Many people experience the benefits of portable air conditioners whether it is in shops, restaurants, offices, schools, computers rooms, exhibitions, hotels and conferences, laboratories and hospitals.

In fact, the use of portable AC units is continuously increasing for a number of reasons:

1. To minimize the effects of global warming/ rising temperature.

2. To maintain the productivity of workforce.

3. Personal comfort.

4. Maintaining stock temperature.

5. Maintaining temperature in server rooms, computer equipped offices, etc.

Therefore, portable AC units have attained a permanent place in today’s business settings. In fact, large scale usage by US businesses is one of the primary factors for their increasing popularity and use in many homes, because people experiencing their benefits at the workplace, like to replicate the same comfort in their houses.

Some units have timers installed, which can be easily set to make the unit run for a set duration of time. Small businesses operating on a tight budget can benefit from this, because it can reduce their monthly energy bills. Such units are easy to control and can be run during business hours. Business owners can easily move such portable AC's as per their requirement.

Whatever may be the setting, the basic principles of air conditioning are the same. The air conditioning unit consists of four parts: a compressor, evaporator, condenser and an expansion valve.

Mainly, portable AC's are of three types:

Exhaust tube type units

In these models both the condenser and evaporator are placed within the room. A large part of the air which passes through the unit is directed to the evaporator, and then returned back in to the room as cool air. A small volume of air is also passed through the condenser for cooling the refrigerant gas. The hot air is removed using an exhaust tube from the room.

Split type refrigerant based unit

These units come in two parts: a condenser and a room unit. The room unit consists of an evaporator and condenser, and is placed in the room to be cooled. The external unit is then connected to this room unit using flexible pipe, and contains a condenser which is cooled using the ambient air.

Split type water based unit

This unit also comes in two parts: a heat exchanger and a room unit. The operating principle is the same as above. The main difference is that here, the condenser is placed in the room unit and is cooled using water. This heated water is then sent to the external unit, and returned back to the room unit after cooling.