Perfect for a variety of cooling situations, portable air conditioners are great alternatives to traditional air conditioning systems because they're compact, mobile, and require no permanent installation.  Moreover, because they're usually used to cool only certain parts of a home or as a supplement to central air conditioners, they can be much more cost-effective to run.When deciding on a portable air conditioner, there are many important factors to consider. Some consumers may mistakenly purchase a portable AC that is inadequate for their cooling needs. Here are a few common mistakes to avoid when shopping for a portable air conditioner:Don't be confused by terms such as "portable air conditioner" and "air cooler," because these two appliances are quite different. While they both cool, they use completely different cooling methods to achieve lower ambient temperatures. Furthermore, portable air conditioners and air coolers (also known as "evaporative coolers" or "swamp coolers") have certain climate requirements.

Portable air conditioners use refrigerants to reduce the temperature. During the cooling process, moisture is condensed out of the air and collected in a drain bucket or exhausted out through a drain hose or evaporated out the exhaust. Evaporative coolers use the simple process of evaporation to provide cooler air. air conditioning unit cost newA frame with a large fan is walled in by water-soaked pads, and this fan blows the warm outside air through the continually soaked pads to produce a cooling effect. heating cooling unit coversAs a result, the air can be cooled by as much as 20 degrees.air conditioner for one room no windowClimate Restrictions: These two types of portable coolers have climate restrictions. Because portable air conditioners act as dehumidifiers, they're best suited for areas with moderate humidity levels.

On the other hand, swamp coolers add moisture to the air, so they are most effective in arid climates. Consequently, if the humidity level in your environment is above 20%, a swamp cooler will not work and a portable air conditioner will be more suitable. The correct way to determine a portable AC's cooling efficiency is to calculate the unit's BTUs and hope the air conditioner will provide cooling comfort in a variety of conditions. But this method can sometimes be inaccurate.  A portable air conditioner's BTUs is a good predictor of its cooling ability, but some other factors should be considered, such as the dimensions of the room and where the AC will be placed.BTU is an acronym for British Thermal Units and describes an air conditioner's cooling capacity.  The higher the BTU, the stronger the air conditioner. However, the size of the room you're cooling is also important, and if you choose a portable AC with an incorrect number of BTUs, cooling efficiency will be compromised. A higher BTU rating than its corresponding room size will result in quick cycling and the inability to dehumidify the air.

Also, if a portable AC has a lower BTU rating than is required for a particular room, there will not be adequate cooling. When choosing a portable AC and its BTU requirements, consider your room's dimensions and where it will be located. Shaded areas require a BTU reduction of 10%; sunny areas will require an increase in BTUs by 10%; and kitchens will need an addition 4,000 BTUs overall. EER stands for "Energy Efficiency Ratio" and measures how efficient a cooling system will operate when the outdoor temperature is at a certain level (usually at 95° F). This measurement is calculated as a ratio of BTUs to the amount of power the portable air conditioner consumes in watts. The following is an example of how EER is calculated for an air conditioner with 12,000 BTUs and consuming 1500 watts: Here is an example of another portable AC with the same BTU rating but using 1200 watts of power.  This results in a higher EER:12,000 / 1200 = 10EER = 10The above calculations show that the second portable AC produces the same amount of cooling as the first but is more energy efficient.

With that said, if you want to save money on your energy costs, choose an appropriately sized portable air conditioner with a high EER.Despite the fact that portable air conditioners require no permanent installation, they will need to be vented either through a window, drop ceiling, or wall due to the fact that they exhaust hot air from indoors and work as humidifiers. Therefore, this moisture must be vented out with the use of a venting kit that is provided with your air conditioning unit. When purchasing a portable air conditioner, keep your venting requirements in mind, and if venting through a window, be sure the window you intend to install the vent on matches the type of window covered by the kit (i.e., sliding or casement-type windows). Keep power considerations in mind when choosing a portable AC because insufficient power can cause a fuse to be broken. Pay attention to the plug type in your wall outlet and be aware that smaller portable ACs require 115-volt outlets but larger portable ACs may even require a 230/280-volt circuit.

Portable Cooling Guide Main Page The Honeywell MM14CCS portable air conditioner cools, dehumidifies and circulates air in a 550 square foot room for a sensible price. Its modern look and remote make it a small-room charmer with a few caveats. Cools a small room quickly Small and reasonably priced Louder cooling to no cooling transitions No dual hose setup out of the box The Honeywell MM14CCS 14,000 BTU helps ease the common misconception that the hot, sunny weather in Los Angeles is always "nice," thanks to this portable air conditioner's cool high-tech breeze that comes at a reasonable price.Because Southern California is pretty much warm year-round and not every building has central air conditioning or a window that fits a normal AC unit, my home computer is always cranking up the apartment heat index all day long. It can get roasting.I've thought about buying a portable air conditioner every year since I moved here, but always wondered: are they worth the price?

