When you've purchased a portable air conditioner, it's important that you use it as well as possible. Of course, you want to get rid of the heat in your house as quickly as possible. By installing it properly and paying attention to a number of conditions, you ensure that the air conditioner functions optimally. In this article, I give you 7 tips to help you with this.
- Window sealing kit
- The right place
- Cooling in time
- Heat
- Surface area
- Drain hose
- Other devices
Tip 1: install the drain hose with a window sealing kit
Portable air conditioners always work with an exhaust hose that leads outside. To make sure a portable air conditioner functions properly, you have to mount the drain hose with a window sealing kit. Such a kit helps keep warm air out. This limits the temperature loss of the air conditioner. Check out the product manual to see how you can best mount the window sealing kit. You can find this on the product page of your portable air conditioner or of the sealing kit.
Tip 2: put the air conditioner in the right place
To use the drain hose, your portable air conditioner must always be near a window. The drain hose is usually around 150 centimeters long. A sliding window or a tilted window works better in combination with such a hose than a sloping roof window with a hinge in the middle. Such a window always has an opening through which warm air enters. This influences the cooling capacity. Make sure that the air conditioner is 30 to 40 centimeters away from the wall and that there's nothing on top of the air conditioner. Items that are on top of the air conditioner deteriorate the air circulation.
Tip 3: cool the room before it gets warm
It takes a lot of energy to get a warm room back to a nice cool temperature. That's why it's more effective to maintain a relatively cool space. For example, it's useful to switch on the air conditioner in the morning, when the room is still cool. If the portable air conditioner only needs to maintain a pleasant temperature, this will cost the device less energy. Moreover, it produces much less noise.
Tip 4: protect the room against heat
You can take a number of measures to prevent the room from heating up due to external influences, such as heat from outside. It's useful to protect the room against direct exposure to sunlight. You should use available blinds, curtains, or other window coverings. In addition, ensure that any windows and doors are closed. This prevents warm air from coming in from the outside.
Tip 5: do not place the air conditioner in a room that's too large
Every air conditioner has a maximum area that can be cooled by the device. We make a distinction between high and low heat loads. A room with a lot of sun and little insulation has higher heat loads than a dark, isolated room. If you use a portable air conditioner in a larger room than advised, you won't be able to cool the entire room. The device then only makes a lot of noise and doesn't reach the desired temperature.
Tip 6: place the drain hose as straight as possible
The drain hose of your portable air conditioner ensures that warm air flows out of the room. To do this as optimally as possible, it's important to keep the hose as straight as possible. If the hose has many kinks and bends, it's more likely that the warm air won't drain properly. This, in turn, ensures that the air conditioner has more difficulty cooling the room.
Tip 7: limit the use of electrical devices
When you use a lot of other devices in the room to be cooled, this has an effect on the performance of your air conditioner. Electronic devices produce their own heat to a certain extent. Your vacuum is a good example of this. Because a vacuum produces a lot of warm air, it may be wise not to use it on a hot day. This way, you optimize the cooling capacity of the air conditioner.
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Article by:
Daan Air Conditioner Expert.