Guide to Portable Air Conditioners

Figure out what capacity of portable air conditioners you need

Like all air conditioning systems, portable air conditioners are measured in BTUs (British Thermal Units), a universal measure of heating and cooling. The square footage of the room or rooms you want to cool will determine how many BTUs are required to do the job.

I recommend: Go to ACDirect to figure out how many BTUs your portable air conditioners will require. For a chart that helps you calculate BTUs by square footage, visit Abt Electronics.

Modular air conditioners provide multiple cooling solutions

Modular air conditioners provide a variety of space-saving alternatives for small hot spots. They can be mounted on shelves or hung from the ceiling. Some modular air conditioners can be stacked to add BTU capacity. Other types of modular air conditioners are used to cool modular rooms and buildings with quick wall installations.

I recommend: Modular air conditioners like the CoolCube 10 are designed to cool small areas that pack a lot of heat, such as wiring closets, and to cool hot spots within large data or computer rooms. Fedders Corporation makes commercial modular air conditioners that can be wall-mounted in modular rooms.

Large portable spot coolers come through in emergencies

You never know when a storm, blackout or temporary power outage will affect your business and your air conditioning systems. You can minimize the inconvenience by renting portable spot coolers or portable air conditioning units and having backup generators to power them.

I recommend: Spot Coolers provides 24-hour emergency service, seven days a week nationwide for temporary and emergency portable air conditioners. They also sell new and used portable air conditioners for non-emergency permanent solutions to cool your business. Topp Portable Air provides a variety of sizes of portable air conditioners for rent nationwide.

Purchase portable air conditioners for permanent cooling solutions

Even the best-built offices can have climate issues. The temperature can be five or 10 degrees different depending on which room you're in and the sun exposure during that time of day. This can make some employees warm while others shiver in front of their computers. Portable air conditioners can provide better climate control by spot cooling hot spots and leaving the thermostat alone in other parts of the office.

I recommend: Kwikool Portable Cooling Systems offers unitary and split portable air conditioning units that can be used in computer rooms, office space or warehouses. Air & Water offers small portable air conditioners up to 16,000 BTUs that are perfect for office spaces.