Best Portable Air Conditioner?
Its not for me...I can tolerate ridiuculously hot temperatures...but for my dog, who is taking the Southern California heat poorly this year. Are there any decent portable air conditioners on the market? I would just use it in one room, and then close the doors to prevent the hot air from the rest of the house from diluting the cool air. Window mounted air conditioners would be difficult for us because all of our windows are sliders. Any brands people find to be more rliable than others? I am concerned about cost as well, so I would be particularly interested in any portable air conditioners that work which cost less than $500 (if such a think exists).
Answer:
Are you absolutely sure you don't want a window unit? You may have to get some wood (and a handsaw) and some plexiglass (and a knife) in order to install the window unit and make it blend in, but in my opinion it is well worth it. Cheap and energy efficient. I think I saw one for less than $100 at Walmart or Home Depot. I can't remember. The trick is to get one that has less BTU's than or equal to what you really need, rather than more BTU's, so the compressor runs continuously rather than cycling on and off (and consuming much electricity while cycling). But if you're dead set on a portable unit, check out http://www.jandr.com. They might have a better deal than what you can find locally. I don't believe this is right. You don't want the compressor running all the time this will cost you much more and the coils etc., will tend to ice up. Yes the AC should be sized right. too small and it will run all the time, too big and it will have problems with removing humidity and it will short cycle etc. But most units have lower settings that can compensate for that. Last year I did some research on portable units. There are some problems with these: 1. You still need to have a cloths dryer sized vent hose going out a window. 2. They cause a vacuum or negative pressure that sucks hot air into the room from under the doors etc. 3. They don't work as well as other units. More power used / less ability to cool. 4. You can buy 3 to 4 window units for the cost of one of the portable units ~$1000.00 The best portable units I found were the ones where 1/2 of the unit is outside and 1/2 inside, connected together with only about a garden hose size tube of wires and refrigerant lines. That took care of items 2 & 3 above and are quieter inside the house, but doubled the cost.