12,000 BTU Portable Air Conditioners

12,000 BTU portable air conditioners are not necessarily 12,000 BTU units. Their cooling capacity in real world environments could actually be much less.

Portable AC Inefficiencies and Cooling Capacity

All portable AC units have two major inefficiencies. Both involve adding heat back into the room that they’re actively working to cool

The first inefficiency is their ducting. A portable AC unit's duct (hose) exhausts warm air away from it and out of the room. The problem is that this duct is usually made of a thin plastic. As warm air travels through the duct, heat readily radiates through its thin plastic construction back into the room.

The second major portable AC unit inefficiency again involves its removal of warm air from the room its actively working to cool. The removal of air creates an area of low pressure inside the room. This causes even hotter higher pressure outdoor air – called infiltration air - to get sucked into the room. This adds heat back into the room.

Up until recent years, manufacturer testing for portable AC cooling capacity did not account for these two inefficiencies – heat added by ducting and infiltration air.

Today, manufacturers have to list two different values for cooling capacity. The first value is the old value, – what we call the "traditional" cooling capacity. This is the standard 8,000, 10,000, 12,000 or 14,000 BTU value. The second value is called Seasonally Adjusted Cooling Capacity – shortened to SACC.

SACC = ACC₉₅ × 0.2 + ACC₈₃ × 0.8

In which

ACC₉₅ = Capacity_SD − Q_{duct_SD} − Q_{infiltration_95}
ACC₈₃ = Capacity_SD − Q_{duct_SD} − Q_{infiltration_83}

Thus, SACC not only accounts for heat added via ducting and infiltration air, but it does so at two different temperatures – 83° F and 95° F. Heat added by these inefficiencies is more pronounced at higher temperatures than at lower temperatures. Hence why measurements at two different outdoor temperatures are required.

SACC is weighted at 80% at 83° F and only 20% at 95° F since it’s expected that most users will use a portable AC at outdoor temperatures closer to 83° F the majority (approx. 80%) of the time and closer to 95° F for a minimal amount (approx. 20%) of time.

In any case, the most important takeaway here is that SACC fully accounts for heat added by ducting and infiltration air, giving a much more accurate value for total cooling capacity in an actual real world environment than the values that were used previously – 8,000, 10,000, etc. BTUs.

And this brings us right back to our main point – 12,000 BTU portable AC units are not necessarily 12,000 BTU units.

Take a look at the table below

The most efficient 12,000 BTU unit does have an actual cooling capacity – a seasonally adjusted cooling capacity – of 12,000 BTUs. But most other models do not. The least efficient model has a SACC of only 6,500 BTUs.

The same type of drop off occurs in the 8,000, 10,000 and 14,000 BTU categories. The most efficient 8,000 BTU unit has a SACC of 5,500 BTUs. The most efficient 10,000 BTU unit has a SACC of 7,000 BTUs. And the most efficient 14,000 BTU unit has a SACC of 12,000 BTUs.

General Recommendations

Clearly, all portable AC units on the market have much less of an actual cooling capacity than you might think they have, looking at traditional numbers (8,000, 10,000, etc. BTUs). What then, are you supposed to do with this information?

Here's the good news: our own testing showed that if you're shopping for a portable AC unit, you only really have two sizes or capacities to pick from:

• high SACC units
• and low SACC units

Our testing revealed a quantum leap in performance when cooling a 100 sq. ft. test environment using a 10,000+ SACC BTU unit (high SACC) vs a sub 10,000 SACC BTU unit (low SACC).

The 10,000+ SACC BTU units cooled the test environment much quicker and to much lower temperatures (to 72° F and below) even in very challenging environments (outdoor temperature of 91° F).

Sub 10,000 SACC BTU units took very long to cool the room (hours) and also couldn’t get the room to very low temperatures (only to about 76° F at best).

Thus, our general recommendation is that you purchase a portable AC unit with at least 10,000 BTUs of seasonally adjusted cooling capacity (SACC).

Of the 12,000 traditional BTU models listed in the table above, only two models meet this requirement - the GE PPHH12WWF and Midea Duo.

Because they have 10,000+ SACC BTU threshold, the GE and Midea can be used in

• larger spaces and for
• challenging applications

All other 12,000 traditional BTU units - i.e. sub 10,000 SACC BTU units - should only be used for

• very small spaces AND
• non-challenging applications – i.e. these units should NOT be used in a space that’s on a second story or has a lot of windows or be used in a climate where it gets above 90° F frequently

Model Recommendations

The GE PPHH12WWF and Midea Duo (MAP12S1TBL) are both excellent choices if you're shopping for a 12,000 BTU portable air conditioner. But, the GE PPHH12WWF is our top pick between the two.

Most notably, it has

• more SACC BTUs and
• better energy efficiency

This immediately makes it a better portable air conditioner than the Midea overall.

See the GE PPHH12WWF's current price on Amazon.

The top three best 12,000 BTU portable air conditioners we recommend are the:

• 1. GE PPHH12WWF
• 2. Midea Duo (MAP12S1TBL)
• 3. Black + Decker BPP08WTB

The Black + Decker BPP08WTB earns third place because it offers good SACC for a 12,000 traditional BTU unit, reasonably good energy efficiency, and it's an excellent value. It's the best value 12,000 BTU portable air conditioner on the market.

Note though that this model does not meet our 10,000 SACC BTU requirement for large rooms and/or difficult to cool rooms. It should only be used to cool a smaller space that you don’t think will be too difficult to cool,

Energy efficiency and value ratios for all of the most popular 12,000 traditional BTU units on the market are listed below: