Question:
I am thinknig about purchasing the COSTCO portable air conditioner
WINDCHASER mdoel: PAC8. It has the highest BTU (9000) for a portable I
have seen for such a low price of $629!!! I can't believe it. Has
anyone bought or used this machine? It als advertises that you do not
need to empty out the water once collected
Answer:
I bought the Samsung 8000 btu window mount air conditioner ($350) and its
great, remote control etc. I have side opening windows and I just rigged
the thing in there half assed and it works fine. I have a feeling its
going to be a hot summer.
When I was shopping around for a portable two years ago, the lowest price
I saw for a Windchaser was $900. If you check Ebay right now, there are
some going for $649 USD, though I've seen it advertised for $500 USD
somewhere. This unit will cool a room around 300 sq feet, that is, if
there are no large windows facing the sun
These units have an exhaust air duct that gets vented outside, so the
heat does go somewhere else.
However, the *intake* air for the condenser comes from the room being
cooled, rather than outdoors as in a more conventional A/C unit.
This creates a lower pressure in the room, and more (presumably warm)
air then flows into the room from somewhere else to make up for the
air ejected outside. Thus, it's less efficient than the conventional
unit where all the hot parts are outdoors and the evaporator is
indoors, and there needn't be any flow of air into the cooled room.
