Better than nothing, but if you can do a window unit, get one instead. These portable AC units constantly exhaust air out of the room so you're bringing fresh, HOT air into the room at an amazing rate. Horribly inefficient. Cheaper, faster, better, quieter to run a window unit or a minisplit.
Agree with uncool's comment. Above about 90 outside these are pretty much useless. Good for cooling a bedroom at night but these, especially the single hose units, should be your last option.
Lots of disinformation here. I used 1 of these last summer for a while. It worked awesome. I was able to keep a 12 X 17 bedroom at a crispy 69 degrees on a 90 degree day when my central air blower motor took a dump and the rest of the house was in the middle 80's.
Quote MikeS "All AC units constantly exhaust air out of the room. Duh.they convert the air from the outside into cool air blown indoors".
No, they don't. A window unit draws air from inside the room, flows it over the coils to chill it and exhausts that back into the room. It has a separate chamber that is outdoor facing to draw outdoor air in, never mixing it with indoor air, to exhaust the heat outdoors.
A portable unit on the other hand, COULD have both an intake and exhaust duct to bring in outdoor air then exhaust it back out, but a single duct unit cannot do this, must draw air from the room, which means the room must draw in air from *somewhere* or else it would create a vacuum and no longer be able to exhaust air and the unit would overheat and shut off or self destruct.
These portable units do work, are a far better option than nothing, but I'd still go with a window unit if you can.
Comments & Reviews (8)
Lots of disinformation here. I used 1 of these last summer for a while. It worked awesome. I was able to keep a 12 X 17 bedroom at a crispy 69 degrees on a 90 degree day when my central air blower motor took a dump and the rest of the house was in the middle 80's.
Quote MikeS "All AC units constantly exhaust air out of the room. Duh.they convert the air from the outside into cool air blown indoors".
No, they don't. A window unit draws air from inside the room, flows it over the coils to chill it and exhausts that back into the room. It has a separate chamber that is outdoor facing to draw outdoor air in, never mixing it with indoor air, to exhaust the heat outdoors.
A portable unit on the other hand, COULD have both an intake and exhaust duct to bring in outdoor air then exhaust it back out, but a single duct unit cannot do this, must draw air from the room, which means the room must draw in air from *somewhere* or else it would create a vacuum and no longer be able to exhaust air and the unit would overheat and shut off or self destruct.
These portable units do work, are a far better option than nothing, but I'd still go with a window unit if you can.
Thank you!