Air conditioners are increasingly finding their place in our homes. They are no longer just a fashionable trend but a device that significantly improves home comfort. What matters, though, is choosing the right type of air conditioning.
How to choose an air conditioner for your house or apartment? It’s important to be aware of a few facts that will play a key role in your choice. Do you want to cool one room or several, and what output should your air conditioner have?
Most air conditioners consist of two parts:
- Indoor unit – the evaporator extracts heat from the room and transfers it out to the outdoor unit.
- Outdoor unit – the evaporator releases heat outside. The compressor with refrigerant cools the air and blows it into the room.
Depending on the number of indoor units, air conditioning is divided into
Single – Split – one indoor and one outdoor unit. With this type of air conditioner, you can cool only one room.
Multi – Split – the air conditioning system consists of several indoor units and one outdoor unit. Thanks to the multiple indoor units, you can remove heat from several rooms.
Installing these air conditioners requires work on the building structure so that the outdoor and indoor units can be connected. If you live in an apartment block, it is a good idea to check whether you are allowed to make such alterations.
Portable air conditioning
A portable air conditioner can be a good choice if you are thinking how to choose an air conditioner for your apartment when you can’t get permission to install a conventional air conditioner.
A portable air conditioner is essentially a single unit that can cool one room. This type requires no structural changes to the house. The hose supplied with the unit carries heat out of the room, so it needs to be placed through a partly opened window. You can easily move a portable air conditioner from one room to another and cool the room you are currently in.
Air conditioner output
Output is the most important technical parameter to consider when choosing this device. An oversized unit may switch itself on and off frequently. An air conditioner with a lower output, on the other hand, may be in operation continuously and still fail to cool the space sufficiently.
As a general rule: 1 kW of air conditioning output per 10 square metres of floor area. If you want to cool a room with an area of 20 square metres, the air conditioner should have an output of around 2 kW.
Chladenie aj ohrievanie
An air conditioner can not only cool a room but also heat it, and quite efficiently. So consider whether you plan to use the unit only seasonally (for cooling on hot summer days) or year-round to heat the room as well.
