How to Know If Your Air Conditioner Has Enough Energy for Your Room
It would be great if some kind of portable air conditioner could be inserted right into your window and immediately cool your home, but the size of the room in question is the most important aspect of your search for satisfactory air conditioning. You don’t want to place a smaller device in front of a large, sprawling room in the hope that it will give you a breather from the heat.
The size and energy intensity should work in direct proportion to the size of your room. This sounds logical enough, but it’s absolutely imperative that you get the right unit so that you don’t sweat all summer or turn your living room into an ice box.
How to find the right portable air conditioner
The basics are pretty simple. You should measure your window, or if you’re lucky enough to have a slot dedicated to an AC unit, measure that. Most major box retailers will have options, including Amazon, Home Depot, and Best Buy. Once you’ve decided on the sizing, you’ll want to move on to more important discussions: namely, how many BTUs you need.
There are two different types of portable AC units: those that fit in your window, and portable units with two hoses that don’t fit in windows or wall openings. You will mainly see models with two hoses cooling large rooms – for example, a library that does not have a central air conditioning system. For our purposes, we will stick to window units as it is about cooling your apartment or house.
What is BTU?
The energy used by portable air conditioners is measured in British Thermal Unit or BTU. Specifically, as the plumbing website BHI Service writes , “One British thermal unit represents the amount of energy required to raise the temperature of a pound of water by 1 ° F.”
All units are rated in BTU, which is a number that explains the energy range and capacity of the air conditioner. Basically, the higher the BTU, the more power the device consumes, but also the higher its ability to cool a large room. Or think of it this way: high BTU values are good for cooling large rooms, while lower BTU values are good for a smaller room.
These are online tools to help you figure out which BTU rating is right for your square footage, but you can also calculate the numbers yourself. As Consumer Reports notes , “an air conditioner requires 20 BTUs for every square foot of living space.” Most AC units have 5,000 to 12,500 BTU ranges, the publication notes, so you can estimate your needs based on those criteria.
How many BTUs do you need for your room?
Your living room or bedroom may not be the easiest place to cool off, especially if it has large windows directly in the sun or high ceilings that trap warm air.
Since certain features may dictate your purchasing needs, air conditioner manufacturer Sylvane offers some guidelines :
- 7,500 BTUs cover 150 square feet x 8-foot ceiling = 1200 cubic feet.
- 9000 BTUs cover 200 square feet x 8-foot ceiling = 1600 cubic feet.
- 10,000 BTUs cover 300 square feet x 8 foot ceiling = 2,400 cubic feet.
- 12,000 BTUs cover 400 square feet x 8-foot ceiling = 3200 cubic feet.
- 13,000 BTUs cover 450 square feet x 8-foot ceiling = 3600 cubic feet.
- 14,000 BTUs cover 500 square feet x 8 foot ceiling = 4,000 cubic feet.
When it comes to measuring square feet, Consumer Reports recommends “measure your room, multiply length by width.” Add together the dimensions of the rooms that are not separated by doors, because the air conditioner will need to cool both rooms. “
Hopefully this gets you thinking about the right air conditioner to cool your supposedly stuffy home this summer.