All window air conditioners work in the same fashion. They cool by extracting hot and humid air from a room, cooling and dehumidifying it, and returning it back into the room while exhausting warm air to the outside. In more technical terms, a window air conditioner uses its compressor to compress refrigerant into a hot, high-pressure gas. The refrigerant gas then travels through the condenser coil, where it is condensed into a liquid and sent through the expansion valve and over the evaporator coil to absorb heat and cool down. Hot air is exhausted out through the back of the air conditioner – the part facing the outside – while cool air is blown into your room using the air return grille located on the front of the system.
Which One Is Right For You?
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Window units are mounted in a window. Portable are on wheels with a hose for hot air that must be vented out a window. If you are renting, or only need to cool one room at a time, consider a portable unit. Generally it's a trade off between cost, efficiency, and convenience. If you look at square foot cooling ratings, it'll reflect that. If you compare two 10,000 BTU units (one being a window unit, one being a wheeled united), you will find that although they may be rated the same, the wheeled unit will perform similar to a 6000-7000 unit. There are many variables on why this is. One is that extra energy is required to "pump" the hot air outside, while that isn't necessary on a window unit since the same motor that spins the indoor fan, spins the exhaust fan. Another is that many wheeled units create a vacuum. When the unit "exhausts" air to the outside, it removes air from your room, creating a vacuum. To re-establish equilibrium, air seeps into your room through cracks under doors, windows, ceiling light fixtures, etc. And on hot days, the air that "seeps" back in is hot. More expensive wheeled units have "dual" hoses to eliminate that vacuum effect by having one hose exhaust while the other is the intake. Portable air conditioners serve as an alternative to window or wall air conditioners or as a supplement to central air conditioning. They're often the only option for those living in apartment buildings that don't permit window units. Some owners say portable air conditioners are more desirable than through-the-wall installation in homes that can't accommodate window AC units. Installation doesn't require any heavy lifting, and because these units are mounted on casters, you can theoretically move them from room to room and easily store them away in the off-season. Installation does require them to be placed close to a window, however, because you'll need to run the exhaust hose outside. Portable air conditioners weigh between 50 and 90 pounds on average, and a few weigh as much as 100 pounds. On the other hand, window air conditioners are less expensive than portable models, and most people like the quiteness and say they work very well. |
