How to select a portable air conditioner?
- Purchase a
portable air conditioner
with a
high cooling capacity of at least 10,000 BTUs. Units less than 9000 BTUs
are not sufficient to keep you cool during an extremely hot
summer.
- Look for a unit that offers a self evaporating or
a built-in water pump. This eliminate the need to manually drain
the unit of water on a daily basis.
- Look for units that have at least 4 stars per our
editor's ratings.
- Buy quality brands such as: Danby, Sharp, Alen™ and LG
How does a portable air conditioner work?
A portable air conditioner is rated in the number of British Thermal Units (Btu) of heat they can remove per hour.
Your portable room air conditioner should be generally, at least 12,000
BTUs for a room size of 300 to 400 square feet. The size of your air
conditioning unit also depends on many factors such as how much shade you
receive, how much insulation is in your home's ceiling and walls and size of
the room to be cooled.
A portable air conditioner operates the same way as window air conditioner.
The key difference is portable room air conditioners come
with an exhaust hose that directs the hot air from the back of the
portable air conditioner unit through a window or a cut out in a wall
where as window air conditioner units do not have this feature. Some
portable air conditioning units also have a water reservoir that
collects the condensation from the air which needs to be emptied once or
twice a week.
