To ask for your best air conditioning unit recommendations

[ThatNimblePeer]

I live alone and am not very strong for lugging stuff up and down stairs, so I’d like something as light as possible, and also as quiet as possible. Happy to pay for good kit. Please hit me with your best recommendations!

No portable units which are good enough to cool a room down will be light enough to lug up stairs unless you are very strong (and determined). I'm in a flat with wooden floors and don't even bother to wheel it from lounge to bedroom as it's just heavy and awkward enough to be a faff.

Suggest you do a temporary free sign up to Which? - they have recommendations on there, which is what I used to choose mine a few years ago. Most are on or over £400.

Mine is 2 years old now and it's been a life saver in this hot weather. My west facing flat gets direct sun from about 2pm to sundown and is boiling. You do need to vent it out a window with a hose supplied with the unit (measure which window you will use and make sure hose is long enough).

Look for British thermal unit (BTU) output when buying. Which says
"In theory, the higher the claimed BTU, the more efficiently it can cool a room. As a general rule, 5,000-8,000 BTUs is adequate for most living rooms or bedrooms. "