your portable AC unit might have different power requirements, but most run off of a 120V plug. Ensure that the plug is in good working order and maintains a surge protector. Although portable air conditioners are safe to use in any home, you do not want the compressor clicking on and off when plugged into a corrupted power source.

Filters Require Regular Changes

With a central AC unit, you can change the filter out once every 30 days and some require 90 day filters. Portable AC units are much different. You will want to check your filter and clean it out every few days to ensure the unit maintains quality air. The filters can be disposable, but most often they are plastic and are required to have the dust rinsed out or bumped out to maintain proper air flow. If you do have to rinse out the filter of your unit, do not replace the filter or plug in the unit until the filter is 100% dry. You do not want moisture entering the unit.

How Long Should I Run It?

Generally speaking, your portable air conditioning system should not be run more than about 20 minutes at a time. Setting the thermostat on the machine can help manage when it turns on and off, but if you’re trying to cool a larger than recommended space, you may want to employ more than one AC unit to help manage your cooling needs. Position each AC unit at a window for proper ventilation across the room from each other so they can work together to help cool the room effectively.

Portable air conditioning units are great for a temporary solution to your AC needs. If your larger unit goes out or you need to manage temperatures in a small area of your home, they can provide high quality air even in the hottest of temperatures. While using these units, keep these tips in mind to ensure it maintains proper temperature and runs as long as you need it to.

Energy efficiency points towards the sustainable goal to reduce the amount of energy consumption for various products and services. Various appliances have different methods to make use of energy efficiently. In portable air conditioners, strategic plans need to be brought into use to maintain energy efficiency. So how energy efficient are portable air conditioners? These clever types of air conditioners can be extremely energy efficient; they can also end up wasting your energy resources and money. Some of the strategic techniques are described below.

Appropriate size

Always selects the right size of the portable air conditioner. For choosing the right size, measure the size of the room in which you are going to set up the air conditioner. A portable air conditioner that is too small for a large room will have to work twice as much to cool the entire room. This will contribute to an increase in your electricity bill and a not so cooled down room. Always try to choose the correct size.

Automatic energy-saving setting

Buy the kind of portable air conditioner that has the energy savings setting. This setting ensures that not only the compressor but even the fan turns off. This happens when your room is cooled down to a certain temperature.

Look for official certification

Do not forget to look for the blue energy star certification while buying your portable air conditioner. This certification indicates that the particular model you will buy has met the energy efficiency standards better than other similar models.

 Smart model

Look for smart portable air conditioner models that have all these features controllable through your phone. The intelligent versions of these mobile models are connected to your phone through Wi-Fi. This would make it incredibly easy for you to control the temperature and various other settings to conserve energy to a large extent.

Wheels are a must

Wheels make it sure that you can move your portable air conditioner from one room to another. Whichever room you decide to stay in, you can easily take the device with you, therefore maintaining energy efficiency as you do not have to run it all the time in the same place as is the case of a central air conditioning unit. That’s why these air conditioners are excellent options for efficiently managing your electricity bills.

The above-described methods are some of the most energy-efficient, time-saving, and cost-effective ways to use a portable air conditioner. You can easily implement these tips while looking to purchase a portable AC unit.

Conclusion

Choosing energy-efficient appliances is a must these days. Our careless and reckless behavior in the past has led to more and more harm to our planet, which is why it’s high time we start adopting environment and electricity friendly devices to conserve resources for the future.

These kinds of energy-efficient appliances are hardy and should come with an extended warranty guarantee period. This makes sure that you won’t have to repeatedly spend on devices in the long run. So if you find that these energy-efficient appliances are costly, consider the long-term costs and benefits!

Portable air conditioners are electrical appliances that are easily movable and a great option for air conditioning single rooms. Most of the models have wheels attached to the bottom so that you can move it from one place to another.

Effectiveness of portable air conditioners

So how effective is a portable air conditioner? Portable air conditioners are extremely effective for certain types of spaces and maybe not the best option for others. The various factors that must be kept in mind to see how effectively the portable air conditioning works.

Portable air conditioners are suitable for people who have a smaller living area, office, bedroom, or even studio apartment. It’s also great for those renters or homeowners who may not have the space to install the air conditioners’ window unit. That’s why you must ensure that you install the portable air conditioner according to the room’s size in which you are thinking of placing it. If you install a small air conditioner in a big room, it will just waste energy and probably not cool the space to meet your needs. 

