Combat Your Allergies with your Portable Air-Conditioner? Who knew?

Reader's Digest recently had an article about the top twenty ways to combat those annoying summer allergies. As I skimmed through, I found most of the concepts I expected: Eat fruit with vitamin C, don't let your pets on your bed, and clean your furniture often.

What I didn't expect to see was number three: Turn on your AC.

Turn on your air conditioner to supplement anti-bacterial activities? If it would've said "air purifier," I wouldn't have given it a second thought, but an air conditioner? As I read on, though, it started to make more sense. Air conditioners have natural dehumidifying properties, meaning they remove moisture from the air, making it less humid. "So what?" I said, but what I didn't realize was that bacteria loves moist areas, and when the air itself is really moist, then your lungs can become the perfect breeding ground for microbes that make your throat itch, your eyes dry and red, and your nose run. Keeping a dry, more sterile environment makes things uncomfortable for bacteria breeding, on top of the fact that all portable air conditioners, wall air conditioners, and central air conditioners have some sort of air filter to block debris and bugs from being sucked in and pumped into your home. The air filter is also key to keeping the allergen levels low. Make sure to check it and clean it often.
Concurrently, you can go the extra mile and get a portable air conditioner with an actual air purifier within it. This saves you having to go out and buy two seperate appliances, and saves you space and energy costs in your home. A few portable air conditioners with this all-in-one feature set are the NewAir ACP1000E and ACP1000H, and the NewAir ACP1300E and 1300H. These four units are great for medium to large size rooms, the "H" models have a built-in heater as well, and they ALL have ionic air purifiers inside, so you can cool off, heat up, and keep your nose dry, your asthma risk low, and sinuses unclogged. They're all pretty reasonably priced, too, especially for how much you get out of one little box. Naturally, they dehumidify the air as well, keeping the moist, bacteria-friendly humidity to a minimum.

So while it might sound strange to think that a machine that sucks in outside air can actually make the air inside your home cleaner and free of allergens, the proof is in the purifier! So turn on those portable AC's this summer and keep your body cool and your lungs healthy.

The Cleansing Power of the Sun in the NewAir ACP-1400E and ACP-1400H

Air purifiers and central heating and air systems have used UV (ultra violet) lamps to destroy unhealthy, airborne bacteria for some time now, but it's a relatively new trend in portable air conditioners. UV lamps are installed into HVAC systems, where they irradiate AC coils and kill bacteria in the stagnant waters of drip pans, on top of the main purpose of keeping the air pumped out cleaner and healthier.

But what about the millions of Americans that are apartment-bound or in other rental situations? Usually they're at the mercy of ancient room air conditioners that are only up to the air-quality standards of twenty years ago, and they're the lucky ones! Many have to spend the unbearable summer months at the mercy of electric fans stuck inside a window, which not only do a mediocre job of actually cooling a room, but have no sort of filtration system to purify the polluted air it's pulling in and pushing right down into their lungs.

The solution to this problem has been, in recent years, the portable air conditioner, and they've done a great job at incorporating some of the qualities of an air purifier into their standard operations. Most come with at least some sort of HEPA filter or carbon filter to keep the big microbes and dust particles from circulating back into the room, but what about going that one step further? As I stated earlier, the bigger HVAC systems and air purifiers have been using UV lamps to kill even more bacteria for some time now, so why have portable air conditioners (and heaters), on the whole, not followed suit?

Thankfully, one portable air conditioning company, NewAir, realizes that the future should not only be climate controlled for people in all living situations, but they should have every opportunity to breathe the cleanest air they can, and that means taking that extra step and bringing UV technology to the "central-air-impaired" masses.

One of the first of its kind, the NewAir ACP-1400E (portable air conditioner) and NewAir ACP-1400H (portable air conditioner and heater) do their utmost to give you the power to relax in the most comofortable and clean environment possible. This model not only uses germicidal UV lamp technology to kill bacteria, but has both a carbon filter, washable dust filter, and ionizer to keep the circulating air sterile. The ACP-1400H also has a built in heater, giving you clean, healthy comfort all year round. NewAir wants to be a company you can trust, and does not overrate their portable air conditioners' power ratings. The ACP-1400E and ACP1400H are rated at 14,000 BTU's, and actually have that cooling capacity in reality. Other comapanies inflate their ratings, on top of the fact that they aren't using the lastest purification technology, as NewAir does.

