• What is a Portable Air Conditioner?
• Residential Portable Air Conditioners
• Commercial Portable Air Conditioners
• Portable Air Conditioner Accessories
• Energy Efficiency
• Choosing the Right Model
• Quick Window Installation

What is a Portable Air Conditioner?

Relatively new in the arena of air conditioning, Portable Air Conditioners have quickly become one of the most sought after forms of home air cooling in the market today. As the name implies, a Portable Air Conditioner is simply a standard air conditioning unit on wheels, designed to extract heat from an area via a refrigeration cycle. Portable air conditioners can be easily moved from location to location, making them ideal for spot cooling individual rooms or cooling areas normally unsuitable to standard window air models.

They are also highly recommended to be used in conjunction with central air conditioning for an efficient means of supplemental cooling areas that may have extra heat load (such as a sunlit room) or are poorly vented. Though they still have an exhaust tube that must be vented out somewhere, they are truly portable in the sense that they require no permanent installation. Most portable air conditioners come with what is called a window venting kit. This venting kit easily slides into a window as seen in the diagram below. The exhaust hose is easily fit into the appropriate space in the window kit, and the unit is ready to go.

Portable air conditioners virtually always have caster wheels for portability. They consist of one "box" that holds both the hot and cold side of the air conditioner in one and they use their exhaust hose to expel heat. There are several ways to get rid of the water that the air conditioner condenses out of the air. Some units collect this water in an internal drain bucket requiring the owner to occasionally drain the unit manually, install a pump to push condensate water out through a tube in their drain hose, or adapt for direct drain off. Newer models produce no excess water at all, evaporating the condensate water automatically through the hot air expulsion hose.

How They Work

Portable air conditioners operate through a fairly simple process. Warm air from the surrounding area is drawn in through special inlets on the portable air conditioner unit. This air is circulated through the unit and is cooled by evaporator coils with refrigerant running through them and then blown out through the front. Remaining hot air that was drawn through the unit is expelled and vented through the back with an exhaust hose.

Through this process, air is continually "cycled" in such a way where warm air in the area is continually drawn through the portable air conditioner unit and replaced with cooler air. Through this process the room is cooled until it reaches the desired temperature setting.

Types of Portable Air Conditioner Units

Residential Units

Exhaust hoses are required to vent a portable air conditioner. Like the name implies, Residential Portable Air Conditioners range between 5000 - 14,000 BTU and are generally used for cooling homes and smaller areas up to approximately 500-525 sq. ft. These models are a single hosed units, meaning they have one hose running from the back of the portable air conditioner to the vent kit (more information about vent kits found below) where hot air can be expelled. Residential portable air conditioners generally require the use of only a single hose since BTU requirements are smaller and creation of negative air pressure is not a factor when in use.

Commercial Units

Commercial portable air conditioners generally use a double hose design. One hose is designated as the exhaust hose to vent hot air, while the second hose is used as an intake to draw in additional air (usually from the outside). This additional intake hose is required to help draw in extra air needed to offset "negative air pressure" in the area being cooled. Higher BTU units cycle airflow in larger amounts, expelling hot air at a much faster rate. This creates a negative air pressure in the room. The solution is to have an intake hose bring in additional air to stabilize this negative air pressure. Double hosed commercial units provide more cooling power for large areas and have a higher cooling BTU (over 14,000 BTU).

Heat and Cool Units

A heat and cool portable air conditioner is a unit that provides both cooling and heating options. The heating function works by reversing the normal process of how portable air conditioners cool. Instead of expelling hot air and blowing cool air out, heater portable air conditioners expel cool air and blow out warm air. Of note, heat and cool portable air conditioning units are not meant to be designated heaters and should not be used in environments where the ambient temperature falls below 50°F.

Units with Dehumidifier Functionality

Some portable air conditioners have a special "dehumidifier" mode. While almost all portable air conditioners expel some moisture from the air through the exhaust hose, a few have a dehumidifier mode and can act as designated dehumidifiers. While turned on, these portable air conditioners cool as normal but also expel quite a bit of moisture through the exhaust hose.

Portable Air Conditioner Accessories

Filters

Like central air conditioners, portable air conditioners have replaceable filters that clean the air as it is being drawn through the unit. The replaceable activated carbon filters usually last for three months and should be replaced routinely.

Vent Kits

Portable air conditioners are primarily vented through a window kit to the outside. Included with almost all portable air conditioner units, a window vent kit usually consists of a window plate and an adapter for the plate. The adapter is used to fit the hose into the window plate which is then set into the window frame. Of note, window vent kits are designed for use in vertical and horizontal sliding windows.

