Choosing the right air conditioning system for your room depends upon the total square footage of the room you want to be cooled in addition to other factors such as the amount of heat generated inside the room due to windows and exposure to prolonged sunlight. Choosing an air conditioning system that provides too much power not only wastes energy but can leave the room feeling damp and even more humid. A unit that is too small to suit the size of the room will not have the capacity to keep the atmosphere at the proper temperature for comfort. If you’re looking to air condition the whole house you may want to look into a ducted reverse cycle system. However there are two main choices of air conditioning systems when your goal is to cool the air in only one or two rooms of your home.
A window air conditioner is the most popular system for cooling just one room and is installed in the window opening or in an opening constructed on one wall of the room. Window units are rated according to a measurement called British Thermal Units or BTUs. Window units with 5,000 BTUs are designed to cool very small rooms of less than 150 square feet in space, while the largest units of 18,000 BTUs can cool rooms of up to 1,000 square feet, with 7 additional size choices in between very small and very large spaces.
A split air conditioner for cooling one room contains both an indoor component containing the cooling coils and fan as well as an outdoor unit which houses the main compressor. This air conditioning system is perfect if you don’t want to have to cut a slit in the wall to house a window unit. A split air conditioning system also takes up less space in the room than a window air conditioner unit. Unlike a window air unit which is designed solely for use in one room, a split air conditioning system has the cooling capacity for two rooms.
Before shopping for the right air conditioning system for your room, be sure to take exact measurements of the length times the width of the room to determine the total square footage. Armed with an exact space size, it will be easier to select the right air conditioning system to suit your needs.
