Last year when the energy credit was still in place we invested in ductless heat pumps (an energy auditor recommended them to us - we've never heard of them before). In the summer they perform the reverse job - AC! Highly recommended! Prior to that we installed a stylish ceiling fan in our living room but it took a long time to find one we liked.

My house has windows that open to the side and no central AC. This makes it impossible to buy a window unit. The only options are portable ACs, which aren't as effective (and kind of expensive). Luckily I live in a part of the country that has pretty mild weather, but there are a few weeks a year when it would be really nice to have AC.

Anyone have experience with the portable AC units?

By portable do you mean the ones you can stick in a window? They're great for 1 1/2 rooms, my parents swore by it. I've used fans in their house now that I own it but now wish I'd held onto that window mounted AC. It went in a closet when not in use. A big space hog on the floor but they managed.

@CiudadDuerpo, I purchased a portable one from Bed, Bath & Beyond 3 summers ago. Make sure to use your 20% off coupon! Because they need to be vented outside, I wouldn't really call them portable except for the fact that you can store them in a closest 9 months out of the year!

I read that if you insulate the hose, you can increase the efficiency and keep costs down so I wrap attic insulation around the hose. It's super ugly but I have it in an area where I can put the drapes in a way to hid all of the worst part of it.

I lucked out and found a brand new tower fan at Goodwill which I put in front of it so that the fan is pulling the air conditioned air to fan instead of stale, warm air. I also have 2 ceiling fans in that part of the house.

When my central air conditioning broke 4 years ago, my summer electric bill was $300-$375 (yowza!). If I don't use the portable a/c, my bill is $50/month. Last month I used it a lot (10+ days) and my bill doubled ($100).