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Energy Savings Options :: Portable Room Air Conditioners
Portable Room Air Conditioners:
Choosing the Right Single-Room and Portable Air Conditioners
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By now, nearly everyone has at least heard of portable room air conditioners. And while Single-room air conditioners might sound like a poor substitute for central air, in many situations they're more effective, better at cooling only the areas you need cooled, and a lot less expensive.
But, there are hundreds of models. So which one do you buy? For most people the decision boils down to one basic questions: how big a unit to buy? To learn how to choose perfect portable room air conditioners, keep reading.
Picking the Right Size
When buying a portable air conditioner, most people rely on recommendations from a retailer. The drawback there is that retailers may steer you toward a unit with more capacity than you really need.
That said, retailers and contractors tend to overestimate demand. It's their safety factor against callbacks on a hot summer day when you can't get cool (or vice versa with a furnace in winter).
But oversizing has another drawback besides extra cost. A unit with too much capacity might cool a room so quickly that it won't run long enough to lower humidity. That can produce an almost cold and clammy feeling.
The One-Ton Formula
One approximate sizing guide is what contractors describe as buying one ton of cooling per 500 square feet of floor space. One ton of cooling power equals 12,000 BTU/hr capacity in a room unit.
However, such a general estimate can come up short for a sunny room in an older house with minimal insulation or produce too much cooling capacity in a modern, well- insulated room.
The WHILE Formula
Another approach, called the WHILE formula, is more accurate because it takes into account more factors. Each letter stands for a feature of the room:
W stands for room width; H is ceiling height. I represents the amount of insulation (put into your calculation a 10 for an insulated, ventilated attic or an 18 for an uninsulated attic).
L stands for room length. E stands for the exposure factor (use 16 if the longest wall faces north, 17 if it faces east, 18 for south, 20 for west).
Plug in the numbers from your room, multiply them, then divide the total by 60 to find the approximate air conditioner capacity needed in the space. Bring this number with you when shopping for portable room air conditioners.
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EnergySavingsOptions.com :: Portable Room Air Conditioners