Summer days are great for grilling, spending time in the pool, soaking in the sunshine on bike rides and outdoor adventures—but when you come inside, nothing feels worse than warm, humid, stagnant air just hanging in your home. Coming home to a hot, stuffy house just sucks the fun right out of summer days.
If your home doesn’t have a central air conditioning system, or if you find it too costly to run a whole home air conditioner if you only use small portions of your home, a portable air conditioner is a great, lower cost, low-to-no installation solution.
There are a few different types of portable air conditioner. Here are some things to take into consideration when making your buying decision for a portable air conditioner for your home.
Why Choose a Portable Air Conditioner over a Permanent System or Window AC Unit?
Many older homes and homes in Canada and the Northeast and Northwest of the US may not have a whole home, central air conditioning system, and even if these homes do have central AC, it may not always be the most cost efficient to run. Here are some reasons why a portable AC unit may be the right choice for you:
- Whole home, central AC units, as they imply, cool the entire space of the home. If you are rarely home or only really use a small portion of your home, a whole home air conditioner is cooling more than needed, wasting energy and money.
- Older homes with less than efficient insulation or those with multiple levels may not have an air conditioning system that is powerful enough to cool both upstairs and downstairs. A portable air conditioner can help keep upstairs cool while saving wear on the central AC, as it won’t have to work overtime.
- A portable air conditioner is more practical than a window air conditioner when you want to move the unit from place to place. A portable air conditioner can easily be moved from one space to another, while a window AC is fairly permanent. If you want to cool a kitchen/living room in the afternoon and the bedroom in the evening without buying and installing multiple units, a portable air conditioner is the right choice for you.
What’s the Difference Between a Home Portable Air Conditioner Model and an Office Model?
Most homeowners—and possibly some smaller offices—find home portable air conditioners to be more than sufficient for their needs. Home portable air conditioners are smaller, unobtrusive appliances that can cool individual rooms or spaces up to 550 square feet. These small appliances are easily moved as you need them, requiring little to no installation.
Office and more industrial portable air conditioners are typically used in computer server and large data center areas to keep electronics at a cooler operating temperature without stressing the building’s main air conditioner unit. Along with their usefulness in the server room, these heavier-duty portable air conditioners can provide instant relief for larger spaces where the temperatures climb up to 115°F.
This would be helpful for a company who runs a high temperature assembly line in the summer heat or which regularly does outdoor events in enclosed tents, since they would probably need more cooling power than the average home user.
What is the Most Efficient Home Portable Air Conditioner Type?
As a part of the air cooling process, portable air conditioners draw some of the moisture out of the room air and into the air conditioning unit. Self evaporative or partial self-evaporative cooling is a feature found in newer, high quality portable air conditioners.
Self-evaporative or partial self-evaporative units are probably the most efficient overall, but they work best in areas that don’t have excessively high humidity. These units use most of the moisture collected from the room air to cool the inner coils of the AC unit, greatly reducing the water that collects or “drips” from the unit, and maximizing efficiency.
Looking for a home portable air conditioner? Shop Pure n Natural’s Portable AC section. For more information on portable air conditioners, how they work, what type and size is right for your needs and more, let's talk! Click here to talk to a member of our team today.