Maintenance is mostly hassle-free as you only have to worry about draining the moisture collected. All portable air conditioners will pull the water out of the air, and there are several different ways to drain it. You could manually remove the pan and empty it, attach a hose, or use a pump to push the water into another location. 

Portable air conditioners are effective if you make sure to close all doors and windows before operating. This will additionally help them as no hot air from outside would be able to suck into the room. However, if you need to keep a window open for a pet, or have guests and kids coming in and out of your home at all times, you might not feel the cooling benefits of a portable air conditioner.

Benefits of portable air conditioners 

• Cheap to maintain compared to central air or a window air conditioning unit.
• Being mobile is an excellent option for temporarily staying somewhere – students, guests, and people who use it during specific seasons.
• It acts as an air conditioner as well as a dehumidifier, both at the same time. 

Disadvantages of portable air conditioners

• Though handy, portable air conditioners can be noisy
• Models with all the features required for the proper functioning of the air conditioning and with extended guarantee and warranty can be expensive. 
• These air conditioners are specially designed for smaller rooms only; therefore, installing them in big rooms would waste your money and home’s energy resources.
• With varying sizes, large models, these portable air conditioners can be just as cumbersome as a window air conditioning unit. They need to be set up in a single room in your house.

The above mentioned are various characteristics, advantages, and disadvantages that add to how effective these portable air conditioners are. Before buying, make sure to do your research and consider all these factors before choosing the best air conditioner for you and your home’s needs.

A dehumidifier is an electrical appliance meant to maintain the level of humidity in the air. This can enhance the comfort levels of different people, depending on their humidity preferences. The primary purpose of a dehumidifier is to pull in moist air and then remove the moisture within it to a specific temperature, causing condensation. The most crucial point to note here is that AC systems and dehumidifiers are almost similar.

There is only one significant difference between these two devices when it comes to functionality. Air conditioners are optimized to produce cold air and in contrast, dehumidifiers are mainly designed to pull moisture from the air and dehumidify it. A dehumidifier is generally deemed as an all-in-one appliance because it has all its parts: compressor, condenser, expansion valve, and an evaporator. In some ways a portable air conditioner works as a dehumidifier because it is removing excess humidity from a space or home.

Working Method

A dehumidifier has a slightly different pathway for working. When outside air enters the air conditioning system, it processes within other parts inside the dehumidifier model. After that, the refrigerant leaves the compressor in a hot form. In the case of an air conditioner, it’s required that the air around the condenser is colder than the coil. In the case of a portable air conditioner, the dehumidifier needs to use the same cold air used to cool down the evaporator coil, further cool down the condenser coil, and condenser the refrigerant vapor. In the end, the air that leaves the dehumidifier is almost warmed by moving over the unit condenser coil. The significant difference that can be noted is that a dehumidifier is built to pull the moisture out of the air and not cool it.

Benefits of the dehumidifier in portable air conditioners

 So how does dehumidifier work on portable air conditioner? The most significant advantage of a dehumidifier as part of a portable air conditioner is that it can remove the extra moisture from the air, thereby making an air conditioner a lot easier to perform. Among the different parts of the dehumidifier, the reheating function removes the extra heat by pulling it within a few minutes from inside the house to the outside simultaneously. Additionally, dehumidifiers work exceptionally well in getting rid of the mold and fungi that can thrive easily in the damp air of your home. This, in turn, can help prevent severe health issues like asthma. Installing a dehumidifier is one of the best ways to enhance the overall air quality of your home. Of course, an air purifier will cleanse the air, but a dehumidifier will suck in the excess humidity present in your immediate environment and contribute to the overall air quality.

These advantages of a dehumidifier in a portable air conditioner will provide you relief from the unnecessary uneasiness from the sticky humid climatic condition. This feature will make you experience less heat and more cold air at home or anywhere around you.

If you don’t have a central air conditioning system, what are your options to keep a comfortable temperature inside your house? Well, these options are pretty sparse — you can install either a window unit or a portable air conditioner. The latter is also called a windowless AC because it helps retain access to the window and doesn’t disfigure your house on the outside. If this sounds good to you, you probably would like the question answered “how windowless portable air conditioners work?” to ensure you make the right choice. Here is what you need to know about these devices.

Why a Windowless Portable AirCon is a Great Idea

For starters, you need to know that windowless units need a connection to the window. However, unlike window aircons, they take up significantly less space and you can still use your window as usual. Only a relatively small hose is put through the window and the unit itself can sit on the floor, under the table, and wherever you want as long as the hose is long enough. Thanks to this design, you can easily open and shut your window, clean it, use it as an emergency exit, let the sun in, and so on.

