The best portable airconditioning unit

An evaporative air conditioner (normally called an air cooler), works by evaporating water into the room. This uses very little energy BUT it also is less effective AND it needs to be filled with water regularly. Air coolers do not work in high humidity.

A compressor-driven portable air conditioner uses refrigerant to cool the air. Compressor-driven portable air conditioners are more effective at cooling and work in all environments.

There are several advantages to using a mobile air conditioner like Close Comfort:

1. Portability: Mobile air conditioners are designed to be portable, which means you can easily move them from one room to another. This is especially useful if you live in a small apartment or don’t have the space for a traditional air conditioning unit.
2. Easy to Install: Mobile air conditioners are easy to install and don’t require any complicated setup. You simply plug them in, and they are ready to use.
3. No Installation Required: Unlike traditional air conditioning units, mobile air conditioners don’t require any permanent installation. They don’t need to be mounted in a window or a wall, which means they are ideal for renters or anyone who doesn’t want to make any permanent changes to their living space.
4. Energy-Efficient: Mobile air conditioners are typically more energy-efficient than traditional air conditioning units. They only cool the area where they are located, which means they use less energy overall.
5. Cost-Effective: Mobile air conditioners are often more cost-effective than traditional air conditioning units. They are generally less expensive to purchase, and they use less energy, which means you’ll save money on your electricity bill.
6. Eco-Friendly: Mobile air conditioners are often more eco-friendly than traditional air conditioning units. They use less energy, which means they produce fewer greenhouse gas emissions.
7. Quieter: Mobile air conditioners are typically quieter than traditional air conditioning units. This is because they don’t have an outdoor compressor, which is the source of much of the noise associated with traditional air conditioning units.

Quiet Portable Air Conditioner – How noisy is it?

Noise is usually stated as a number followed by ‘dB’, an abbreviation for ‘decibels’. It’s helpful to describe different perceived noise levels on a qualitative scale. Encyclopedia Britannica and noiseawareness.org provide the following common noise level descriptions:

The perceived noise level also depends on the surroundings. For example, noise in a room will sound louder with bare walls and floor so that sound reverberates around the room. Carpets, curtains and soft furnishing will absorb much of that noise.  For simplicity, listening to someone speaking across a room is hard for most people if the noise level is above 60 dB.  Most people can sleep easily with background noise around 50 dB or less.  In fact, many people find it hard to sleep without noise: they prefer some background noise to silence.

Also, the context of the noise can influence perceptions. For example, a sudden noise like a cup dropped on the floor can be very disturbing in the absence of background noise. In addition, we soon adapt to greater or lesser levels of background noise.

Some sounds have high pitch, or frequency, such as a whistle. Others have a low pitch, or low frequency, such as distant thunder. Speech has a mixture of medium frequencies. Sometimes you will see a noise rating specified as dBa or dBA. When many different frequencies make up the noise, the “A” weighting compensates for the way people hear different frequencies, so the rating is closer to the way the people will perceive sounds.

When it comes to an appliance like an air conditioner, the perceived noise level also depends on distance to the listener. Noise levels are often standardized at a distance of one metre, about three feet.

How noisy are portable air conditioners?

Most portable air conditioners on the market range between about 58 db and 68 db. For most people that’s too loud for a bedroom. Above 60 dB a conversation in the room may be difficult to listen to.

A few portable air conditioners are quieter, around 52 dB. Almost always, the machine noise has been reduced by using heavier components, so these machines typically weigh 70 – 80 lbs, 32-34 kg. That makes them anything but portable.

Even then, most people find it harder to sleep with sound in the bedroom above 50 dB.

The quiet portable air conditioner

One notable exception is Coolzy, a tiny portable air conditioner invented in Australia. Used correctly in a bedroom, the perceived noise is about 46 dB on its low fan speed which makes it ideal for sleeping. There’s enough background noise for people who cannot sleep in silence, and not enough to disturb most other people.

Unlike most air conditioners, Coolzy is designed to be used with open windows to ensure fresh air circulates for better health and less risk of infection. Therefore, some background noise is important so that noises from outside don’t disturb sleep.

Can an air conditioner be too quiet?

The designers of evening breeze told us that their earliest model was too quiet. Unlike Coolzy, their machine is a fixed installation in a bedroom. It is not portable at all. Like Coolzy, it’s a low-power localised air conditioner designed to be used with windows open. The first prototype produced around 30 dB of noise, a very quiet humming noise. Unfortunately, even faint noises from outside like owls hooting would disturb sleepers, so they had to increase the noise level!

How much noise is OK for daytime?

Would an old-style portable aircon be OK for daytime use, even with a noise level around 60dB? Authoritative sources such as noiseawareness.com tell us that noise levels well below limits that cause harm can still affect health and well-being. Noise contributes to stress and impaired cognitive performance. Therefore, a sensible option is to choose the quietest portable air conditioner that you can afford, not only the purchase price, but also the long term running cost.

Coolzy comes out way in front on both noise and total ownership cost.

The Coolzy-Pro has a few advantages that work in it’s favour when comparing it’s sound to others. Firstly, we only use the BEST internal components. While some factories use cheaper compressors, we only use the best Reechi or Panasonic inverters (depending on model). These compressors are class leading, have the best lubrication and use the best bearings available. Secondly, a Coolzy-Pro is a low power device which means it isn’t drawing massive amounts of energy to drive large components. The result is less wasted energy on creating internal mechanical inertia with sound as a by-product. Thirdly and perhaps most importantly, we worked with jet fighter aeronautical engineers to design our internal fan impellor. We focused on air volume and turbulence which means our units get the most air per revelation and waste very little energy on turbulence. The result is a lovely smooth and quiet fan speed.