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Window Air Conditioner Maintenance

By Bob Formisano, About.com

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Properly Sizing a Room Air Conditioner

The cooling "size" of an air conditioner is measured in its ability to extract a certain amount of heat measured in BTU's. A common mistake when buying a room air conditioner is purchasing a unit too big for the size of the room (i.e., too many BTU's).

Why is this a problem? Because a key element of feeling "comfortably cool" is removing humidity from the air as well as reducing the room air temperature. While an over-sized unit may quickly reduce air temperature, it will not properly reduce humidity or run efficiently. Oversizing results in humidity discomfort and expensive operation.

To properly size a room air conditioner, I suggest using this sizing chart provided by the Energy Star® program of the DOE (Department of Energy).

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