An energy-saver setting stops the fan when the compressor is off. These features save electricity. We respect your privacy. All email addresses you provide will be used just for sending this story. Sign In. Become a Member. Remember Me. Forgot username or password?
Not a member? Need further assistance? Please call Member Services at Air Conditioners. Sign in or Become a Member. Find the Best Air Conditioner for Your Space We test, evaluate, and compare the latest air conditioners, so you can save time and money. Things to Consider Look for Energy Misers New Energy Star certified room air conditioners come with better insulating materials and clearer instructions to help ensure that you get a good seal around the unit, minimizing leaks.
Illustration: Brown Bird Design. Which Model Is Right for You? Video Buying Guide For more information, watch our buying guide below. Window Air Conditioner Ratings. Controls Touchpads with large LED displays, sizable and uncrowded buttons, clear labeling, and digital temperature readouts are easier to use. Directional Airflow Vents Air conditioners have louvers you can adjust to direct airflow vertically or horizontally.
Dehumidifying Mode This feature is useful on humid but cool days in spring and fall. Brands All the brands below make window air conditioners that are Energy Star certified. Friedrich is a smaller manufacturer of more expensive window air conditioners available at regional appliance retailers. Friedrich makes models with Btu from 5, to 24, GE is the market-share leader in window air conditioners.
GE is owned by Haier. Kenmore markets units with Btu from 5, to 24, LG is a national brand available at a wide variety of independent and regional appliance retailers, as well as Home Depot. Midea air conditioners are fairly new to our ratings. Based in China, the company manufactures commercial heating, ventilating, and air conditioning products in addition to its innovative consumer line.
This feature alone is a pretty great perk, especially for those who have limited window space in their home, who might want to get some circulation going for health reasons, or who just want to enjoy the occasional gust of fresh summer air. It also means that most of the louder hardware sits in the rear part of the unit—on the other side of the window, outside your home.
In fact, during our tests of the Midea U, it was difficult for us to take exact volume measurements that we could replicate without also picking up the white noise in the background inside and outside the home.
At best, we measured the lowest, fan-only setting on the Midea U at 35 decibels—which is basically unnoticeable, especially if you live in a densely populated area. The compressor added only about 3 decibels of volume to the sound of the fan alone. This result initially surprised us, but it makes sense, as the compressor is housed outside the window, so the glass serves as an extra buffer to help muffle the sound.
Even the audio frequencies remained mostly the same between the fan-only and compressor modes. We heard none of those awful midrange drones or high-pitched whines that are often associated with window ACs; instead, the compressor just added a slight boost around 13, Hz, which is toward the very top of the human hearing range anyway.
Most of the frequency spikes that we measured from the fan alone were even higher-pitched than that, so we barely even noticed them. As far as we can tell, this sound comes from the pressure or vibrations of the unit rubbing up against the glass of the window. We might be wrong, but either way, the noise is brief, and it disappears quickly. Speaking of the compressor: Unlike most air conditioners, the Midea U has an inverter or variable-speed compressor. Put another way: The Midea U has an energy-efficiency ratio of 15, as listed by the EPA , while the other, non-inverter models we tested all maxed out between 11 and Because of its unique design, the Midea U also comes with its own window bracket to help secure the unit.
This bracket is similar to our top-pick window bracket, the Top Shelf TSB , as it has some customized grooves that allow the U-shaped AC to rest precisely on it. The Midea U also comes with a number of security features, including a pair of extendable latches to prevent anyone from opening your window from the outside.
Guide co-author Thom Dunn actually broke one of the latches by accident, but even only one of them made it impossible for him to break into his own house—which is good!
Some personal perspective from guide co-author Thom Dunn: Installing an air conditioner in your window quite frankly sucks. I say this as a 6-foot-tall, pound man; there are many people who are smaller or less able-bodied than me for whom it sucks even more. The Midea U comes with four—yes, four—separate instruction booklets, and none of them provide any useful guidance for how to install the thing.
Luckily, taking it out of the window was simple. But when it came time to reinstall it the following year, I made the mistake of confidently assuming that I knew what I was doing that go-round; within minutes, I had invented a colorful menagerie of new profanity.
Generally speaking, YouTube is your friend. These bars are meant to slide into the window tracks to keep the air conditioner in place. Supposedly, the bracket is designed to have all of this lined up right, but it might not work on every window like mine. Only then, extend those metal bars into the window tracks.
Make sure the window fits into the canyon, and then you can finally lock the front and back braces of the bracket into place. Secure everything as necessary for your specific window using the included hardware. Finally, slap some installation padding everywhere you can. You should be good to go—until next year, anyway. You might also be one of the lucky people who have a perfectly sized sill and sash for locking the Midea bracket into place, plopping the AC on top, and having it all line up without a problem.
This is known to happen the AC is designed to some sort of standard, after all. May the odds be ever in your favor. The manuals also give no real explanation of the Sleep Curve and Express Modes features in the app.
But at least the UI of the app itself is smooth and clear enough to give you the gist and guide you through the setup process. Like many window air conditioners, the Midea U lacks a drainage plug, so the condensation that collects in the heat-removal process just kind of sits in the back of the unit.
In the first few days of noticing this, we kept thinking there were sun showers outside that hit only our patio furniture; eventually, we realized that the fan was flicking the water out of the condensate pan and all over everything else. But it is occasionally annoying. The smart-home features and voice commands are similar to what you get with the Midea U, too, with the addition of location services and Apple HomeKit compatibility a rarity in the AC field.
