Good Offer For You To Go Portable Or Window AC: That Is The Question For Apartment Dwellers

If you don't have central air, don't like the hassle of installing and removing window units every year, or live in a building that doesn't allow them, you might consider a portable air conditioner to cool your apartment in the dog days of summer.

It gives you flexibility in terms of where you can use it. By night, you probably want to have it in your bedroom. By day, your living room or office. It's on wheels, which makes transporting from room to room easier than taking a wall unit out and dragging into another room. It's also more economical than purchasing several wall units for one residence.

It's easier and safer to install than a window unit, which runs the risk of falling out if incorrectly installed. As long as you have access to a window to run the exhaust hose through to the outside, you're set.

They come in single-hosed units where there's one hose running from the back of the portable air conditioner to the vent to release the hot air. These units can typically cool a 475 sq. ft. room and have at most a cooling power of 12,000 BTUs/hour and work best in small rooms.

Dual-hosed units are most effective in large rooms because one hose vents hot air from the unit and the other draws more air from the outside. It has a cooling power of up to 14,000 BTUs/hour and cools a room of 500 sq. ft.

In addition to single- and dual-hosed units, there are portable ACs that come in split configuration, including a compressor and evaporate located in a separate external package with the two units connected via two detachable refrigerant pipes. They're better than the other two options because the internal noise and size of unit is smaller because the compressor is outside and the water is collected out there so you don't need to drain it. But they also require a balcony or deck to accommodate all the external pieces.

The downsides?

● Hoses tend to be short, limiting how far you can place the unit from the window;

● Portables are fairly large and bulky (the size of a trash can), taking up valuable space and making it less than easy to drag around despite their wheels;

● Units are not as energy efficient as a window units. You'd need a higher BTU to have the same cooling effect;

For a residence where more than two persons are present most of the time, you'd probably want to break down and have central air installed for the most efficient and comfortable cooling. Portable and window units are good for households that don't have a need for round-the-clock operation.