I have a Toyotomi portable a/c (actually it's a heat pump) that has two hoses that are 5 inches in diameter. You'd have no problem using that with this window but you'd have to make a panel to put up to the window opening to hold the hoses and take up the extra space. A single hose unit would work too; a lot of them do have "nozzle" fittings on the end of their exhaust hose that would take up just a small portion of this window space and would be less unsightly than having the two hoses snaking up to the window.

Just be realistic about your expectations of a portable a/c. They'll get you some cool air blowing around, and they're great as a supplement to a central a/c system that doesn't really reach a certain room, but they're somewhat working against themselves by the air they exhaust (in the case of single hose units) and also by having the heat of the working parts, plus the warm hoses and whatnot, right in the room. Some are pretty noisy too.

Here is a LG portable AC window unit. Below is a page from the installation manual.

The installation kit has a panel to hold the single exhaust hose. You should be able to cut the panel down to 10 inches to make a custom fit to your window. You could probably use a fine tooth hacksaw blade to make the cut.

I should note my room is appox 12x14 in dimensions, so I would think an 8000 BTU portable A/C would be sufficient. Unless I use single hose if they don't work as well, would it be better to go to 10,000?

Real shame I can't get Room A/C, cheaper, many options, will get the job done fine.

I would think an 8000 BTU sized unit would be fine for one room.

Also house I live in has central air which is on really hot days and cools my room fine. I'd mainly use a portable on days where it's mid 70s-lower 80s where my mother doesn't want the central A/C on but would have no problem with me using a portable A/C in my room to cool it.

Yeah I think either an 8000 or 10000 btu portable would be fine for this room, and since you have central a/c for the really hot days the single hose would be fine. Plus it would be easier to install and the window hose installation would be less unsightly than a dual hose. Consider getting one that evaporates the collected condensation by itself (most do, except the real cheapies). It's less of a hassle, obviously, but the evaporation of the condensate also helps the unit cool better.

The main thing possibly to consider is noise, since this is a bedroom. If you don't mind some noise, LG has a powerful one that they sell at a Home Depot and it looks like Walmart is selling the very same one, just under a different name. I helped a friend get and install one of these and it cools very well, but it's rather noisy. It all just depends on how tolerant you are of that, but if you're okay with some noise it cools very well and it's a good deal. I put in links to both so you can see how they compare. I bet they're the same.

Walmart a/c

LG at Home Depot

I went to Lowe's and saw what a panel actually looked like. So actually 13.5 inches is at it's wide is what I would have to get it down to. I know someone that should easily be able to cut it. I haven't gotten anything yet. I definitely much rather get LG. I'd think 8000 BTU would be fine. Correct if I'm wrong but I go higher with BTU it would use more electricity? So the one at Walmart will good priced maybe might cost more in the long run.

http://www.homedepot.com/p/LG-Electronics-8-000-BTU-Portable-Air-Conditioner-and-Dehumidifier-Function-with-LCD-Remote-LP0817WSR/300422892

It has auto-evaporation too. Noise I would think shouldn't bother me, I sleep with a fan running pretty loudly as it is, it could be a new sound machine maybe when I use it.

I'm sure that one would be fine. Generally yes, the higher BTU will use more power.

I am a little skeptical of the auto evaporation. During periods of high humidity there could be more condensate than the unit can evaporate. You should plan on having the unit sit inside a pan as a safety precaution if there is a condensate overflow.

If the smaller and larger units have the same EER rating then they have the same efficiency. That means in theory they use the same amount of power to provide the equivalent amount of cooling. If the unit is bigger than it needs to be, then it may run on short cycles which is an inefficient way to operate.

If you plan to use the unit primarily at night then go for the smaller size.

They shut off if/when the internal water tank gets full because the unit cannot evaporate the condensate fast enough. There's no need to set it on a pan unless you just want to be double sure.

I highly recommend getting a double hose portable AC versus a single
hose unit.

