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[Updated 22-May-2022] This is an updated post from 2021. With a few random hot days so far this year, and the chance of a hot Jubilee bank holiday, many will be thinking about how to cool themselves.
In previous years, portable air conditioning units were a luxury investment, often significantly improving quality of life. No one wants to sleep in a room with a temperature above 23 degrees.
This year, things got more complicated. Air conditioners have always been expensive to run and are now much more expensive to run. I have a dedicated post on how much it costs to turn on the air conditioner. Last year it cost me about 17p an hour, now it’s double the 34p. Running it for a conservative three hours a day adds more than £30 to the electricity bill.
Personally, I use a fan to aid sleep, and if you buy a fan with a lot of speed settings, it usually lets it run quietly and help you stay cool and fall asleep. I’m using an Ansio 26 speed fan and it worked fine for me this year.
Running a fan will only cost about 2p to 3p an hour under variable tariffs in May 2022.
Recommended purchase
Types of Air Conditioners
There are several types of air conditioners on the market, ranging in price and easy to install.
From worst to best, I think:
- Evaporative [Swamp Coolers] – These are the cheap options you’ll find. They are basically a fan that blows air over cold water. They are not very effective and can significantly increase indoor humidity, which can be unpleasant in itself.
- Portable air conditioners – the ones featured in this article, are also options that most UK buyers are likely to want. They are a proper air conditioning unit and need to be vented outside.
- Single Unit Wall Mounts – These work exactly the same as the portable options but are fixed in place. Since you need to drill holes outside, there will be installation costs, but the overall result is more attractive than the portable variety.
- Wall Split Air Conditioner – The best overall solution for most UK homes, it was semi-utility installed in our home. This has a wall-mounted unit similar to the previous option, but the main air conditioning unit is installed off the property. You can then have multiple of these wall-mounted units all detached from the main unit. This obviously incurs a huge installation cost and may not be practical for many homes, but you should be able to run pipes through your attic easily.
This list is not exhaustive, window units are popular in the US, but our windows are not really designed for it. Then there are the various split systems, like central air conditioning, which is a large unit of whole house air conditioning, but only practical if the house is designed around it, or maybe a whole house renovation.
Different Types of Portable Air Conditioners – Evaporative, Single Hose, Dual Hose
If you go to Amazon, you’ll find a marked difference between prices, with some as low as £25 and many others upwards of £300. The less expensive ones use evaporative cooling, so a fan blows warm air through a water-soaked filter, which increases humidity, creates condensation, and reduces heat only slightly.Increased humidity is often associated with poor sleep Because it reduces your body’s ability to evaporate sweat.
Expensive models are more efficient, but this is a minefield. Almost all UK air conditioners are single head units that require you to run the hose outside.
Single-hose air conditioners draw warm air from a room, send it through coils cooled by refrigerant, and send the heated air and moisture out of the house through hoses.
This creates a negative air pressure condition as air is pushed out of the room.The result is any cracks around doors and windows that allow hot outdoor air to leak into the room
No dual-hose portable air conditioners in the UK
Another portable air conditioner unit is a dual-hose unit. This style has one inlet and one outlet hose. Through the air intake, air is drawn into the unit, where it is cooled, and then sent back to the living area. The machine heats up throughout the process, and the intake hose draws air from outside the house to cool the air conditioner.
The second hose sends all the warm air out of the home. With this efficient air exchange, dual-hose systems don’t have to work as hard as single-hose options.
These systems do not appear to exist on the UK market. The problem seems to be cost-effectiveness. You can buy a wall mounted split air conditioner for around £500. These will provide better performance than any portable air conditioner. The problem is that they are static and usually require professional installation, including drilling a large hole on the outside (and mounting the cooling unit on the outside).
Precautions for single-hose air conditioners?
Single-hose units have some fundamental flaws that make them ineffective in hot air, so there are a few things to consider when you use one of these units.
As the device draws warm air from your room, it creates negative pressure, drawing in more warm air through any window cracks or through doors.
So for these units, if you want it to be effective, you need to use a proper window seal, which you can buy quite cheaply online. You also need to close the door to the room.
Are they loud?
