Best portable air conditioners to buy in Australia

Portable air conditioners work the same way as built-in air conditioning. They suck in warm and humid air, cool and dehumidify it, then blow it back into the room. Single-duct models (with a duct connected to an open window) draw the air from the room to cool it and vent some of it outside. These units also condense water from the air while cooling. Generally, this is collected in a tank or drained away in a tube. A venting kit is usually included so you can seal the gap around the duct to stop the cool air escaping out the window.

While they’re convenient and often comparatively cheaper than split-systems, single-duct portable air conditioners aren’t as effective or efficient. They’re only really worth considering if you’re a renter and can’t make modifications to your building, or if you can’t afford the upfront costs of the built-in option. If you use your air conditioner a lot, a split-system model is likely to be more cost-effective in the long run.

Portable air conditioners can cost about twice as much to run as a split-system air conditioner of a similar size. We found the average running cost for portable air conditioners over a summer was $172, compared with $61 for a small split-system. That’s based on running the cooling mode for four hours a day, over three months, at an electricity cost of 40c/kWh.