The compressor adds about 10 decibels, but even then this AC is still quieter than any of our previous picks; at its absolute loudest with the compressor running and the fan on high, this GE model was about as loud as our discontinued upgrade pick, the Frigidaire Cool Connect FGRCWA1 , on the same setting, and it was still quieter than the average conversation.
The company has made tremendous strides in its smart-home integration since , too, with a clean app interface and much more natural voice commands. Even so, it is still quieter and less annoying than most other ACs, and the sound is a fair trade-off if you want to save some money.
Both models are Energy Star certified. We measured the FHWWWBE at 50 decibels from 6 feet away on the lowest, fan-only setting and 55 decibels on the max setting with the compressor. Those results make this model about 3 to 8 decibels louder than the Midea U at its absolute highest volume, or about the same as the GE model when it runs the compressor with its fan on medium or high.
This Frigidaire model does emit some more noticeable and higher-pitched whines, however, including peaks at 7,, 9,, and 16, Hz, as well as a low-end mechanical growl around 3, Hz. The faster the fan moves, the more these noise spikes tend to disappear and blend into the blur of white noise. The disc-shaped fan blades on the FHWWWBE permanently blow at least some air toward the right side of the unit, even if you direct most of it to the left. That can be annoying if you have it near your bed, blowing cold air on your neck all night.
In its favor, though, the Frigidaire FHWWWBE is nearly 10 pounds lighter than the Midea U, with a slightly smaller chassis and a more centered weight distribution, both of which make it even easier to install. Also, its side curtains slide in rather than screw in, saving you a few minutes of work and frustration. We still think that model is a good, reliable choice for a decent, lower-priced air conditioner. Keep your eyes peeled for deals. These have two parts: an indoor unit and an outdoor unit, connected by pipes containing refrigerant gas.
They are the most common air conditioner type in Australia, and are good for a room or open plan area up to about 60m 2. Similar to a split-system, but with one outdoor unit connected to two or more indoor units. Good for two or three rooms that are reasonably close together, especially when separate split-systems or a ducted system aren't suitable. These have a discreet central unit, usually located out of sight in your roof, connected by air ducts to air outlets and sensors in each room.
Good for cooling and heating a whole house. See our ducted air conditioner buying guide for more details. A single box unit, installed in a window or through an external wall. Good for rooms and open-plan areas of up to 50m 2. Smaller units can be plugged into a normal power point; larger ones may need additional wiring. Not quite as efficient or effective as split-systems but a reasonable budget option if a split-system isn't an option for example if you're renting.
A single unit that can be moved from room to room as needed but generally not easily. Most have a flexible duct that must be attached to a window to vent the heat outside.
Good for rooms in households when a built-in option isn't feasible such as if you're renting. Not as efficient as split-systems. See our portable air conditioner reviews. A reverse-cycle air conditioner can heat as well as cool — in fact, it's one of the cheapest ways to heat your home in winter.
In cooling mode, a split-system air conditioner extracts heat from the indoor air and moves it outside, via the refrigerant gas in the pipes connecting the indoor and outdoor units. The outdoor unit releases the heat and pumps the cooled refrigerant back to the indoor unit where the cycle continues. In heating mode, the process is simply reversed, to extract heat energy from the outdoor air and send it indoors yes, even in cold weather there's some heat energy in the outdoor air.
If you only need an air conditioner for cooling in summer for instance, if you live in an area with mild winters or you already have another heating system , then a cooling-only air conditioner could be right for you.
They're generally cheaper than reverse-cycle models but usually have all the same features. In terms of cooling efficiency and running costs, there isn't a big difference between most cooling-only and reverse-cycle models, but in our review, the most efficient models for cooling are actually reverse-cycle. Perhaps because reverse-cycle is the most popular type of air conditioner, the market for them is more competitive and it may be that manufacturers invest more in developing efficient reverse-cycle models.
So, even if you only use heating occasionally, you're better off getting a reverse-cycle model in most cases. But if you only ever need your air conditioner to cool you down, then a cooling-only model is definitely worth considering.
Here's our rough guide to the air conditioner capacity size you'll need for a particular room size in square metres. Read the full article ' What size air conditioner do I need? So, that's the ballpark guide, but you really need to do an accurate calculation before buying your air con, or else you'll run into these issues:.
For example, if you calculate the room needs a 6kW model, then look for an air conditioner with rated cooling capacity in the range 6kW to 6. It's probably a safer bet to get a model slightly above the required capacity than slightly below it, as a little extra grunt may help in extreme temperatures.
But don't go too much above the required capacity. Some installers and online calculators offer only a simplistic analysis and may tend to recommend a larger capacity than you really need.
But there are a lot of variables to consider. For example, a well-insulated room with south-facing windows will be at the bottom end of the capacity range, while an uninsulated room with west-facing windows will be towards the top. Likewise, a room in Perth will probably need a more powerful air conditioner compared to an otherwise identical room in Sydney.
The cooling load and heating load calculators on fairair. Alternatively you can try the calculators on manufacturer and installer websites, but we think these tend to overestimate the capacity you need. We measure running costs in our air conditioner reviews. As you can see in the below table, running costs can vary by a few hundred dollars a year, depending on the model.
Here's how to save some money:. OK, many of us won't follow this rule, especially on the really hot or cold days, and fair enough, too — comfort is important.
0コメント