There’s no way to whitewash this, and yes, they’re pretty loud. Typically, for some of the quieter models, they run at around 38-48 decibels in quiet mode, up to 65 decibels. It is common to use 49dB-54dB in general.From this point of view, a washing machine Usually running at about 55dB, or noise like someone talking in the room or heavy traffic when you’re on the street.
The multi-unit AC system I mentioned earlier will be much quieter because the unit is outside.
buy the right size
All you need to pay attention to is buying the right size air conditioner for your room. Too small and it can’t cool the air fast enough to make a big or any difference.
They are usually measured in BTUs or British Thermal Units, and due to the inefficiency of a single hose system, you are better off sizing if possible.
There are plenty of air conditioning calculators online, and for a room about 5m long and 5m wide, this is the best place to start, and you’ll find recommendations around 9000BTU.
Power consumption: what is the running cost?
The last thing to worry about is how much do they actually cost to run?
It was expensive to run last year, and this year it is more than double the price.
A kW/ha 12000BTU air conditioner that can cool a medium to large room with a higher BTU typically uses about 1.35Kw per hour.
Based on a variable rate of 28p per kWh (approximately accurate May 2022), this will cost around 34p per hour to run.
That doesn’t sound like much, and you may find that the quality of life that comes with increased comfort is worth it. If you have a well-insulated home and well-sealed windows, you can keep uptime to a minimum.
In my experience, it can take a few hours to reach the desired temperature, and if you then turn it off, it doesn’t take that long to warm up again. I mostly use mine to cool the bedroom to a comfortable level and then turn it off while I sleep. They are too noisy to run while sleeping.
So, what are some good portable air conditioners worth buying?
Not only am I an Amazon affiliate, but because of the effectiveness or at least the value for money of these products, anything I buy will go through Amazon on Prime so I can return it easily.
Filtering out results with 4 stars and above left us with some options below. I’ve included some evaporating options that won’t be as effective, however, I appreciate that most people don’t have £300+ (me included).
Of those listed, I tend to choose Inventor Cold 9000 BTU for small rooms, or De’Longhi Penguin PACEX100 Mute Moderate room.you also need Window seals for effective cooling.
Comment: 4.3 / 5 from 1132 ratings
type: hose
cooling capacity: 9000 BTU/hour
feature: 24-hour electronic timer and thermostat, remote control
noise: 52dB
De’Longhi Penguin PACEX100 Mute
Comment: 4.2 / 5 from 370 ratings
type: hose
cooling capacity: 10000 BTU/hour
feature: Expandable exhaust hose to fit any standard slider or double hung window.
Remote control with LED display to switch between modes, set temperature and view °F and °C.
noise: 47-50dB
De’Longhi PAC N82 ECO Real Touch Portable
Comment: 4.3 / 5 from 1291 ratings
type: hose
cooling capacity: 9,400 Btu/hour
feature: 3-speed fan: Choose maximum power or minimum noise.
noise: 50-52dB
Pro Breeze 4-in-1 Portable Air Conditioner
Comment: 4 / 5 from 204 ratings
type: hose
cooling capacity: 9000 BTU/hour
feature: This portable air conditioner has 4 multi-purpose operation modes including automatic, air cooling, dehumidification, fan only and energy saving sleep mode. Use the automatic oscillation mode to direct airflow over a wide area or precise direction.
noise: no description
princess mobile air conditioner
Comment: 4.2 / 5 from 229 ratings
type: hose
cooling capacity: 7000BTU
feature: This portable air conditioner has 4 multi-purpose operation modes including automatic, air cooling, dehumidification, fan only and energy saving sleep mode. Use the automatic oscillation mode to direct airflow over a wide area or precise direction.
noise: 65dB
Overall recommendation
De’Longhi PAC N82 ECO Real Touch Portable
generalize
It’s obviously not cheap, but it’s the best rated option among the big brands. It’s Class A energy efficient, not as efficient as the PACEX100 Silent, nor silent, but there’s a £200 price difference.
- [Original Post: 22nd May 2020]
- [1st update: 17 July 2021]
- [Updated: 22nd May 2022]
Last updated on 2022-05-22 / Affiliate Links / Image from Amazon Product Advertising API
