Key points
- The big number is the ASHRAE rating, and the small one is the DOE seasonally adjusted cooling capacity (SACC).
- The DOE figure is measured at 83°F and 95°F outdoors, weighted 80 and 20 percent, with the warm air the unit draws in counted.
- Match the room size the brand rates each unit for, then step up for sun, a high ceiling or a kitchen.
- A unit far larger than the room cools in short bursts and leaves the air damp.
- Plug the unit straight into a wall outlet: no extension cord, no power strip.
Two numbers on one box
The first number is the one printed largest: 8,000, 10,000, 12,000 or 14,000 BTU. It comes from the ASHRAE test, a single lab condition that the industry has used for decades. It tells you how much heat the refrigeration system can move, but not how much of that work reaches the room once the unit is running in a real window on a real summer day.
The second number is newer. In a final rule published in the Federal Register on June 1, 2016, the Department of Energy introduced the seasonally adjusted cooling capacity, or SACC, for portable air conditioners. The DOE rates a unit at two outdoor conditions: a peak of 95°F, and 83°F for an average hot hour. It weights them 20 and 80 percent, and it counts the warm outdoor air the unit draws into the room while it runs. That is why the SACC figure is always the smaller of the two.
Every Shinco portable air conditioner carries both numbers, and we print both on its page. The table below puts them side by side for the whole range.
| Unit | ASHRAE | DOE seasonal (SACC) | Room size |
|---|---|---|---|
| SPF1 12,000 BTU Portable Air Conditioner | 12,000 BTU | 7,500 BTU | Up to 450 sq ft |
| SPF2 Portable Air Conditioner | 8,000 BTU | 4,550 BTU | Up to 350 sq ft |
| SPF2 Portable Air Conditioner | 10,000 BTU | 6,450 BTU | Up to 400 sq ft |
| SPF2 Portable Air Conditioner | 12,000 BTU | 7,800 BTU | Up to 450 sq ft |
| SPF2 Portable Air Conditioner with Heat | 10,000 BTU | 6,450 BTU | Up to 400 sq ft |
| SPU2 14,000 BTU Portable Air Conditioner with Heat | 14,000 BTU | 10,000 BTU | Up to 700 sq ft |
| SPU2 14,000 BTU Portable Air Conditioner | 14,000 BTU | 10,000 BTU | Up to 700 sq ft |
Notice that the same box number does not always give the same seasonal number. Our two 12,000 BTU units rate 7,500 BTU (the SPF1) and 7,800 BTU (the gray SPF2) by the DOE test. When two units share a box number, the seasonal figure is the tiebreaker. The gap matters at the top of the range as well: the 14,000 BTU SPU2 rates 10,000 BTU by the DOE test, well above the 7,800 BTU of the 12,000 BTU SPF2 by the same test, so the SPU2 is the unit for a large living room.
What the room size means
Each Shinco unit carries a room size from the brand: up to 350 square feet for the 8,000 BTU SPF2, 400 for the 10,000 BTU units, 450 for the 12,000 BTU units and 700 for the 14,000 BTU SPU2. Measure the floor, multiply length by width, and start from the unit whose rating covers it. A 12 by 15 foot bedroom is 180 square feet. A 20 by 22 foot family room is 440.
Those ratings assume an ordinary room: an eight-foot ceiling, a window or two, a couple of people. Rooms rarely are ordinary. A top floor under a hot roof, a west window that takes the afternoon sun, a ceiling that rises to twelve feet or a kitchen open to the room all add heat the unit has to move. In any of those, take the next size up. Our room size finder lists the units rated for at least the square feet you type, smallest first.
Why a bigger unit is not always better
It is tempting to buy the largest unit and be done with it. In a small room that backfires. An air conditioner removes moisture only while its compressor runs. A unit sized far above the room drops the temperature to the set point in a few minutes and switches off before it has pulled much water out of the air. The room ends up cold and clammy, and the unit cycles on and off all evening.
A unit sized to the room runs in longer, steadier stretches and dries the air as it cools. If a bedroom of 200 square feet is the job, the 8,000 BTU SPF2 is the right tool, not the 14,000 BTU SPU2. Save the big unit for the family room, the studio apartment or the basement den where it belongs.
One room, with the door closed
A portable air conditioner cools the room it stands in. It is not built to cool a floor or a whole apartment through open doors, and the room ratings above assume the door is mostly shut. If two bedrooms need cooling at night, two smaller units in two rooms will do better than one large unit in the hall.
Each Shinco unit also has a Dry mode and a fan mode. On a muggy day that is not quite hot, Dry pulls moisture out without chilling the room, and the SPF2 and SPF1 send that water out through the exhaust hose instead of into a bucket. The 12,000 BTU units evaporate up to 43.2 liters a day this way.
The plug matters as much as the BTU
A portable air conditioner draws heavy current for hours at a time. The Electrical Safety Foundation International says never to run appliances through extension cords or multi-outlet converters, and that every major appliance should be plugged directly into a wall outlet. Before you choose a spot for the unit, find the outlet: the cord has to reach it without help.
All Shinco portable air conditioners run on a standard household outlet, 115 volts on the SPF series and 120 on the SPU2. If the only outlet in the room already carries a computer, a lamp and a phone charger on a power strip, move those, not the air conditioner. A heavy reliance on extension cords, the same foundation notes, is a sign a room has too few outlets.
A quick way to choose
Measure the floor. Note the sun, the ceiling and the kitchen. Pick the smallest Shinco unit whose room rating covers the space, then compare the seasonal number if two units tie. Check the window: every unit ships with a kit for sliding windows, and a crank or tilting window takes our window seal. Then find the outlet. Our guide on installing a window kit walks through the setup, and the portable air conditioner shelf has every unit with both ratings printed.
Every unit named here is part of the Shinco range.
