Portable Air Conditioning - Pros and Cons

My wife and I lived in a garage apartment for almost a year. The owners of the house tried to connect their central air to the apartment, but it didn't quite have the power to push the air into our little apartment, and even though it was small, the central air just really didn't help much, especially in the middle of the scorching heat of Texas summers.

Because of this, we got a portable air conditioning unit. This little unit was our primary means of cooling our little 500 square foot apartment and so I've learned a few things worth sharing about portable air conditioning.

One of the most important specifications of a portable air conditioning unit is its BTU rating. BTU stands for British thermal unit and is still the standard unit of energy used in English speaking countries when talking about heating and cooling. It is very important to find the right BTU unit for the size of the room that you want to cool. If your unit is not powerful enough, you'll rarely get the whole room cooled down, especially in areas with a lot of humidity.

Another very important aspect of an air conditioner is how it de-humidifies the air. As an air conditioner pulls water out of the air, the air naturally feels cooler. Anyone who has experienced very hot climates in humid and dry areas can attest to the huge difference that humidity makes. The heat stored in the water in the air is moved out when the water pulled out of the air.

Portable air conditioners are great because they are, of course, portable. They can be moved into or out of rooms and so have some versatility if you are someone who needs to move or if the temperature changes drastically seasonally. Portable AC units are also very affordable. They run in the same range as window units, but do not necessarily require a window and are a bit more versatile. They are also much cheaper than ductless units or central air units. Portable units are great because they can be put in a room with very little setup. They require no ducting, and can be used in tandem with a window or a small hole cut in the wall.

Portable air conditioning also has its fair share of downsides. Many units are underpowered for the size of the room, so they do not cool them down adequately. Many units will also dump the condensation back over the coils instead of draining it out, which makes for less efficient dehumidification. This makes portable units less functional in very humid areas. Other downsides include the space taken up by the unit, and the fact that it can be pretty noisy since the entire unit, blower, and compressor are located inside the room.

Using portable air conditioning to cool a room can be very useful if you do your research ahead of time. I know from personal experience. For us it worked great, and was much better than the alternative: massive sweating all summer.

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