Room-Based AC Cheaper to Run Than Central AC

It's no secret that running the air conditioner eats up a lot of juice during the summer. It's also quite evident that room-based ACs use less power than central AC. The only surprise is by how much!

It seems that using room-based ACs rather than a central AC will cut your energy costs down by almost 50%! Why? Well, there's a lot less to cool down. It seems logical that you should only cool the place where you spend most of your time, instead of cooling down everything. For example, hallways, storage places, and other places don't need to be cooled.

This was initially reported about office buildings and how costs could be slashed if cubicles were cooled down with AC instead of the whole building. This makes a lot of sense. We see no issues using the same logic when it comes to homes. You don't need to cool down every single spot in your home, just the places where people tend to hang out most.

A good way to go about this in a home is to use a portable air conditioner, like the one we reviewed here. You can just move it around so that it cools down the place where you actually are, instead of your whole place. Naturally, this also applies to heating, however most heating systems are now room-based. Even so, you can cut down on heating costs by using space heaters. Check out this post for cheap ways to winterize your home.

[New Scientist via Gizmodo, title image via Roomairconditioners]

MORE AIR CONDITIONERS AND HEATERS
NewAir AC-10000E Room Based Air Conditioner Review
How to Buy An Air Conditioner
A DIY Dorm Approved AC
Cheap Ways to Winterize Your Home

Comments (2)

Maybe I am misunderstanding the facts here, but a central air conditioner doesn't cool down every space in your home -- it cools only those places which are vented. Furthermore, it only cools one space to the exact thermostat setting -- the place where the thermostat resides.

This notion that portables are 50% less expensive is intriguing, but if you are getting 50% less of your home cooled, then of course they would be. This whole comparison seems like fake green science/marketing apples and oranges.

My apartment is central air vented in 4 places : kitchen, living room, bedroom, and bathroom. If I used 4 portables in those 4 rooms, would it still be cheaper? I don't think so.

If you want to save money on central air, you should get a wireless portable thermostat and place it in the room you are using. Rather than cool the entire home to 78 degrees, it would shut off once the room you are in reaches 78 degrees (which is what a portable a/c would do.)

@ RichardinLA - I didn't know those existed! Awesome!

Our apartment building is horrible for heating/cooling. In the winter, we have no thermostat control and the apartment is boiling! They don't have central air, so we pay to use our own AC in the summer ($180/unit/season) - a portable unit we keep in the bedroom.

The problem with 'portable' is that you need to use an exhaust vent [supplied] and connect it to a window. Meaning portable units aren't very portable at all, unless you're only using the fan or dehumidifier settings...