Smart Air Conditioners

Having air conditioning in your home is essential in the summer and smart air conditioners can make life easier. However, cooling your home sensibly can help you avoid really raising your energy bill if you're careful.

As would often happen to me personally during summer, I'd often leave the house in the morning in a hurry, forgetting to turn off the window AC unit. That ended up costing more money than it should have, because it was cooling an empty house!

Now if I'd owned a smart portable air conditioner, I would have easily been able to turn it off or just enable the Energy Saver mode from my phone while at my desk in the office.

smart portable air conditionerSmart air conditioning units may turn out to be a little more expensive than traditional units, but on the bright side, they can potentially save a lot of money on your energy bill in the long run. In addition to that, they are just an awful lot more convenient all around in so many household situations!

What Makes an Air Conditioner Smart?

If you didn't already know what turns a regular AC into a smart one, here's a brief explanation that might get you into the loop.

To be considered what is commonly referred to as ″smart″ with regards to electrical appliances, an air conditioner needs to be fitted with a Wi-Fi connection. That's so that, just like a computer, tablet or phone, it can connect to a manufacturer's app that allows you to take control and monitor the device from your phone or tablet.

The beauty of this is that no matter where you are, a smart air conditioner can allow you to do things like:

Many of these cooling devices also allow you to set up a cooling schedule. That way, the unit will turn itself on (or off) at a designated time. Some of the better models offer support for Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant and Apple Siri voice commands so you can control them right there from your armchair without ever needing to pick up the remote!

Also, with some models, you can use your phone's location services to set the unit to cool down rooms before you arrive home. That way, there's no waste of energy (and money of course) by cooling an empty room or a whole house when you're not even there.

What Size and Power Output Rating Do You Need?

Before you head out and purchase any air conditioner, it's important to decide what size of unit you are going to need. There's a good reason for that!

If the AC unit is too small or under-powered, it will have to work a lot harder to reach the target temperature, thereby wasting energy. On the flip side, if it's too big or too powerful, it can cool the room before it removes a lot of the moisture, which can leave you feeling clammy and uncomfortable.

By figuring out the correct size air conditioning unit for your particular room involves a little math. However, it can be fairly easy to work out.

First of all, you should measure the physical length and width of the room that you intend cooling. Then just multiply those numbers together. That will calculate the square footage of the room.

Generally, you'll require between 20 to 25 BTUs (British Thermal Units) of cooling power for every square foot.

To work it out, multiply your room's square footage by 20. That will give you the minimum power output rating of air conditioner that will work in the room you want to cool.

As an example, say your room is 500 sq ft. For that size, you'll need an air conditioner that's rated at 10,000 BTUs.

A variable that you may need to factor into that equation is if your room has high ceilings and/or large windows. If that's the case, you may need to go for a more powerful unit that can compensate for the additional cubic feet of volume in the room or the fact that more heat from the sun may enter the room through larger windows.

Energy Star Recommendation

Energy Star recommends that you increase power output capacity by 10% if your room is particularly sunny, or to reduce it by 10% if it’s heavily shaded. It also recommends that you add 600 BTUs if two or more people regularly occupy the room. If the AC unit is located in a kitchen you should also increase the capacity by 4,000 BTUs.

Smart Portable or Smart Window AC?

Should you get a WiFi enabled portable air conditioner or an equivalent window unit? Both configurations have their pros and cons, but often the final choice comes down to either personal preference or any restrictions there may be in place on the type of AC you can install in your home.

For example, in some rental properties, there may be a clause in the rental agreement prohibiting the installation of window AC units, perhaps if the building has strict rules.

Portable AC units can be moved fairly easily from room to room. However, they do take up floor space and also require a bulky exhaust hose to be connected to a convenient window vent.

Window units are fixed in place and can be a hassle to install. They can also block out part of your view out the window and reduce the amount of natural light afforded by the window it is installed in. However, a window unit can be far more discreet than a portable unit.

The final choice will be yours to make, of course. Whichever type of cooling unit you decide upon, having a smart air conditioner that's WiFi enabled can make life a lot easier when it comes to keeping cool in summer!

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