Room Air Conditioners Buying Guide
Room air conditioners provide a cost-effective way to cool a living environment when central air is not available. They're designed to cool a high-traffic area, such as a living room or bedroom. They also come with different cooling capacities and sizes, requiring room air conditioner buyers to consider the area they're trying to cool.
-
Effective Cooling Area
-
The effective cooling area is the size of the space the air conditioner can cool. This measurement is usually given in square feet. To determine the square footage, measure the length and width of the room you intend to cool and multiply the two numbers.
British Thermal Units
-
British Thermal Units (BTU) are used to measure the cooling power of an air conditioner. The higher the BTU rating, the faster the unit will cool a given space. An air conditioner with a lower BTU rating will take longer to cool that same space. Air conditioners are usually rated between 5,000 and 15,000 BTUs.
Size and Features
-
A window air conditioner can be mounted in a window of equal or greater size than the unit itself. Units that are slightly smaller than the window are fine, because most modern air-conditioners have mounting arms that can be extended.
Price
-
Portable air conditioners are almost always more expensive than window units and they also are not nearly as effective. Window units use a simple compression system for temperature reduction. This apparatus is very old, very effective and very cheaply mass-produced. The price of window air conditioners can vary wildly.
-
