Are Portable Air Conditioners Worth Buying?

You know it’s summer when the sun is nigh, and the temperature is high. That’s when everyone starts applying certain tactics to combat the raging heat. And one of those is enlisting an Air Conditioner to battle it out against the heat waves.

Among the various types of ACs, Portable Air Conditioners occupy a unique spot in the spectrum. While they are perfect for some situations, they are the exact opposite for others. In this article, we will try to make sense of their use cases. Hopefully, you will leave with a clear understanding of whether you need one or not.

Portable Air Conditioners, unlike the other Air Conditioner types, are portable, if it wasn’t obvious already. So this should allow you to place them wherever you want, right? Well, it’s not that simple, you will have more clarity on this matter once you go through their Pros and Cons.

Pros

Portability: As specified earlier, this is the one clear-cut unique advantage that Portable ACs have over the other AC types. This allows you to place the unit at a place of your convenience.

Easy installation: Portable AC units require very little installation, they are almost plug-and-play.

Affordable: They are cheaper and hence more affordable when compared to the other types of ACs.

Cons

Noisy: They generate a lot of noise, especially when running at maximum capacity.

Limited Cooling: By design, they are built to cool small spaces, pairing this with their already low cooling power greatly impacts their cooling prowess.

Ventilation Required: A ventilation hose has to be positioned near the window to let out the hot air. This limits the movement of the AC.

Overview

Although Portable Air Conditioners are portable, it is not without some strings attached. For one, they come with a hose that has to be attached to the window. This will give you limited options for their placement. If you manage to extend the hose, you’ll be able to lengthen the leash binding down your AC.

Secondly, Portable ACs are usually heavy, so don’t expect to be able to move them easily from room to room. But you will still be able to move them nevertheless, with some added effort that is.

If you have a large space in need of cooling, then these aren’t exactly suitable for it. You would be pushing it even for medium spaces. Cooling small spaces are what these excel at. But that too is not without a few negatives.

Most Portable ACs are not very energy efficient, they end up using more power than other AC types to cool the same amount of space. It does make up for all these cons to some extent with its versatility.

If you are someone who moves frequently and is not able to get ACs installed due to being in a rented house, or if you are just looking for a cheap cooling solution without having to alter your home in the slightest then Portable Air Conditioning is the way to go.