Hopefully, with the ACP-1400E and ACP-1400H, NewAir will be setting a new standard for the ideal portable air conditioner, so help them, and the health of everyone that comes into your home, by checking these units out, and let the other companies know that you and your family won't settle for anything less than the benchmark set by the NewAir ACP-1400E and NewAir-1400H, so that, in time, more and more people can beat the heat, and beat those microscopic menaces!

NewAir AC-1600E Portable Air Conditioner Delivers Style and Exceptional Cooling Power

Rising temperatures mean more people will be turning to their trusty air conditioners in order to beat the heat. Generally speaking, air conditioners fall into four different categories: window air conditioners, through-the-wall air conditioners, central air conditioners, and lastly, portable air conditioners. Window air conditioners are installed into the window of a room and designed to cool that particular room. Through-the-wall air conditioners are mounted into a wall and provide a cooling effect by exchanging inside air with outside air, while central air conditioners cool entire homes and buildings. Portable air conditioners, on the other hand, do not require permanent installation such as reconfiguring a window or breaking into a wall and can be moved from one room to the next.

Because of their easy maneuverability, relatively small size, and portability, portable ACs are ideal for a variety of settings, including apartments, rooms, workplaces, computer server rooms, or anywhere else where installing a traditional AC may not be feasible. Although easy to maintain, portable air conditioners will need to be vented out a window, but this is easily accomplished by positioning a flexible hose out through the window opening. Nonetheless, portable air conditioners are still great for supplemental or spot cooling, and many of today's models such as also come with built-in heaters and/or air purifiers. Moreover, because portable room air conditioners utilize a refrigeration cycle to lower temperatures, humidity levels are reduced, therefore making them especially useful for humid climates.

However, when it comes to choosing a portable air conditioner, there seems to be a lack of reviews for such units. Thankfully, for the past few weeks, our product review team has been hard at work testing the most popular portable ACs on the market. For this week, NewAir sent us the sleek and stylish AC-1600E portable air conditioner, and we were especially impressed with its design and cooling ability. We tested the NewAir AC-1600E portable AC in our product editor’s 150 square foot office on a warm afternoon. Here were our findings:

Style and Convenient Features
Upon receiving the NewAir AC-1600E and after taking it out of its carton, we saw that the unit sported a sleek silver finish – something hadn’t seen with many other portable ACs we’ve tested. Although it weighed roughly 85 pounds or so, there were built-in, easy to roll casters that allowed us to move the unit from one office to the next with ease. The control panel provided bright contrast and clear visibility, while the included remote allowed us to conveniently control the unit from across the room. The included window kit and large diameter exhaust hose was also easy to install, and within just minutes, we were able to get the NewAir AC-1600E portable air conditioner up and running.

Cooling Power
When choosing a portable AC, one of the most common mistakes consumers make is incorrectly sizing their unit. Portable air conditioners are sized according to BTUs, which stands from British Thermal Units. A BTU is a unit of energy that is commonly used in the power, steam generation, and heating and air conditioning industries. A portable air conditioner’s BTU rating describes its power and cooling capacity. Naturally, the higher the BTUs, the stronger the portable AC. However, the one problem we’ve come across is incorrect and insufficient BTU ratings. Some portable air conditioner manufacturers have overstated the cooling capacity of their products, but prior to receiving the AC-1600E, we spoke to NewAir directly and they reassured us that this portable AC featured a verifiable 16,000 BTUs of power with a cooling capacity of up to 500 square feet in optimal conditions. We found this to be true and even at the lowest setting, the NewAir AC-1600E provided more than enough cooling for our needs.

Dehumidification Abilities
The NewAir AC-1600E utilized auto-evaporative technology and this dramatically decreased the amount of moisture that was accumulated. Also, this portable air conditioner worked as a dehumidifier with a capacity of 80 pints of moisture per day. Although our environment wasn’t very humid, we noted that this would be a great feature for those living in humid climates.

Improves Air Quality
Poor indoor air quality is a problem that can plague most homes, regardless of how immaculate. Furthermore, when using an air conditioner, air is constantly being recirculated, so if you have an air quality issue, turning on the AC won’t help. Thankfully, NewAir has addressed this with the AC-1600E portable air conditioner. This portable air conditioner utilized a three-step filtration system that included a 3M filtrate filter, washable air filter, and an activated carbon filter. All of these filters work together to provide you with cleaner air, which is especially helpful if you have pets in your home.

Overall, we really liked the fact that the NewAir AC-1600E was compact, stylish, and feature-rich. Furthermore, this portable air conditioner offered far more BTUs than many other portable air conditioners in its price range.