Air conditioning is probably the most effective and fastest system for refrigerate the house in a simple way, managing to reach the ideal temperature to be very comfortable in a few minutes, although this comfort has a cost that is given by the high electrical consumption of appliances.
However, this energy consumption It is not the same in all models nor in all types of air conditioners, and it is one of the characteristics that differentiates a cheap equipment from an expensive one. In fact, we can come to wonder which spends more, a portable penguin-type model or a wall-mounted one.
Both produce cold and/or hot air by means of a compression system, but the way in which they do it, the situation and the characteristics of this system mean that the electrical consumption can be very different between them.
A question of efficiency
One of the main keys to the matter is in the operating efficiency, which is influenced by where the compressor is located. In the portable models it is integrated into the casing itself, while in the wall-mounted models it is located in a additional device which is placed on the façade.
This means that laptops need to install one or more tubes to expel excess hot air to the outsidedevice that also radiate some of that heat inside the room, as it is generally a plastic duct without any type of insulation.
Also, although an adapter usually comes to cover the space of the window or door ajar where we install the laptop, there are always holes for which the cold escapesentering air from the outside so we will need more frigorías or calories than normal.
In fact, this is one of the key points of the matter, since if with conventional wall-mounted air conditioning we need to generate 2,000 BF to cool a room, with a portable one this figure will probably increase to more than 3,000 given its inefficiencies, which that increases the final cost of electricity to turn off.
In addition, in most portable air conditioning models on the market with a single pipe to the outside, the system collects already cooled or heated air from the room and it uses it for the heat exchange cycle expelling it to the outside, so we are wasting a good part of the energy that we have already spent on cooling the air.
That is to say, we spend electricity in cooling room air that the equipment expels into the room through the main grille, but on the other hand it collects through another of the grilles so that it passes through the entire system and is subsequently expelled out of the room.
Finally we have in matter of the compressor technology, which in most wall-mounted models is usually of the inverter type, while in laptops having this system is not so common. With non-inverter air conditioning, once the ideal temperature is reached, the compression motor turns off and turns on again when we pass a range specified by each manufacturer (for example, one or two degrees), activating its 100% working and repeating the cycle as many times as necessary.
This causes the air to need more electrical power in the long run with a consumption peak each time it is turned on, being less efficient that the most modern equipment with inverter technology. In the latter, once we have reached the desired optimal temperature, the equipment will drop in power and be in a very low consumption range during which it is capable of maintain temperature with minimal expensegoing up and down in cooling capacity if you need it.
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In Xataka Smart Home | Portable air conditioner: what to look for before buying one of these devices to beat the heat