Air Conditioner has become common home appliance that most of us have. Earth that become hotter every year has forced us to have at least one air cooling unit in our house. There are two major air cooling devices available in the market today, which are air cooler and air conditioner. Air Conditioner can also be divided based on their model and functionality into 4 groups, window, split, central, and the last is portable air conditioner that we are going to discuss here. As I mention before, those 4 are grouped by the functionality. So, what can you expect from portable air conditioner? As the name, this model is focused to be movable from room to room. Unlike common air conditioner that has fixed position, this device is equipped with castor wheels, so you can easily push it to the place you need to be cooled. This cooling device don’t need outer compressor because the compressor is already inside the unit itself. It is very useful device for those that live in an apartment or a place that can’t set the compressor outside the room.

When you held a party in a big room, you can also make it as an extra backup AC beside window/split AC you’ve already set. More people come to your party will make your room hotter, that’s why more people in the room means more cooling capacity you need to prepare. In this condition, portable air conditioner will be really useful. I have mentioned that this device has already had compressor inside it. This compressor works to convert air into cool air by using refrigerant like others AC. This process will exhaust hot air as the residue. This is the reason why Window / Split AC has a compressor that must be placed outside the room. In portable AC, this hot air must be throwed out through hose pipe that connect to the window or ceiling. If it’s not exhausted to outside, the device will spread out hot and cool air together. Don’t worry, the process of setting it up will only  take 10-20 mins of your time. Follow the video instruction provided by Haier below So, what size portable air conditioner do I need?

Every air conditioner has their own cooling capacity that will be measured by BTU. trane mini split ac unitsThe bigger the BTU means the device is made to cool bigger room size. rittal ac unitBe careful, you need to carefully choose the correct size for your need. car ac repair palmdale caIf your device have too big BTU than your room size, the AC will cycle off too quickly and leave the air with an excess humidity.  It also will cost more electricity than you ever need. On the other hand, having smaller BTU, will force the device to work hard while still not adequately cool your room. This is a little math to help you determine correct BTU size for your room (Area x H x I x E) / 60 = BTU size Area ( in square feet) = width x length for a rectangle room.

If your room is in custom shape, you can measure the area size using math formula to determine Area size. In example, you can measure right triangle by this formula: width x length /2 H (in feet)= Height of the room I = 10 – 16, based on how good the insulation of the room. Well insulated room means lower number; while, not insulated room (in example: in the top floor, facing directly to the sun) will have the highest number 16. E = score 16, if the longest wall that face outside of the house is facing north score 17, if the longest wall that face outside of the house is facing east score 18, if the longest wall that face outside of the house is facing south score 20, if the longest wall that face outside of the house is facing west (this calculation is based on tropical climate; if the room you want to cool is in the lower floor, without any wall facing directly to the outside you can use 16 as the score) You live in tropical states such as Arizona, Nevada, California, Texas, Florida, and want to cool your lower floor that has 10 feet width, 20 feet length, 10 feet height, with a longest wall facing east.

We can calculate your estimated BTU size by this = (W 10 x L 20 x H 10 x I 12 x E 17) / 60 =  6800. Well, now you can start looking for 7000 BTU Portable Air Conditioner. Note: This calculation is a bit different than what energystar.gov mention. This calculation is custom made by me, because I found that many of portable air conditioner buyers are disappointed by buying not adequately BTU size, based on what energystar has mentioned in their site. I assume that their calculation are based on very well insulated room, or low ceiling room. Although my calculation may not perfect, but I am sure it will help a lot of people to choose correct BTU size for them. Best AC Portable for Big Room up to 500 sq.ft The Whynter ARC-12S is the most energy-efficient model we reviewed, with an 11.1 energy efficiency ratio. This air conditioning unit lacks a sleep mode to keep you comfortable at night. The Whynter ARC-12S is one of the best portable air conditioners because of its many convenient features, suite of third-party certifications and energy efficiency.

The Whynter ARC-12S is a portable air conditioner that ranks among the best on the market. The unit has some great cooling abilities and operation modes as well as a decent design and an excellent energy efficiency ratio. The unit lacks a sleep mode and an auto-evaporative design, but overall it is effective and energy efficient, which makes it our Top Ten Reviews Bronze Award winner.corndog6767 (404)No returns, but backed by eBay Money back guaranteeMore listings for this product About this productDescriptionProduct IdentifiersKey Features3Other Features5843332010QuietEnergy efficientEven air distributionWrite a reviewMost relevant reviewsSee all 14 reviewsby Pleased so far.Have had this unit for about a week, so far very pleased. Have not used the heat thought since it's in the 90's here. Unit is quieter than I was expecting. Has a nice bright display and easy to install.I hope Soleus stands behind their product IF I have to use the warranty.by A window unit would work better, and takes up less floor space.