Or can I ride out the several scorching hot weeks again? The reviews out there are mostly inconclusive, often from shoppers with no clear consensus.Testing out the Honeywell MM14CCS for an entire summer and into the still-too-hot fall, I was able to gauge just how good a portable air condition can be over the course of several weeks.Here's the 411 on this 14,000 BTU AC unit, which costs $549 at Amazon during Cyber Week deals this holiday season, edging out the rival Whynter Portable AC model. The MM14CCS Portable Air Conditioner is Honeywell's top-of-the-line unit that blasts out 14,000 British Thermal Units. That lets it cool a 550 square foot room in a matter of 30 minutes.That's enough for my office to drop ten degrees, from 85 to 75 degrees Fahrenheit, and it does a reasonable job in my larger front room when placed it out there, too. With all windows and doors closed, making the space smaller, it drops the temperature five degrees.It's been a pleasure to wake up in a bedroom and actually be too cold during heatwave and turn on the news, then walk into another room only to realize the significant temperature difference.

That said, this isn't a magical air conditioner that will cool your entire home. This isn't a central air replacement.Besides cooling, this particular model has dehumidification, up to 95 pints every 24 hours. It also uses an auto-evaporation system so that I didn't have to drain water from it every few days. In fact, I haven't had to drain the water more a few times over the course of my seven-week test.During my Honeywell MM14CCS review testing I found it to deliver the promised powerful airflow and, for the most part, quiet operation of 55 dbA.The one caveat is when the cooling turns on and off. The noise is abrupt if you're just dozing off, which wouldn't be that big of a deal if it happened once, except when the room temperature constantly hovers between that perfect temp and one degree higher, it can happen multiple times in an hour. That's when it's best to set that auto-off timer.Along the front of the Honeywell MM14CCS is a long, blue digital LCD display that lets me transition my office from cool to cooler within a few minutes.

There are capacitive buttons, which Honeywell calls its feather-touch buttons, and they're backlit so it's easy to see them in the dark. Don't worry, that blue backlight turns off after a minute.Setting for modes of "Cooling, Fan and Dehumidification" is fairly simple to navigate (once I read the instruction stickers to determine what the on-screen icons meant), and an included remote makes the task even easier to understand and operate.The RF remote (which requires 2 AAA batteries) includes a display of its own, showing the current mode, fan speed, current room temperature in the room and an intuitive programmable 24-hour timer. I did have to learn is that the current room temperature is the one constantly displayed. The desired temperature, on the other hand, is shown blinking only when cycling through the degrees with the up and down buttons. It soon reverts back to the room temperature, inching closer to that perfect number.I appreciated this 5-inch remote, but it's easy to lose, like my diminutive Apple TV remote, and I was really hoping that Honeywell MM14CCS would jump further into the Internet of Things world with a smartphone app.

Having my iPhone or Android phone set the temperature, mode and timer would have made the experience even better. To be fair, no portable air conditioner I've tried is up to "fan speed" on this development yet. However, I imagine this interconnectivity is coming in the next few years to future portable AC units.The Honeywell MM14CCS 14,000 BTU design is what attracted me to this particular model. This two-toned black-and-silver tower has dimensions are smaller than its rivals, with measurements of 34 x 19.92 x 15.79 inches and a weight of 73.85 pounds. The vent opens at the top, so it really requires 36 inches of height in the end.That makes this portable air conditioner easy to stick into a small room, and it comes with four caster wheels at the bottom to cart around between rooms. It doesn't take too much muscle to move the MM14CCS, so you won't break a sweat while the AC is temporarily off.What can complicate your positioning of the air conditioner is the flexible exhaust hose. Like all real portable air conditioners (not glorified cooling fans), it requires the hot air it sucks out of a room to go somewhere, like an open window.

Like an accordion, there's a single exhaust hose that extends. It's 5 inches in diameter and stretches up to almost 5 feet in length to reach a nearby window. It's not the most eye-pleasing tube, but there's a window venting kit that acts as a panel-like attachment that's easy to install and sits in an slightly ajar window.There's no second intake hose included, instead relying on a built-in vent on the backside of the portable air conditioner. You can of course purchase a second hose for precise room cooling. That's the one advantage of the Whynter 14,000 BTU Dual Hose Portable Air Conditioner, which has two hoses that stretch 60 inches.Cooling is the primary job of the Honeywell MM14CCS 14,000 BTU, and it accomplishes without sweating the task. It consistently took my room temperature down ten degrees when asked and it doesn't require much maintenance or space compared to other portable air conditioners.It's modern looking with a blue LCD display and capacitive buttons, and there's a 5-inch remote control that extends all of the functionality to me while across the room.

The best part is its size. Not all portable AC units are, well, portable. The wheels and dimensions make it a synch to set up in any home or small office room, and it's cheaper than its competitors.Honeywell made this air conditioner quiet, except when it transitions between cooling on and off. It's only an issue in the dead of night if you're using the unit while sleeping. It does such a good job getting to a specific temperature, then tries to keep it that way by turning on and off.This is the best Honeywell air conditioner out there right now, but a more advanced unit adds one feature the MM14CCS: heating. The MM14CHCS adds a 12,000 BTU heat pump for $50 extra. Also, the MM14CCS lacks the lengthier dual hose system of the Whynter, which is also more expensive for what's roughly the same specs and design. All portable air conditioners could use an upgrade with smartphone controls, in my opinion.The Honeywell MM14CCS, at the powerful 14,000 BTU level, is the best portable air conditioner I have found for a relatively low price.