Five essential tricks to make your portable air conditioner cooler and use less electricity

When the heat hits and we want to lower the temperature a few degrees, one of the appliances we can use is the portable air conditionersdevices that have their advantages and disadvantages and that sometimes are difficult to get to work at 100% of their potential.

What can we do to get the most out of our equipment and spend less while cooling the room? Below we will review the tips and tricks more important.

Be careful with the extraction tube

The main cause of the inefficiencies of this type of air conditioners is the tube responsible for expelling the hot air to the outside of the room. It is usually made of plastic, without insulation and emits part of the heat into the room heating the environment we want to cool.

They are usually extendable tubes with a certain flexibility to facilitate their placement in any type of window, but whenever we can we should try to use the shortest possible length to minimize the radiant heat surface area within the room.

In addition, we have to try to make there are the smallest bends and possible bends, since each time it is bent it is an obstacle to the air outlet and will worsen the performance of the equipment.

Don’t constantly adjust the thermostat

Another common mistake is constantly varying the temperature of the thermostat from the remote control or from the device itself so that it provides more or less cold at a specific time.

This will cause it to have to start and stop more frequently, consuming more electricity. It is best to simply choose an intermediate target temperature, such as 25ºC and maintain that value all the time.

Keeping it at a low and constant level throughout the time will be much more efficient for the system, especially if it is an inverter type, than continuously regulating the thermostat when we are cold or hot.

Check for air leaks in the window

Although they usually come with some kind of plastic to cover possible gaps In the area of ​​the window or door where we install it, it is normal that they do not adapt perfectly to the ones you have at home, so in the end there are always gaps with leaks of cold air that escape to the outside.

Yes you can, try to cover them up even with duct tapecardboard, rags or whatever you have on hand. It won’t look very aesthetic but you’ll avoid losing the valuable cold that you worked so hard to obtain.

Clean the filters and water tray

It may seem obvious, but a dirty filter In this type of device, it can cause the air outlet to become clogged and the efficiency of the equipment to decrease considerably. It is advisable Check and clean the filters at least once every season of use or more frequently if we live in a region with a lot of suspended dust.

We also have to keep an eye on the internal containers where the device stores the condensation water to prevent mold growth, corrosion or overflow.

Do not install the air conditioner in front of a door or window.

By having to constantly expel air from the room to the street, a pressure difference which will produce incoming currents towards it from the rooms or hallways surrounding it. To prevent these currents from bringing in air from outside or from another hot room, try not to place the air conditioner right in front of a door that is not well insulated or in front of a window not insulated from the outside.

If we do it, it is easy to check by putting your hand over the crack of the poorly insulated door or window how a smoke continually enters. hot air stream coming from outside the room, which will prevent the desired temperature from being reached much sooner and will make the compressor work constantly, increasing the noise.

This problem is solved with the Models that include a double connection tube to the outside (which are not very common to find in stores), one that takes the air out and another that takes it in, not constantly expelling the air from the room to the street.

Cover image | Cecotec on Amazon

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