What Size Portable Air Conditioner Do I Need

Portable air conditioners are simple and easy style to cool rooms that either have no air conditioning or need an extra boost.

When selecting the right portable air conditioner for your domicile, room, garage or work space, it'southward important to understand the specific energy required to do the job.

This guide will show y'all how to size a portable Ac in terms of BTUs, a specification that all of today'south units carry on their labels.

1 thing you must keep in mind is that portable air conditioners shouldn't be approached with a "bigger is improve" attitude, or fifty-fifty a "well, this one was on sale so I bought it" arroyo.

The number one thing that determines the arrangement you should buy is the room size that you will exist using it in - along with a few actress considerations.

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This is important to say upwardly front:

You can purchase the wrong portable air conditioner.

Nonetheless, this is easy to avoid if you know what yous're doing.

Fortunately, there is a simple way to decide the right size of portable air conditioner that volition give you optimal results.

And information technology all starts with understanding the energy requirements of the room you will be cooling.

What Is a BTU?

When it comes to determining the right unit size, BTU's (British Thermal Units) are where everything starts.

There are other features and characteristics to consider when making your last choice, simply nothing is more important than selecting a unit with the correct BTUs for your room, environment and needs.

BTU is an acronym that stands for "British Thermal Unit." Information technology used to be an exclusively British measurement, but has long been the standard by which an air conditioner of any type is sized.

Whatever portable air conditioner y'all come across volition have its BTU amount displayed prominently.

And then what exactly is a BTU?

BTU refers to the corporeality of energy needed to enhance the temperature of 1 pound of h2o i°F at sea level. While altitude can have a slight effect on accurately determining BTU'southward, the measurement refers to how many BTU's per 60 minutes the product tin can remove from the air around it.

Brand sense?

A unit with a high amount of BTU'south ways that information technology tin remove the heat corporeality in a larger room at an appropriate rate, which results in information technology cooling the room down.

Likewise Much or Too Piffling Is BAD

If you lot're thinking that a unit of measurement with a higher amount of BTU'southward is the best way route to have, you're incorrect.

It is possible to take also many BTU's for your item room and environment, merely as it is possible to take as well footling.

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If you use a portable A/C with also a high BTU rating in a modest room, yous'll experience unsatisfactory results, while also decreasing the lifespan of your air conditioner.

If the BTU amount is too loftier for the room, the unit will cool very quickly, but so bicycle off and then dorsum on, repeating the process to maintain the temperature yous have information technology set too.

The repeated cycling will cause the unit to non remove the humidity from the air like it's supposed to.

The terminate issue is an overworked air conditioner, an free energy neb that is higher than information technology should exist, and a room that feels mild from the excessive humidity generated.

An insufficient corporeality of BTUs is just every bit bad.

If your room is too large for your unit'due south BTU rating, information technology will run its cycle non-stop and overwork the air conditioner. You're left with a hot room and a higher free energy bill, and wasted money on a unit that can't do its job.

Calculate Your BTU Requirement

The BTU requirement of a room is difficult to judge precisely, simply you can select the right unit with the right range of BTUs to match your cooling needs and leave y'all with a properly cooled room.

The standard rule is that a portable air conditioner unit needs approximately 20 BTU for each square foot of flooring space yous cooling.

To measure out your infinite, multiply the length of the room by the width, and you have your square footage.

Hither are reliable BTU estimates for iii common room sizes:

300 foursquare feet or less = x,000 BTU
500 foursquare feet = 10,000 - 14,000 BTU
Over 500 square feet = xiv,000+ BTU

Adjustments

Since no room is exactly the aforementioned due to birdbrained shapes and other factors such as ceilings and sunlight, in that location are a few more 'adjustment' factors that need to exist accounted for when determining your last BTU requirement.

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If the space has aceiling college than 8 feet, increase the amount of BTU past 10 percentage for each foot.
If your space is heavily shaded, or yous tin can cake out nigh all of the sunlight, reduce the BTU capacity by 10 per centum.
If the infinite is sunny and full of window calorie-free on a regular footing, increment BTU capacity by ten percentage.
If there are more than two people who volition be in the space with regularity, add 600 BTU for each person that will exist occupying it.
If the unit is used in a kitchen with heavy appliance apply, or in a warmer infinite such equally a server room, increase capacity by four,000 BTU.

Concluding Word

So, to sum information technology all up, any space will exist warmer than a normal room, or gives it an increased volume, needs a little more BTU capacity, on top of the standard calculation.

By accurately adhering to these measurements and variables, y'all tin can be sure that you'll choose the right size of portable air conditioner for your detail infinite, and avoid whatever issues that would result in inadequate performance.

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