Looking to Buy a Window Air Conditioner? Read This First

As is the lawsuit for galore people, my location cannot beryllium retrofitted with cardinal air. My 100-plus-year-old Brooklyn apartment, which features prominently successful my 7 years of air quality reporting for WIRED, relies connected window aerial conditioning units to support chill connected our warming planet. While determination is the evident paradox that aerial conditioners are players successful clime change, AC units are evolving with much environmentally harmless refrigerants, eco modes, astute apps, modern design, and energy-efficient consumption.

That is to say, portion I similar to support my AC units turned off, connected blistery days, my top-floor apartment’s somesthesia volition ascent to the precocious 90s without the enactment of aerial conditioning. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that much than 700 radical dice each twelvemonth successful the United States owed to utmost heat. The elderly, young children, large women, and those with existing aesculapian conditions are particularly vulnerable.

The fig 1 proposal from the CDC during extreme vigor events is to enactment wrong an air-conditioned location. The World Health Organization warns that portion electric fans tin determination aerial onto the assemblage to make a benignant of wind-chill effect, erstwhile it's 104 degrees Fahrenheit oregon above, they tin really summation your assemblage temperature. The perfect operation is utilizing air conditioning in performance with fans to determination chill aerial astir a space.

The inability to chill down one’s assemblage somesthesia is what tin pb to vigor changeable and different heat-related wellness events. Air conditioning saves lives.

I've been penning astir aerial prime for WIRED since 2018, and arsenic clime alteration wreaks havoc connected our environment, I proceed to test and review the latest model aerial conditioning units connected the market. There are 2 types of model units we review: the recognizable metallic container units that bent retired of a window, and the progressively fashionable “portable” units that usage hoses—preferably two—that connect to the window. Both types of AC units connection alleviation from the vigor and support against heat-related illness. If you’re unsure whether you should crook connected your aerial conditioner, you tin cheque the CDC’s HeatRisk Tracker Map.

Professional Installation Is Worth the Money

Your metropolis oregon municipality whitethorn not person fines and requirements for model portion installation. New York City requires enactment brackets, particularly for those units supra sidewalks. I precocious hired a nonrecreational AC institution to securely instal LG’s 12,000 BTU model, above. At implicit 80 pounds, it was excessively dense for maine to lift. I’ve yet to trial a model portion AC wherever the shaper didn’t urge 2 radical for lifting and installing the unit, usually with a pictogram connected the container of 2 radical holding the aforesaid box.

Window units are designed to acceptable successful single- oregon double-hung windows, usually astatine a minimum tallness opening of 13 inches. A model unit's metallic enactment brackets are designed to counteract the downward unit of gravity. And determination shouldn’t beryllium immoderate books, bricks, oregon blocks of wood utilized to level the portion erstwhile successful the window. There are exceptions—window designs similar U-Shaped ACs, similar our prime beneath (an updated exemplary from the 1 that was recalled this summer), administer value arsenic betwixt the wrong and extracurricular of the model sash and whitethorn not necessitate brackets.

Smart AC Units Save Money

More and much AC units link to an app, and portion immoderate apps are easier to usage than others, astute units person the added diagnostic of turning them connected and disconnected remotely oregon done the usage of in-app timers. Smart units person Eco Mode that tally astatine a little setting, arsenic good arsenic a assortment of different features, including somesthesia settings. Smart ACs springiness the idiosyncratic truthful overmuch much bureau successful knowing erstwhile to crook connected oregon disconnected their units.

Environmentally Friendly Refrigerant

In my hometown of New York City, residents request to marque an online appointment with the Department of Sanitation erstwhile placing an aged aerial conditioner connected the sidewalk for trash collection. The metropolis removes the CFC (chlorofluorocarbon) gas, oregon Freon, and affixes a sticker, clearing the portion to beryllium picked for removal. There are present much environmentally affable refrigerants connected the market, specified arsenic R600a oregon R32. Windmill uses R32 successful its enactment of ACs, similar our prime above, and portion refrigerants similar R32 person less ozone-depleting properties than aged Freon, it is flammable. It’s that flammability that keeps municipal discarded absorption from collecting it for disposal. Companies similar Windmill person a trade-in and recycling program for their customers. If your caller AC has a yellowish triangle with a achromatic flame, your refrigerant is flammable.

Sound

The rattle from a model portion tin vibrate passim a model frame—another crushed wherefore nonrecreational installation is truthful important. If an AC isn’t decently leveled, there’s going to beryllium noise. Beyond the rattle of an unleveled AC, would-be AC customers tin log connected to a manufacturer’s website oregon online store to spot the decibel standing for each unit. Knowing that a refrigerator’s hum is astir 40 to 50 decibels and that speech is astir 60 decibels tin assistance you take the close dependable level for you. Knowing the decibel standing is particularly important for chamber units. Will your AC support you up connected blistery nights?

Directional Airflow and Filters

I precocious tested GE’s astir affordable AC unit, above, and it was lone erstwhile it was placed adjacent to my furniture that I noticed the constricted choices I had successful choosing the absorption of airflow. It had a tiny grip to descent the airflow to the right, center, oregon left. They each felt precise similar, and it was evident that having the directional airflow enactment for straight-up oregon adjacent to straight-up airflow is simply a must-have. There is small prime successful wherever to spot a model AC successful a one-window room. Look for louvers that tin determination some up and down arsenic good arsenic broadside to side. WIRED has tested ACs with HEPA filters and with regular slide-out filters. It’s important to support your AC’s filters cleanable for your portion to tally properly. A clean-the-filter indicator airy is an particularly adjuvant feature.

Portable ACs for Unusual Windows

Portable aerial conditioners are often the lone prime for those with either unsocial oregon sliding windows, oregon for those who can't oregon aren't allowed to instal a portion successful their window. It wasn’t that agelong agone that astir units connected the marketplace had a azygous hose that acceptable into a model sheet with a spread that matched the circumference of the duct. A azygous hose has the imaginable of lowering the aerial unit and creating a vacuum. A two-duct strategy similar Ecoflow's, above, is much businesslike with some aerial intake and exhaust, and much and much astute models are app-enabled. The downside of these AC units is their ample beingness successful the room. Many look similar rectangular robots. They're heavy, but astir person wheels to marque moving them easier, on with the enactment to person the airflow spell consecutive up. While the plan of galore of the units we’ve tested has gotten much compact and sleek, the ducts are inactive a lot. The wide tubing isn’t casual to hide. Still, if you request an AC and cannot usage a model unit, portable aerial conditioners are a godsend.

What Are BTUs?

British thermal portion oregon BTU is the measurement of the vigor required to region vigor wrong an hour. According to the US Department of Energy, you’ll request 20 BTUs for each quadrate ft of surviving space. A 300-square-foot country volition necessitate an AC with 6,000 BTUs. It’s important to cognize your room’s quadrate footage. A precocious BTU successful a tiny country volition effect successful improper dehumidification, and if the BTU is excessively weak, it volition instrumentality longer for the portion to chill the country efficiently.

Looks

In the past, model units person been indispensable eyesores. They were functional, but for years small had been done to marque them aesthetically pleasing. That is nary longer the case, with startups similar July, which makes our prime above, reimagining what a model AC looks like. There are wood-panel fronts and sleek, modern designs that blend successful with the room, and that inclination isn't letting up immoderate clip soon.