Portable Air Conditioners

A low purchase-cost way to cool your home when you can't afford to install a central AC system is to get one or more portable air conditioners and use them on a per-occupied-room basis.

Portable, free standing Ac units are a great way to provide lower temperatures indoors when the weather outside has gotten far too hot to be comfortable any more.

The added bonus is you can move them from room to room fairly easily as long as you have set up a window or wall venting outlet in each room you'll be using them so they can simply unplug from one vent and plug in to one in the next room. I'll explain that further down the page.

Cooling on a Budget

While you won't get the same level of cooling throughout the house that you get with a central HVAC system, there are benefits to using portable units that make it worthwhile considering them as a viable cooling solution.

The major benefit with portable AC is that you only use energy to cool a room that is actually occupied. By contrast, a central cooling system cools all the rooms in the house whether there's anyone in them or not.

This can represent a major saving in energy costs as you're only using what you need and not wasting energy to cool an unoccupied room.

Of course, a big saving comes at purchase time when you only need to spend a few hundred dollars instead of a few thousand for a big system!

A single AC unit can suffice if that's all you can afford to buy, as it will cool a family room sufficiently to provide comfort and respite from the heat. At bedtime, it can be moved to a master bedroom so at least someone can get a good night's sleep.

Moving a Portable AC Around

As mentioned above, there are some things to consider if you intend moving your portable AC from room to room as you move around the house.

The major consideration is the venting system. All air conditioners, from big systems, mini-split units, window units and portables all produce hot air that must be vented to the outside.

Fixed systems do this through ducting buried in walls or ceiling cavities. Window units are already fixed to the very thing they can vent to the outside from (a window!). Portables use a vent hose attached to a window fixing kit that is generally supplied with the unit itself.

It is also possible to vent through an external wall if you get a handyman or builder to install a custom through-wall vent. But if this is beyond your budget, a window vent works just fine.

It is important to make sure there is a window or wall vent installed in each room you will be using the air conditioner. This is so it's vent hose can literally be unplugged from one window vent, the unit wheeled to the next room and the vent hose plugged into the vent in there.

Single or Dual Hose?

There are two main types of portable air conditioner when it comes to their venting operation. There are those with a single hose, which is for venting the hot air produced by the unit to the outside. There are also those with two vent hoses (dual hose), with one to vent the hot air out and the other to draw in cool, fresh air from outside to increase the cooling process efficiency.

The single hose version draws air from the room, effectively creating a circulation loop where the same air gets continually processed, while the dual hose version keeps the air fresher inside by using outside air to cool and expel into the room.

Generally, dual hose versions cost more than their single hose counterparts but the additional cost is soon recouped through the saving in energy consumption as dual hose models are more energy efficient. There is a lot of information available about the two portable AC configurations.

Below is a short video about the best dual hose portable air conditioner: