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 SACC 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.
