21
New Portable Air Conditioner
BTU’s
You may notice that the cooling capacities (in British Thermal Units or
BTU’s) labeled on
portable air conditioners (PAC’s) are now lower than on models produced prior to October 1,
2017. This is because the labeling on new productions of PAC’s must follow a new federal test
standard that was established by the Department of Energy: 10 CFR 430, subpart B, appendix
CC.
The SACC rating shown on your new PAC is a result of this new standard. Models manufactured
before 2017 were tested under a different standard (ASHRAE) that produced a higher cooling
capacity output. While the SAC
C BTU’s are lower than the previous ASHRAE BTU’s, the
construction and cooling capacity of this model(s) remains unchanged. Both the SACC and
ASHRAE ratings are included for consumer comparison.
What is SACC?
SACC, or the Seasonally Adjusted Cooling Capacity, is a rating in BTU/hour that represents the
weighted average performance of a PAC in a number of test conditions, some of which may be
more extreme than the average use case, which is then adjusted to account for the effect of
infiltration air and duct heat transfer. The factors included in the SACC calculation are why the
ratings appear lower, even though the model(s) has not changed.
