Portable Air Conditioners as well as Swamp Coolers Are Not the Same
There seems to be a lot of confusion out there about portable airconditioners and swamp coolers. They may not be interchangeable. An air conditioner cools, or conditions, the environment by removing heat energy. This means that mid-air has less heat energy, so the entire space is cooled. They do this using an electric. Heat pumps are available in all sorts of ac units, along with refrigerators.
In an electric, a liquid with special properties, known as a refrigerant, is expanded slowly through a valve in a low pressure tubing called the evaporator, or expansion coil. Since it expands, the heat energy in the refrigerant becomes a lot less concentrated, and yes it becomes cold. Here is the cooling side, where heat through the air passing over it now is readily absorbed from the cold copper tubing, which then warms the refrigerant at the same time.
When the refrigerant circulates towards the compression coil, or condenser, it is pumped into a small, underhand tubing. All of the heat energy being brought from the evaporator coil is currently squeezed right into a smaller volume, as well as the refrigerant becomes extremely hot. Here is the hot side. The coil gets hot and readily releases the heat to the air blowing over this side. In a portable air conditioning unit, this air is blown out through the exhaust duct.
Portable airconditioners make use of the electric system, and therefore are designed as room air conditioning. In certain, the circulation of refrigerant may be reversed, which ends up in the heater function within those models.
In comparison, evaporative air coolers, or swamp coolers, don’t remove heat energy in the air, and so are not air conditioning units. The term ‘super-fan’ could be applied here. Swamp coolers cool air by blowing it over a wet wick. Moisture inside the wick evaporates, cooling the air blown with the fan. Therefore it feels cool while watching unit, but nowhere else. No heat is taken away from the air, but moisture is added, and so the room itself offers the equivalent amount of heat energy and isn’t cooled. Swamp coolers aren’t able to warm the environment.
A further moisture from the swamp cooler could make the space uncomfortably humid, especially where ambient humidity is high. They’re ideal for dry climates, used as spot coolers. Swamp coolers look a bit like portable air conditioning units, but don’t have exhaust ducts. Advertisement photos of portable ac’s usually leave out the exhaust ducts, probably contributing to the confusion.
Adding to the confusion may be the term ‘evaporative portable air conditioner’, used by some manufacturers. The title advertises a function these units have, that being the evaporation of the water which condensates through the heat pump cycle. The evaporated condensate will be removed using the exhaust air. The point is always to get rid of the necessity of emptying the drain pan that’s such a hassle in older models without function.
Yet another confusing term is the ‘ductless portable air conditioner’ one might see advertised. This is actually a reputation fond of a type of mini split ac that utilizes a mobile inside unit to house the increase coil, instead of the usual wall mounted console. It is a fact they just don’t have ducts, but they still must get in touch facing outward by way of a small hole inside the wall, and so the electric tubing and wires can connect the mobile portion facing outward fan, in which the condenser is situated.
I hope these statements have identified the origin of a number of the confusion about portable airconditioners and swamp coolers, and helped people see the difference. While both are useful, their uses are quite different.
Mark Vaccaro researches and writes extensively on the best practices in online marketing. Some articles that I recommend reading can be found on the topics of aerobic kickboxing and infrared dry saunas.
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