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Interesting. So one personal observation on Wirecutter (which caused me to stop trusting it). It does reviews of portable air conditioners. A couple of years a

Interesting. So one personal observation on Wirecutter (which caused me to stop trusting it). It does reviews of portable air conditioners. A couple of years ago, it went into painstaking detail on how single hose AC is bad. They linked articles from the Department of Energy and so on. Their message was that single hose were easy to install but were absolutely not worth it. And recommended a dual hose system I happen to agree with that. Portable AC units are already incredibly inefficient, so you don't want to make it any more inefficient than it has to be. I bought their recommendation, it was actually a decent one. Next year, the completely backtracked. Not because new research came to light that contradicts the previous one. Not because new models came out that massively improved the losses (not even sure that's possible). No. Now they say that the difference is "minimal". It is not minimal, and their previous argument is that it wasn't minimal and they should only be used when there was no other option. They did not provide updated efficiency figures. Here's the new text: > While dual-hose models have been shown to outperform some single-hose units in extremely hot or muggy weather, the difference is usually minimal, and we don’t think it outweighs the convenience of a single hose. Sure, one can reverse their position and that can be a healthy thing to do. But to take major pains in arguing one position one year, just to reverse the position and provide no new data, it's very fishy. And, of course, the recommended models tend to be pricey too.

asdfasgasdgasdg 6y ago
FWIW, you are correct that it is essentially physically impossible for the single hose models to be as efficient as dual hose. Single hose models take in conditioned air, pump heat into it, then pump that air to the exterior. Dual hose do the same, but with exterior air as the input. Single hose models have to work harder two ways. First, in pumping the air out of the conditioned environment, they're basically throwing away work they've done. Not all of it, but some. More the bigger the difference is between the interior and exterior. Another thing they have going against them is that they need to pull air from somewhere -- the exterior. So their fans have to work a bit harder due to the pressure difference. Dual hose models suffer neither drawback. Single hose portable ACs are an abomination that should not exist.
Dylan16807 6y ago
How big is the difference then? I see EER ratings in a huge range, and if I trust those then getting the right model matters much much more than single vs. dual hose. Are those numbers not to be trusted? Edit: I found some numbers, but they seem to support the 'minimal' theory. This page[1] says that SAAC ratings take the air infiltration into account, and that SAAC for a single hose model is 55-58% of a simpler rating, while a dual hose model is 63-70%. That's only about a 15% loss in efficiency. But the difference between a good model and a bad model with the same number of hoses can supposedly exceed 50%! [1] https://www.pickhvac.com/portable-air-conditioner/best-dual-hose/ https://www.pickhvac.com/portable-air-conditioner/best-dual-...

asdfasgasdgasdg 6y ago

FWIW, you are correct that it is essentially physically impossible for the single hose models to be as efficient as dual hose. Single hose models take in conditioned air, pump heat into it, then pump that air to the exterior. Dual hose do the same, but with exterior air as the input. Single hose models have to work harder two ways. First, in pumping the air out of the conditioned environment, they're basically throwing away work they've done. Not all of it, but some. More the bigger the difference is between the interior and exterior. Another thing they have going against them is that they need to pull air from somewhere -- the exterior. So their fans have to work a bit harder due to the pressure difference. Dual hose models suffer neither drawback. Single hose portable ACs are an abomination that should not exist.

Dylan16807 6y ago

How big is the difference then? I see EER ratings in a huge range, and if I trust those then getting the right model matters much much more than single vs. dual hose. Are those numbers not to be trusted? Edit: I found some numbers, but they seem to support the 'minimal' theory. This page[1] says that SAAC ratings take the air infiltration into account, and that SAAC for a single hose model is 55-58% of a simpler rating, while a dual hose model is 63-70%. That's only about a 15% loss in efficiency. But the difference between a good model and a bad model with the same number of hoses can supposedly exceed 50%! [1] https://www.pickhvac.com/portable-air-conditioner/best-dual-hose/ https://www.pickhvac.com/portable-air-conditioner/best-dual-...