Frequently Asked Questions about Portable Air Conditioners

What is required to set a unit up? Are there any air hoses?

All portable air conditioner units exhaust hot air as part of their cooling process. This hot air is typically directed out of the space being cooled through a hot air discharge hose. This air hose is often vented out of a window, into a drop ceiling, or through a wall to an adjacent space. Depending on the unit chosen, window kits and drop ceiling panel / kits may be available or included.

Will I need to empty water? Will water collect in the unit?

With AIRLUX portable air conditioners you almost never will have to empty water as our sophisticated units are equipped with self-evaporation system that can evaporate a great a deal of moisture into their hot air discharge and hence there is either less or even no water to empty When air is cooled water is removed from the air. In general though, all portable air conditioners remove water from the air while they are cooling.

Simple units have buckets that needed to be emptied regularly (as frequently as every 5 hours to as infrequently as once a week depending on your conditions).  All units support a water drain hose being connected to allow for water to continuously drain out via gravity if desired. AIRLUX portable air conditioners are also equipped with condensate pumps that help pump this drained water through a hose if needed. This hose can be directed outside or to an inside drain point.

What size air conditioner (BTU) do I need?

In contrast to traditional window air conditioners, portable air conditioners are slightly less powerful at the same listed BTU. This is due to various reasons from manufacturers inflating their listed BTU amounts to the body of the air conditioner units being inside the space being cooled (and giving off heat). As such - we recommend customers be conservative and buy slightly more AC than they think that they might need. A general rule of thumb is that 9,000 BTU will cool a 200 square foot space and 12,000 BTU will cool a 500 square foot space. However, this is only a rule of thumb and does not take into account ceiling height (cubic space), insulation type (building construction), area of the country (ambient temperature), heat load in the space (people, electronics), windows, etc. As such, please call us for a detailed consultation.

Can I discharge the hot air out of a sliding glass door or sliding glass window?

AIRLUX units come with window kits for traditional double hung windows - only selected units will work with sliding glass doors and sliding glass windows. In some cases this may require the purchase of additional accessories. Please see the product descriptions and / or contact us for details.

I have a casement / crank out window, will this work?

There are no portable air conditioner units with a window kit that will work for a casement window. Some customers have fashioned a solution using plexiglas to cover their entire window area and then have a small hole cut into the plexiglas for the hot air discharge hose. No solution is provided "out of the box" but some customers have fashioned their own.

Will a portable air conditioner work for multiple rooms?

It depends. Similar to a window-based air conditioner portable air conditioners are good at cooling their immediate area. However the cold air will not travel down the hall or through narrow doorways. If a space has very large openings from one room to another then it is possible that adjacent spaces may see some beneficial effect. Fans can also be used to help circulate air.

What is the difference between a single hose design and a dual hose design?

AIRLUX portable air conditioners have only one air exhaust hose as oppose to some other models that have two air hoses, one for air intake and one for air exhaust. A single hose unit will take air from the room that it is in and return most of that air back into the room as cold conditioned air. A dual hose unit works by taking in air from the outside through one of its hoses and using that air to cool the unit - and then that hot air is expelled through the exhaust hose. Dual hose units use warmer unconditioned air to cool their compressors which results in slightly less efficiency and also use two fans internally which results in slightly higher energy usage.

 

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