Instances where venting through a window is not possible, venting through a drop-ceiling or subfloor are other viable options.

Energy Efficiency

One of the biggest advantages of using a portable air conditioner is the ability to cool only a specific area. Portable air conditioners have caster wheels that allow them to be easily moved from room to room. While central air conditioning cools all rooms evenly, portable air conditioners can provide more cooling for the warmest areas or even act as a suitable replacement for central air conditioning. By not having to turn down the thermostat to comfortably cool all living areas, one can save a considerable amount on energy and electricity.

Choosing the Right Portable Air Conditioner

If you've decided a portable air conditioner is the choice for you, here are some important considerations:

• Your BTU requirements - This is probably the first and most important consideration. Unlike other air conditioners, portable air conditioners are designed so that the can be moved from room to room easily. You should still try to get the most appropriately sized air conditioner for the room that you will be using in in, but be mindful of all the uses that you will need the unit for when you try to estimate your required capacity. For a one-room application, ideally you want to get a unit with a capacity as closely matched to your needs as possible. The two most important factors when determining BTU requirements is Room Size (square footage) and Heat Load. Items affecting the heat load can range from extra heat sources such as cooking appliances, sunlit windows, electronic devices, etc., to the room humidity, ceiling height, insulation and more. Use the chart below to quickly determine the BTU requirements you may need for your space:
  
  
  
  
  
• Your drainage requirements - Do you want a unit that can be drained continuously? Do you mind emptying a drainage bucket a few times a day? Are you willing to pay more for a unit that exhausts the condensate water through its exhaust hose so you don't have to worry about drainage at all?
• Your venting needs - Though most units have 5" diameter exhaust hoses, some units have 3 1/2" exhaust hoses. Also, exhaust hose lengths and window venting kit sizes differ as well.
• The energy efficiency and energy requirements - You should be mindful of the EER of the air conditioner that you choose. A higher EER is better, and a higher EER air conditioner often costs less in the long run than a less efficient unit. Most portable air conditioners run on a standard, 120 Volt socket.

Once you've decided on the above factors, you may want to think about some other features that can add to the convenience of the air conditioner:

• Air filtration - all models have some form of air filter. Better models have better filters that can clean your air while air conditioning
• Remote control - some units can be controlled from across the room
• Manual vs. electronic controls - manual models can be simpler to use and they often offer superior timers to electronic models, but electronic models usually offer more advanced features
• Noise level- though many of today's air conditioners are quieter than older models, you still might want to consider their noise level. Often noise levels are given in Decibel ratings. The higher the Decibel level, the louder the unit is, and every 10 decibel increase is an increase in the sound pressure by a factor of ten (60 Decibels is 10 times louder than 50 Decibels and 100 times louder than 40 Decibels, for example)
• Timer and sleep function - a timer allows you to save energy by only running the air conditioner at set times. For example, you might set the air conditioner only run when you anticipate being at home- and not wasting energy by cooling your room when no one is in the room. Sleep timers also help save energy by cooling less after the air conditioner has been running for a set time. This way, you set the air conditioner to run while you are going to sleep and it continues running while you sleep, but at a lower level (i.e., the temperature in the room is allowed to rise a bit) while you sleep
• Air output - almost all models have at least two different settings for airflow. You might want more settings to increase the versatility of cooling. Also pay attention to the Cubic Feet per Minute (CFM) rating. CFM is a measure of the volume of air blown. The higher the CFM, the more airflow the unit kicks out
• Heating options - some portable air conditioners can heat as well as cool. This can be useful in the winter time- enabling you to use your air conditioner year-round
• Louver adjustability - the more ways you can adjust the louvers (up/down, side-to-side), the more options you have for directing airflow. Also, some units can be set to "swing", so they blow out cool air from several different positions.
• Air conditioner physical size and appearance - some air conditioners are smaller and/or more pleasing to the eye than others.

Quick Window Installation

Portable air conditioners come with installation instructions and kits for installation into windows. Here are a few tips for what a standard installation might entail. Of course, you should follow the installation instructions that come with your portable air conditioner.

Location

This is one of the main advantages of portable air conditioners- they can be installed in many places that other air conditioners cannot. However, the easiest installation is into a standard sliding window. Due to the design of the venting kit, it is equally easy to install one of these units into a standard double-hung window or a side-to-side slider window

1. Position the portable air conditioner near the window
2. Connect the exhaust hose to the rear of the air conditioner
3. Connect the other end of the exhaust hose to the window venting kit
4. Open your window. Place the window venting kit in the window, adjust its length, if necessary. Close the window on the venting kit
5. Plug in the air conditioner and turn it on

That's all there is to a simple window installation!