Portable Air Conditioner BTU Ratings: What You Need to Know

Are you trying to find the best portable air conditioner for your home? In 2018, portable air conditioning units of all brands benefited from a newly-improved BTU rating system. This update provides a more accurate BTU, meaning your portable unit will be supremely efficient in keeping your room cool. Here's everything you need to know about this new rating:

What is a BTU rating, and what does it stand for?

BTU stands for British Thermal Unit. A BTU is an expression of the amount of energy needed to raise 1 pound of water by 1 degree Fahrenheit while at sea level. For air conditioners, this rating tells you how many BTUs per hour the machine can remove from the air. The higher the rating, the more high-intensity the cooling. Portable air conditioners were originally given a rating that's currently referred to as the ASHRAE rating, but have more recently been given an more accurate BTU rating from the Department of Energy known as the DOE rating.

Why did the BTU rating for portable ACs need an upgrade?

Portable air conditioners were originally labeled with the same BTU rating system as window air conditioners and wall AC units, but in 2018 manufacturers realized this led to an inaccurate assessment of the unit's cooling capabilities. When an air conditioner is cooling a room, the unit's cooling mechanism ends up emitting some heat. Unlike a window or wall unit, a portable air conditioner sits entirely inside a room, and some of the emitted heat ends up dissipating into the very space it's trying to cool. This means the room isn't getting as cool as the old ASHRAE rating indicates. The new DOE rating is more accurate because it takes into account the heat emitted by the exhaust on the portable AC. While the ASHRAE rating gives the hard numbers of the BTU output, the DOE rating is more of a "real-feel" rating. This means you can be sure your AC unit is more accurately rated, which means better cooling and greater efficiency.

What are the new BTU ratings?

A DOE BTU rating will be slightly lower than it was for a unit of comparable size before the update. For example, a portable air conditioner with an ASHRAE rating of 8000 BTUs would have a DOE rating of 5150 BTUs. Now when you use our AC BTU calculator to figure out the best BTU rating, you'll be getting a more accurately-rated unit to create a cooler room.

How will I know a portable AC unit's new rating?

Some portable air conditioners only include the new DOE BTU rating on their packaging or product specs, but some will include both. If both are included, be aware that the DOE rating is more accurate than the ASHRAE.

Does this change impact all styles of air conditioners?

This change only applies to portable models. Other styles of air conditioners will not be affected by this BTU labeling update.

If you have any other questions about this BTU rating update, P.C. Richard & Son is here to help! Call us at 877-727-1909 for any further information about the 2018 portable air conditioner BTU change.