Cost is always a consideration when making a bigger purchase. Whether it is a new TV, a new car or a holiday, everyone (well most people!) have a budget in mind. Making your decision on a portable air conditioner for your home or office space is no different.
But as with other big-ticket items, there are also other factors that you need to take into account to get the right system for the requirements. Equally, it is important to ensure that you do not just choose the cheapest model – while this may seem appealing to go for the lowest ticket price, it is also important to consider factors such as warranty, life expectancy and energy costs of running cheaper models. If you are not careful, these costs can quickly increase the total cost of ownership of the cheapest models – in short, it can be false economy.
What features should you look for?
The features you need from your portable air conditioning unit will obviously vary depending on factors such as how often you will need to use it, the temperature of the climate you are in, the size of space you are expecting your machine to cool, and how portable you need it to be.
Be cool.
Let us start with the fundamental purpose of air conditioning units – keeping rooms cool. Consider the cooling capacity of the different models. An approximate guideline for figuring out what power unit you need is a BTU score of 20 for every square foot that needs to be cooled. So, for a 40 sq. foot room, you would need a BTU of 40 for example.
Without stating the obvious, it is important to choose the right portable air conditioner appropriate for the space you need to cool. Too small and you will struggle to notice the difference in your room; too large and you may quickly become annoyed by the noise your unit makes in your small office space or bedroom.
Portable air conditioning units tend to clearly show guidance for the sizes of space that they are able to cool in order to assist your calculations.
Have a plan for your portable air conditioner.
Air conditioning systems are a reasonably costly investment that can make a home, office or industrial premises a lot more comfortable. But to get the best from your machine, it is important to think carefully about your requirements and how you will deploy the unit.
If you have a larger t-shaped space for example, it may be more effective to deploy two smaller portable units instead of one larger unit. This approach will ensure that the entire space is cooled equally instead of being centred around one unit. It is also possible to deploy smaller units more discreetly into a room than one larger unit.
Keeping it efficient
There is also a financial incentive to ensuring you deploy your portable air conditioners in the most efficient way. Although you will find that more energy efficient devices require a little more investment at point of sale, the costs of running them will often prove to be considerably lower in the longer term.