I got this unit to temporarily cool a windowless space that is equivalent to an 800 sq ft area. It only reduces the temperature by about 10 degrees after running an hour, and the room never cools to 72 degrees. If it ran all the time, it might be able to cool the space. It will probably cool 300 sq ft adequately on a hot day, and it would make a 400 sq ft bedroom comfortable at night. ______________________________The plastic window insert for the outside air intake/return hoses needs to be sealed and insulated. Hot air leaking into the room will cut down on the cooling performance. This unit is bulky and is not that easy to move around. The wheels under the unit are very flimsy and get bent when moving the unit. I move the unit by picking it up with the handholds on the sides. The unit can only move where the hoses reach, probably no more than 5 feet from the outside air source. I had not anticipated the amount of floor space that the unit and the hoses would occupy._______________________________I'm using the unit in Houston, and the high humidity produces more condensate than the unit can evaporate into the outside return air.

I attached a drain hose to the drip pan because the pan is difficult to locate and remove without spilling the water. The unit will shut down if the drain pan is full, so you may end up waking up in a hot room and having to empty the drain pan.__________________________I believe that a window unit would work better, and they cost less. A 14000 BTU window unit is smaller than this unit, and it is not that hard to install and remove once a year. The window unit can even be left in place if it is installed in a well insulated and sealed opening, just cover the outside with a plastic sheet. You can avoid making screw holes and marks on your window by making an insulated plywood mounting insert that clamps into the window frame for seasonal use. Even the foam window seals that come with window units offer better sealing and insulation than the plastic window insert that comes with this portable unit. Window units have insulation between the inside and outside air, so only the outside edges need to be sealed and insulated.

The the window unit condensate drain is on the outside where a hose can be attached to carry the water to the ground.Read full reviewby I recommend this product for the quality, price, and value!Have bought three of these units and LOVE them! Easy to install, easy instructions, quiet, and compact. I live in a hot and humid state and these units are a great value!by very happy with product and sellermet all my requirements for my 500 square feet shop works great cools great, we should stay snug in the winter alsoby May not be the best for humid locations unless you disconnect the pumpAll in all I have to say I am satisfied with this AC. I read many reviews and decided to go with this unit. We are waiting to replace our broken central AC unit with a high-efficiency unit, but we have a lot of attic work to do before this happens. In the meantime, I bought this portable unit to hold us off during the hot Florida summer months. With it being 91 degrees AND humid in the house was desperate. At first we were a little disappointed because cool air was coming out, but it didn’t seem cold.

After some research, I discovered that the temperature differential is about 20 degrees, so if 90 degree air is going into the unit, 70 degree air is coming out. We knew that the area we were trying to cool was larger than the suggested room size, but we just wanted some relief from the heat. After 3 days it had cooled the house to 86 degrees. Obviously this unit wasn’t going to cool the house down, so I purchased two 8000BTU window bangers and with the help of those, this unit performed flawlessly. I am now cooling a 2,200 sq ft house with two window units and this portable unit. The house is now a comfortable 76 degrees and pleasantly dry (not humid). We have had the unit since mid-June. The second week we owned it, there was an issue with the condensate water leaking out the bottom even with a drain line connected to the outside. I called Soleus and explained my problem. They said that was not supposed to happen and offered to send a new unit to the house since they do not have local technicians.

The only problem was it would take several weeks to send mine back and wait for the new one, so I decided to investigate the problem further. After taking off the cover, I discovered there is a pump in the drain pan that sends the condensate water up a tube and back on top of the condensing (hot) coil. This is done to help evaporate the condensate. Apparently, with my level of humidity, it was sending quite a bit of water through the pump and back on top of the coil, so much so that water was finding its way to an area that did not drip into the drain pan, (so it leaked out the bottom). Since I had a drain line, I did not need the “evaporative” effect so I disconnected the pump and have not a problem ever since. The unit is a little loud, but what can you expect from having an air conditioner sitting in your living room. Luckily it comes with a remote control so I can turn the unit down (or off) if I want to watch a movie and not have to turn the volume higher. All-in-all I think the unit is well priced if it is purchased below $500.Read full reviewExplore Buying GuidesView previousView next