Over the years we have been selling portable air conditioners, we have come to recognize a few conversations with customers and potential customers that seem to repeat. We are always happy to talk shop with anyone who will listen, but it may help someone who needs to get cooled off to get a primer on how a portable air conditioner works, what they need to operate, and what they will and will not do.
“I have want to buy a portable air conditioner that never needs its water tank to be emptied. I have heard about them, so I know they are out there.”
There is no such thing as a portable air conditioner that will never need to have its water collection tank emptied in every circumstance. Yes, you have heard of them, but you may not have heard of the ensuing class-action lawsuits that followed (the manufacturers lost).
Water is collected from condensation to the interior water tanks, and is then sprayed onto the compressor to cool it and make it work more efficiently. That condensation is turned back into water vapor and exhausted out of the building along with the hot air.
If you live in, say, rural Alabama a few miles inland from the ocean and you want to cool off your hot basement, it is pretty likely you will have to occasionally empty the water tank. You are in a very hot, humid climate. If you live, say, in Michigan and want to cool off your living room, it is very likely that the tank will never need emptied. It is a matter of what is being collected being less than what is exhausted.
One option that is available is to attach the provided hose to the portable air conditioner you do buy and drain the water tank as it fills. Almost all portable air conditioners offer this feature, and they almost always include the hose and fitting to do so.
“My office windows do not open, the building is brick, and my landlord won’t let me cut a hole in the wall regardless. I need a portable air conditioner that does not need to be vented. I have heard about them, so I know they are out there.”
There is no such thing as a portable air conditioner that does not need to be vented. Anything that cools, be it a portable air conditioner, a freezer or a popsicle maker works on the principle that one part of the machine gets hot and one part of the machine gets cold. In this case, the cold air is vented to the living area, and the hot air has to go somewhere. Anyone who claims to have invented a machine that does otherwise is claiming to have built a perpetual motion machine, in this case one that violates Newton’s law of the conservation of energy. A cause without an effect.
You may have heard about a split air conditioner, where the compressor (hot) is physically located outside and the condenser (cold) is physically located inside, with the two being connected by two pipes that carry compressed and rarified refrigerant gasses. These units still necessitate drilling holes in the building, but they can often be put places where no other type of air conditioner can be used. Split systems are permanent installations.
“I don’t have a way to exhaust hot air to the outside. But I can exhaust the hot air into the attic/suspended ceiling/co worker’s office. I have heard of people doing this so I know it is okay.”
That depends. The air from a portable air conditioner is not only hot, but it contains water. Lots of water.
Pumping the exaust into a cooler environment such as a crawlspace or basement may cause the water to come dumping out of air. This can lead to rotting structural wooden members, mold (makes everyone sick), and direct water damage.
If you have to exhaust your portable air conditioner into another room of any kind, bigger is always better. It may be possible to do so to the attic if the attic properly vented and has enough cubic feet of air to absorb the incoming exhaust. Exhausting into a suspended ceiling is asking for disaster. The panels of a suspended ceiling will absorb water, mold and spoil, and may even fall down.
A rule of thumb, never vent a portable air conditioner into any environment that you would not vent your clothes dryer into. The bottom line is, venting to the outside really is the best policy.
“My interior office is 40 feet from the nearest outside wall. My landlord says go ahead and cut a vent to the outside, but I will need about 60 feet of hose. I read a blog about this somewhere where it worked, so I know it can be done.”
It may have been done, but it did not work. There is a limit on how much pressure the blower in a portable air conditioner can generate. To be clear, they are not underpowered by any stretch, they move a lot of air and work well when properly installed.
We spend our lives bathed in a blanket of air and tend to not think about air having weight. The longer the hose, the more weight the air will have within that hose and the more friction there will be against its walls and the air itself. It is the same if you have ever put a garden hose to your lips and blown through it, it takes a lot of lung power!
A portable air conditioner needs to be near where it will be exhausted. The hoses included with the unit do extend to some eight to ten feet, but that is all. If you are going to use an extended hose, keep it as short as possible, smooth on the interior, and always with an upward path. Warm air rises, so you want the rising air to pull itself away from the machine.
“I must buy a two hose portable air conditioner. I have heard they are more efficient than one hose portable air conditioners, and nothing else will do.”
Portable air conditioners come with either one hose or two hoses. With a one hose unit, room air is circulated over the cold part of the machine and air from the room is circulated over the hot part of the machine and exhausted to the outside.
Since every bucket full of air you throw from inside must be replaced by a bucket full of air from outside, a single hose unit causes summer air to be pulled into the building. It is the same idea that makes the far parts of the house colder when you have a fire in the fireplace, the air is being pulled from the outside in those rooms to feed the fire.
A double hose unit draws air from the outside and circulates it over the hot part of the machine. A two hose portable ac does not create negative pressure in the building, so it keeps the summer air out.
While doubles are more efficient, there is a mitigating factor. Some people wheel their portable ac units in and park them for the summer, others use them room-to-room. If you are a parker, double is fine. But if you are a room-to-roomer, you may want to back away from the ‘gotta-haves’. Those hoses are bigger than you might expect, they make a lot of noise, are not soft, and flail about when being moved. From a live-ability standpoint, single hose is better.
Single hose units are not inefficient, the double hose units are just more efficient. You will have to live with this thing and a convenient, single hose unit will be easier on your sanity.
Misconceptions about what a portable air conditioner will and will not do are common, and it helps to get expectations in line before making an actual purchase.
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