I have a single hose portable AC unit that I’m no longer
using. It creates such a vacuum in the
house that it’s very inefficient. As
much air as it blows outside = the same amount of air that is pulled from inside
the house. It was fine on normal days,
but when it’s hot and humid outside I could feel the heat and humidity being
pulled into the house, as no house is completely airtight, then the temperature
inside the house would slowly increase.
(It was pulling warm air from the basement, upstairs and attic also)

On humid days I would have to use the hose connection and
let it drain into a bucket that needed emptied every 2 hours.

I know the double hose units are more expensive, but at
least they pull the same amount of air from one hose, through the unit and exhaust
it out the second hose. I’d also
recommend a unit that will blow or mist the excess water collected from humidity
out of the exhaust hose, creating less wok for you.

Fortunately I have big windows and put my large window unit
back in. But I liked and bought the
portable AC for aesthetic purposes. From
outside my house you never saw a big ugly window AC hanging out of the window.

Right, the single hose draws out interior air; it works against itself to a degree. If you had to dump water every couple hours you had a less efficient unit because it wasn't evaporating the water, which further explains the bad performance you saw because evaporating the water helps the efficiency greatly. Also that's what they do - evaporate the water - not spray it out the hose.

I agree with you that the dual hose has advantages but I think a single hose would be fine in this case.

I probably would use it on humid days, but if it's really hot and humid, central A/C will be running. It would be used throughout the daytime too actually cause I sleep weird hours through the morning.

InvisiMist drain technology in a portable air conditioner liberates you from ever having to drain an internal reservoir again.

As warm air and humidity are normally associated, this portable air conditioner (PAC) is engineered to remove up to 80 pints of moisture from your air per day.

In many cases, the unit’s self-evaporative function will expel the majority of air moisture. However, in high-humidity environments, self-evaporation is not enough. Excess water accumulates in the internal reservoir and, to prevent itself from overflowing onto your floor, a PAC will automatically turn off. This can happen at any time and will require you to manually drain the PAC.

The InvisiMist system solves this problem. Consisting of an internal drain pump, a water line and our InvisiMist nozzle, the system automatically turns on when water accumulates and safely disposes of it through the easy-to-assemble window kit.

This unit is more powerful than other 12,000 BTU PACs, cooling your space up to 40% more quickly because of its dual-hose air system, which separates intake and exhaust, allowing for more air intake and cooling power.

The three adjustable fan speeds allow you to customize the unit’s operations to suit your cooling preferences. Included casters enable you move this PAC to wherever you need it, and the included remote with LED display allows you to easily change operating settings from anywhere in the room.

Kenjwy, mine only filled all the way up and sometimes overflowed on very heavy humid days.

They're supposed to shut off, but mine didn't just overflowed about a gallon of water in my house & kept right on running I didn't notice until I stepped in a big puddle. I went to the basement for towels & saw how much water actually seaped thru my floorboards!

My unit didn't become hot enough to evaporate all the incoming condensation. The InvisiMist system seems the best as it allows the unit to use the left over condensation and when there is excess it will mist out of the exhaust hose outside. Much easier. No bucket needed.

Hm, is LG a good brand to stick with. I would rather buy from a retailer instead of someplace online.

I'll note also I leave in the Cleveland , OH area. so humidity wise it typically most high in July/August. Central AC runs most days of those months. It's months like May, June, September, and some October were it would be run more.

That's interesting; it does sound like this misting would help in very damp conditions. I had never seen one that did that. Most fling or pump the condensation across the condenser coil where it helps cool the coil, increasing the efficiency, and this process evaporates the moisture so you don't have you dump it. The thing is, this normal evaporation function usually works fine. The friend I helped install the $300 LG unit lives in Alabama, and it's pretty muggy there in the summer, and he's never had to drain any water. My Toyotomi always evaporates all of its water, too. I had an Amana portable (single hose) and it evaporated all of its water. Years ago I had a cheap portable, I can't even remember the brand, and it wasn't designed to evaporate the water, it just collected it in a container that you had to dump periodically. Without the water evaporation this thing barely cooled at all. It was like you described earlier with your single hose unit that didn't work. It would chug away day and night, blowing out cold air, but it just couldn't really cool the room. So this is why I conclude that the water evaporation is quite I'm important in making these single hose units work. Of course the one you cite here is dual hose so presumably it would work even without the water evaporation.

