Are The Portable Air Conditioners As Good As The Window Units?
Are the portable air conditioners as good as the window units?
Answer:
Consumer Reports did an article on portable air conditioners a year or two ago, and they didn't have very many good things to say about them. They are less efficient than regular A/C units, and the ratings on them almost universally overstated the actual capacity. An air conditioner needs a place to put all the heat that it is removing from the room. A window A/C unit just dumps it out the window. Portable units usually have some kind of snokel that you snake out the window. But the snorkel gets warm, and is unsightly, and the hot air has trouble getting all the way from the unit to the outside. Plus, as was stated earlier, they don't remove moisture from the space. This is part of the reason that they are so inefficient. Air is cooled down. Water condenses on the cooling coils. But instead of having it drip outside, like a window unit could, the moisture is re-evaporated and put back into the house. On top that, they are quite expensive when compared to window units - hundreds of dollars more. I really really really wanted one for our attic area. But after reading about them, I just couldn't justify it. We just have our guests use a fan and suffer the heat. self containd air conditioning is not a good choice for full time use, they do not remove the latent heat that they produce when they opperate, they are limited to btu size, no cost efficient if large btus are need for the room. These units are designed for spot cooling ie the rollers on the bottom allowing it to be moved from room to room. Not as good as a rom air unit. No! Why? They don't remove moister from your home, or bring in fresh air. So everything feels damp and all the stinky cooking stuff stays in the house.