The hose carries out two important functions: it vents our hot air and removes condensate. Both hot air and condensate occur when ACs work (not just portable units but any type of an air conditioner). To understand where they come from, let’s take a look at an AC’s operating cycle.

How Windowless Portable ACs Work

 This is what happens exactly when you turn your portable unit on:

1. Hot air gets inside a portable AC through a vent.
2. It meets liquid-filled cooling coils.
3. As the liquid turns into gas, it cools the air down. At the same time, air moisture condenses on the coils.
4. The cool air then blows out of an AC, and gas with condensate travel further along its innards.
5. Gas enters the compressor that creates pressure to turn it into liquid again.
6. The cool liquid goes to cooling coils.
7. The heat created by the compressor along with condensate enters the hose and it removes them through the window.

This cycle will repeat again and again until the ambient temperature and thermostat’s settings concur.

Where Can You Use a Windowless Portable Air Conditioner?

These devices are perfect for residential buildings with no central air conditioning or remote rooms that don’t get cool enough. They are capable of lowering the ambient temperature by a few degrees. Normally, this will suffice to provide comfortable conditions for work and living. However, if you consider a cooling option for a room with equipment that generates a great deal of heat, portable ACs won’t be powerful enough. Moreover, they won’t do for large rooms unless you’re willing to install a few units at once.

Last but not least, although these models are called windowless, they actually need window access to get rid of exhaust heat and condensate. Every AC provides an adjustable window kit to be installed in a sliding window. If your room doesn’t have a window or its design isn’t suitable for an AC, you can vent out through the wall, just need to make sure that an opening is carefully sealed.

This may be a surprise to many, but to cool the air in a room, air conditioners have to actually heat it. More precisely, heat is a by-product of their operational cycle. This exhaust prevents rapid air cooling, and therefore something needs to be done with it. The majority of portable air conditioners use a hose system to blow hot air out of the window. The most common design features a single vent and a single hose. Such models are cheaper and easier to install than double-hose counterparts. If you consider purchasing one of these devices, first you need to learn how they operate and what you can expect from them. In this post, we’re going to answer the question: “how does a single hose portable air conditioner work?” Read on to find out more.

Portable Air Conditioner Refrigeration Cycle

 Whether your portable AC has one hose or two, it works like this:

1. A fan sucks hot air inside.
2. When this air passes through cooling coils, its temperature drops.
3. Cooling coils are filled with refrigerant fluid that turns into gas as an AC performs its cooling function.
4. Cool air then enters the room.
5. A compressor connected to condenser coins turns refrigerant gas back into fluid.
6. As the compressor works, it produces a lot of heat. Together with condensate that forms on cooling coins, it’s removed through an exhaust vent.
7. The cycle repeats over and over again.

It goes without saying that hot exhaust shouldn’t get into the room. In the overwhelming majority of cases, it’s taken outside through the vent and a hose attached to it. This hose is connected with either a window or a wall. Because an AC is portable, you can move it around your house and connect to any sliding window with an expandable window unit.

Distinctive Features of Single-Hose Portable ACs

Single hose portable ACs are perfect for relatively small rooms. If you need to cool down a larger area, their power might not be enough. When an AC expels hot exhaust and condensate out, it literally sucks the air out of the room. After a while, your room will start developing low pressure. You are unlikely to feel any negative effect of it in your head, however, this means that your air conditioned room will try to suck air from the outside through any possible cracks and gaps as well as from other rooms to even out the pressure. As a result, negative pressure will pull in hot air from everywhere. To actually stay cool, you will need to seal the window and shut the door tight.

Pros and Cons of a Single Hose Air Conditioner

Single-hose air conditioners are portability itself. You can install them just in a few minutes. You can quickly disconnect and reinstall them in another room. They are fairly compact and quiet since they have only one fan (double hose units have two fans, therefore they produce twice as much noise). Finally, single hose portable ACs are budget-friendly solutions because their initial price is on the lower side and they consume less energy.

And now it’s time to look at the fly in the ointment. Due to the lower pressure effect and its ability to draw in air from other places, single hose devices will have more hot air to deal with. This means they require more time to actually cool the air down. They are not suitable for large areas or super hot rooms (such as server facilities). In these cases, double hose models gain the upper hand.