Question:
I'm going to be buying an air-conditioner for only one room, about 10' x 12'.
Any suggestions about what to look for, or has anyone bought one recently that
was economical to buy and use?
Answer:
If you can possibly test this feature, try to test it. I have a window
air conditioner and one of the biggest annoyances is that the "fan only"
setting seems to warm the air coming into the room. I guess it's the
heat of the motor that does it, but it makes it completely useless when
the weather outside is warm but not hot. It ends up being hotter inside
than outside.
I thought this was just something that happened with all window air
conditioners but from what Pat said, I guess not - so it would help to
buy an A/C unit that doesn't heat up the outside air when on the "fan"
setting. Mine is a Frigidaire but it's several years old, I don't know
if current models have this problem.
In general a window air conditioner switched to "fan only" mode will add
heat to the inside space. A window A/C has two "air loops" or circuits if
you will. The outside one moves air thru the condenser coil which moves its
heat to the outside. The inside loop moves air over the evaporator coil
which transfers its heat to it. If the compressor is running (unit is in
"air conditioning" mode) the heat from the evaporator is moved to the
condensor and rejected to the outside. If the unit is in "fan only" mode no
heat can be removed from the inside space and heat is actually added because
the fan is doing work on the air. Any cooling you might feel is simply due
to evaporative cooling from the air moving over your skin.