Delonghi was one of the first companies to make and market portable a/c, and their original Pinguino unit actually had a water tank that you filled from the tap. It evaporated that water you put in, along with all of the condensation, and for years the Pinguino was far and away the best unit you could get. In fact, when Consumer Reports first tested portable a/c units in 1991, they said the Delonghi Pinguino was the only one worth buying. It was a single hose unit and it was the water evaporation that made it work. (Now it appears that many of the Pinguino units are just re-branded units from other manufacturers, but the last time I checked they did still have one that could accept added water for "super cooling." It was very pricey though.)

If there isn't need to drain in Alabama where I know it's FAR more humid than Cleveland, I would assume it wouldn't be an issue for me either.

Halberd76, the thing is, most of these units are rebranded so you'll see the same model with a multitude of different brands on it, so you don't even know who really makes it. I said this earlier about the LG and the Wal-Mart units. So to me the brand isn't terribly important. LG would be fine - at least you know they're a reputable company so they probably won't slap their name on total junk.

I agree with you to buy locally. Actually Wal-Mart would be where I'd start looking because they're going to be good on price, and if you don't like it they'll take it back. Lowe's, Home Depot are fine too.

There's no way you need to order one of these online with them so widely available at local stores.

Walmarts near me don't have portable A/C's in stock. Lowe's only had the Hisense brand while Home Depot had LG, I find myself thinking LG is more reputable.

I agree. I do have experience with the LG unit so that's the way I'd go, given that choice. The 8000 should be plenty big enough for your room.

Ken, mine had to drain holes. One at the very bottom
of the unit, so like you said, draining it completely of water would be very
bad for the unit running it dry.

There's also the drain hole in the middle of the unit, so I
assume an internal bucket fills with water and just the overflow is what comes
out of the middle drain hole. So my unit still was full of water, but not
too much.

From what I've read, all portable AC's have this disclaimer,
"Under extreme humid conditions, the water condensation may collect faster
than the unit can recycle."

The portable AC I bought was the very cheapest I could find
and didn’t have the 100% Self-Evaporating
Technology. Yes, on most days it
evaporated just fine, but about 20% of the time I would have to attach the hose
assembly and let it drain away. I’d get
buckets of water. It just collected the
humidity faster than it could evaporate it.

At least with
the more expensive self-evaporating it should mist the excess water out of the
exhaust hose with the hot air, but that does increase the price of the unit.

Also, even per
consumer reports, the actual BTU of a portable AC is about ½ of what it’s
advertised on the box as they are less efficient. I did notice that while using it. The dual hose units are more efficient since
they don’t pull hot air from the rest of the house and through door and window
seals.

The difference from my window AC 10,000 BTU versus the portable AC 10,000 BTU is very noticeable to me. But it all depends on what your used to and can afford or fit in the window.

One more thing about purchasing any window or portable
AC. Check prices online everywhere. I got lucky with my portable AC price on
Amazon.com. I’m a prime member and got
free shipping. It just happened to be on
the "Amazon deal of the day" and I saved 20%.

I bought my window AC at Walmart. But I still kept checking prices after I
bought it. 2 weeks after I made the
purchase my unit went on "rollback pricing"!
I contacted Walmart and they were happy to credit my account and give me
the difference that I paid minus the new Rollback price so I saved $25.00. Very happy!

Of course I did this in early spring, and they were not in
high demand yet. But now, I’m not sure
since some people are desperate in this heat wave we have going on across the
country now.

You're right, portables are about half as efficient overall as window units and where you really see that is in their inability to cool more than a single room. I don't have any data to support this statement but I believe that the BTU rating of a portable is simply a reflection of the theoretical cooling capacity of the unit's actual refrigeration system. They neglect the designed-in inefficiencies, such as loss of cooled room air and rejection of heat back to the room from the warm hose(s), motors, etc. I make this statement because they'll claim a certain BTU, but notice that portables do not have the official AHAM seal that states their capacity, as window units have.

