What to Look for in a Window Air Conditioner
First of all, it is necessary to know what BTU or British Thermal Units mean to your search for a window air conditioner. The BTU/h ("h" stands for hour) of an air conditioning unit indicates how much cooling power it has, which determines its suitability for specific spaces. Do not be fooled into thinking that higher BTU/h means better as going by this rule and purchasing a high BTU/h unit may waste your money if you end up putting it in a space smaller than the maximum area it could potentially cover. Not only does this drive up electricity bills, the unit shall likely be unable to carry out an even cooling process because of the mismatch, leading to strange pockets of air in the room where temperatures are at variance with each other.
There is a formula to calculating BTU/h by the area of your floor, but the easiest way to do it is to go online and search for free software that shall do it for you. Many home appliance websites have this feature, so do not be shy in taking advantage of it. Of course, there are additional considerations here if you want to be even more finicky in your estimations. For example, you might want to consider for what the room is used. If it happens to be a kitchen, for instance, it is recommended that you go for higher BTUs than the figure you would normally use for other rooms, in order to counter the heat that shall be generated by cooking appliances.
EER is another contraction that you should understand when looking for an air conditioner. EER stands for the Energy Efficiency Ratio of a unit, measured in terms of BTU per watt consumed by the device. Higher EER units are better than lower ones because they mean lower electrical costs for operators. Compare the EERs of products so that you can pick the most efficient units.
Before you get down to actually looking up products, you should also measure the dimensions of the window where you shall be placing your unit. This shall narrow down your air conditioner choices further because you can then look up size specs for air conditioners and see which ones shall fit in the space you have outlined. Do not worry if an air conditioning unit is slightly smaller than the window's dimensions, however, since you can just seal off the additional space with the materials provided in a window air conditioner kit.
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