We are a website that is committed to providing you the most in-depth portable air conditioner reviews of the most popular brands in the United States and around the World. This page is dedicated to portable AC’s mainly because that is where we have most of our experience. Our goal is to educate while helping you purchase the most suitable machine for your home. That way you can stay cool and comfortable all summer long. If you’ve taken a look at the manufacturers available at Amazon, Sylvayne, Air & Water etc. you will quickly notice that there are a lot of different brands and styles to choose from. If this is your first time searching for a portable unit, then terms like “BTU” and “R410a refrigerant” may be a little confusing at the moment. However, don’t worry because we cover as much as we can about these machines in our buyers guide and reviews which can be viewed below. *(for direct access to our reviews, see the menu above, or see below.) Before you can embark on your search, you need to understand a little bit about your room.

How big is it? Where is the sun located? How many people are regularly in the room? Are you in a kitchen? Are there a lot of electronics in the room that produce heat? Knowing these things in advance is crucial for making sure you purchase the right machine for your environment. Portable AC’s are fairly heavy and some don’t have handles to make it easy to relocate. So be sure to do enough research because it’s not an item you really want to have to return. Once you understand a little more about your room and you know how many BTU’s you’re looking for, you can then start narrowing down your selection. Top brands to keep an eye out for include; Whynter, Honeywell, Sharp, LG, Frigidaire & Toyotomi. Whynter is a well known appliance company in the United States who is regarded as one of the best and most reliable AC manufacturers. They have a wide range of options to choose from, although depending on when you purchase they can be a bit pricey. Click here for a full breakdown and review of the Whynter ARC-14SH.

Honeywell is another well known American manufacturer who’s portable AC selection is starting to grow. They have excellent “low noise” single hose units, as well as dual hoses that work even more efficient, but a little bit louder. (*Honeywell’s dual hose machines have yet to hit the US market.)hvac mini split systems Read a detailed and informative review of the Honeywell MN12CES.how to hook up an air conditioning unit Toyotomi is a brand that’s manufactured in Japan and is probably a name you wouldn’t pay much attention to. cost of wall ac unitEspecially if you were basing part of your decision on visual appearance. This brand outperforms many in it’s class and is actually one on the most durable units we’ve ever used.

Get an in depth review on the Toyotomi TAD-T40LW. If you’re a business looking to find a cooling solution for your office or server room, then you might want to move your focus away from consumer units and towards the industrial brands. Commercial sized units are the best portable air conditioner machines for cooling a large space where noise level isn’t much of an issue. Your average home based machine will normally reach up to 14,000 BTU, although when using an industrial machine you can expect your BTU’s to reach as high as 100,000 or more (roughly 3,500 sq ft. of space). A few major differences between commercial portable air conditioner units and consumer units include overall noise, size, power consumption and coverage area. Industrial machines generally run much louder, are much bigger in size, use more overall power and can cool much larger rooms. Reputable commercial AC brands to look out for include; Movincool, OceanAire & Ideal-Air. For more info on deals or price drops, be sure to follow us on or .

Thomas Simon has been trying to cut back on fossil fuels. He weatherized his home and added a wood stove. But in the dead of a Vermont winter, Simon still had to rely on an oil burner to get through those cold nights and days.But now he has found something that suits his environmental beliefs and is much easier on his household budget: heat pumps. Once an expensive add-on that did not work well in cold climates like New England’s, heat pumps have gotten a technological makeover. The new generation of machines can keep a backwoods home warm even in extreme conditions — some to as low as 20 degrees below zero. And though they are powered by electricity, which is usually a very expensive way to heat a home, the new heat pumps are so efficient that they cost much less to run than a conventional oil heat system.“We’re estimating that this should save us about $1,200 a year,” Simon said as workmen were preparing to install three cold-climate heat pumps at his home in Putney. “The electric will be higher, but the savings over oil should be significant.”

The new heat pumps work so well that environmental groups are pushing them as a high-efficiency supplement to or replacement for oil-burning systems and conventional electric heaters. Many utility companies offer rebates to help soften the installation costs. Indeed, sales have been climbing steadily over the past few years since manufacturers have improved the various components — including refrigerants, compressors, and heating coils — that deliver heat from an outdoor pump.They’re becoming especially popular in rural parts of New England, such as the Berkshires, where many homes live well off the networks of pipelines that deliver low-cost natural gas for heating. Indeed, Massachusetts and Vermont each have programs that help consumers switch to heat pumps.“A lot of people are familiar with air-sourced heat pumps as a technology that’s often used in the South, where they don’t get temperatures below freezing,” said Peter McPhee, who is leading a study of heat pumps for the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center.

With “a few tweaks” to those old models, McPhee said, some manufacturers have made heat pumps that can stand up to the coldest weather New England has to offer and still operate at peak efficiency.One big improvement that has allowed heat pumps to function in cold climates is the introduction of variable-speed motors. These save energy by running more slowly — but not shutting off — when the house is at a comfortable temperature.“A lot of older equipment is either on or off,” McPhee said. “It would be like driving a car by either flooring it or putting it in idle. It makes it less efficient.”Today the electronics are more sophisticated, and manufacturers have reworked the mix of circulating gases, or refrigerants, to make them better at transferring heat inside. And insulated tubes have replaced many a drafty system of ducts.The most popular residential heat pump, called a mini-split, consists of wall-mounted indoor venting system connected to an exterior unit that looks like a small central air unit turned on its side.

The basic technology uses differences in air temperatures to move heat into a home during winter and remove it during hot weather.A mini-split system does not have vents or ducts that can lose heat along the way. The indoor and outdoor units are connected by refrigerant-circulating tubes that are fed through small holes in the wall.Mini-splits cost between $3,000 and $4,500 but the price can be much less, depending on the rebate available from the local utility.Simon, the Vermont homeowner, had three put into his house and paid $12,800, including installation.The new generation of cold-climate heat pumps could cut energy costs drastically. Cold-climate pumps generate two to three times as much heat as an electric boiler or a baseboard heater, using the same amount of electricity. That could mean huge savings for the 10 percent of Massachusetts residents who still use electric systems to heat their homes — especially this winter, because electricity prices are expected to be at their highest level in decades.

The savings over oil heat are substantial — as much as 40 percent for residents of the Northeast, according to a 2013 report from the Rocky Mountain Institute, a Colorado think tank that focuses on energy.In Massachusetts, some 30 percent of residents heat their homes with oil, while in Maine, 70 percent are still burning oil.“Putting in one or two mini-splits can really make a big difference,” said Bruce Harley, technical director of Conservation Services Group, one of the state’s largest energy-efficiency companies.Home heating specialists caution that not all new heat pumps can easily replace a fossil-fuel system; some models are rated to work only as low as 5 degrees, meaning they emit less heat in extremely cold weather.Heating technicians warn that most homeowners could not rely on a few mini-splits as their only heat source unless their home was well-insulated.“On really cold nights, there may not be enough heat,” said Dave Brunell, whose Worcester company, Pioneer Oil, does heating and cooling work.