Portables really operate on a whole different theory of cooling. In Europe, where they're quite popular, temperatures are generally not as high as in the US, and room cooling takes the form of getting some cooled air blowing around so you feel more comfortable while you're in reach of that cooled air. Put one in the bedroom and blow it across the bed, etc. And of course in a situation where you have a lot of heat generated in a house, such as while cooking, or if there are many people inside, a single hose portable actually cools in two ways - it blows around some cooled air, and it exhausts the hot inside air. If it's 85 degrees inside and 78 outside - not an uncommon situation when you're generating a lot of heat within the home - the fact that the portable is sucking in outdoor air is no problem at all.

But yes, in the American cooling paradigm where we keep the house closed up and want to maintain 72 inside when it's 95 outside, portables are not well adapted to that. You have to view them as an appliance that creates a "cool zone" where you get relief from the heat while you're near the unit.

Central AC would most certainly be running in the 90s so I wouldn't use portable. Mid 80s outside I could see being the highest temperature I would have the portable go against.

I am thinking it could be better with 10,00 BTU, I see it has a higher moisture removal capacity. Going by the comments I read I would think that means it can handle humidity better.

At the other token like I said earlier, I wouldn't to use unnecessary more power if I don't need it.

In a single 12x14 room, either the 8000 or the 10000 BTU will cool the room with no problem no matter how hot it is. The issues referred to above relate to the fact that if you had an 8000 or 10000 BTU window unit it might cool 3 rooms.

If by the 10000 you're talking about this one:

LG a/c at Home Depot

Then I can tell you that's the exact unit I have experience with, which I referred to above as being rather loud but offering very good cooling. I've seen it work well in a much larger room than yours. The fan is very powerful (which accounts for the noise, but also means it will create a cooling effect in your room instantly.) The Home Depot stores around Cleveland have lots of them in stock. Cuyahoga Falls has 48, so they probably won't be gone if you don't make it there in the next hour.

Here’s what I bought.
Whynter 10,000 BTU Portable Air Conditioner
(ARC-10WB).

Current Price: $427.99.
Free Shipping for Prime Members.

Whynter
10,000 BTU Portable Air Conditioner

But I bought it on sale. Sold by: Amazon.com LLC

$234.99. I couldn’t resist that price!!!

**** Also, I did first purchase the portable AC LG
Electronics 10,000 BTU (the one in the above link from kenjwy).

YES, it was VERY loud. Plus it cost $319.00 so I returned it for the
Whynter costing $234.99 (sale price free delivery), saving me $84.01.

Though like I said, I don’t cool
all the rooms in my house. I just cool
the upstairs bedroom with a small window AC and the downstairs living room/kitchen. So the vacuum created by the portable pulled
the hot air from all rooms that were hot and not air conditioned. That’s its only downfall. Had I bought the double hose Whynter (or
other double hose unit) I wouldn’t have that terrible vacuum and would have
been fine.

Kenjwy is correct about the difference of a portable used in the UK versus USA. We're probably too spoiled over here. Like I said before, something is better than nothing, and sometimes being cool for the cheapest price available is what you have to do.

PLUS, had I never used a window AC before, to compare to a portable AC, I would never know the difference & my expectations would be different. I seriously miss the aesthetics of the portable. I hate how the big window AC blocks 1/2 my view out of the bay window. But that's life.

Good points, and the unit you bought looks great and clearly was a very good deal. One thing I've learned about single hose portables is that it's best not to overly seal up the window where the vent hose is installed. In fact what my friend does with the LG is simply close the hose nozzle in the partially-open window without using the plastic panel. (He leaves the screen in of course.) That sounds ridiculous I know, but this means that the air being drawn in comes from the window behind the unit - not from adjacent areas of the home. The outdoor air is drawn into the unit and cooled, then circulated around the room. In this way it works somewhat like a car air conditioner, which draws in fresh air, cools it, and blows it into the car. Plus with this installation method all he has to do to secure the window when leaving is pull the hose in a few inches, close and lock the window.