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What Should I Look For First When Purchasing A Portable Air Conditioner?
The right air conditioner helps you cool a room e ciently. An undersized unit won't cool
adequately while one that's too large will not remove enough humidity, leaving the air
feeling damp. To find the proper air conditioner, determine the square footage of the
room you want to cool by multiplying the room length by its width. You also need to
know the air conditioner's BTU (British Thermal Unit) rating, which indicates the amount
of heat it can remove from a room. A higher number means more cooling power for a
larger room. (Be sure you are comparing only newer models to each other. Older models
may appear to have a higher capacity, but are actually the same). Be sure to "size up" if
your portable air conditioner will be placed in a very sunny room, in a kitchen, or in a room
with high ceilings. After you've found the right cooling capacity for your room, you can
look at other features.
Why Newer Products Have Lower Cooling Capacity Than Older Models
Federal regulations require manufacturers to calculate cooling capacity based on a specific
test procedure, which was changed just this year. Models manufactured before 2017 were
tested under a di erent procedure and cooling capacity was measured di erently in prior
year's models. So, while the BTUs may be lower now, the actual cooling capacity of the air
conditioners has not changed.
What is SACC?
SACC is the representative value of Seasonally Adjusted Cooling Capacity, in Btu/h, as
determined in accordance with the DOE test procedure at title 10 Code of Federal
Regulations (CFR) 430, subpart B, appendix CC and applicable sampling plans.
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