What do you recommend for a 100 sq ft room?

Hoping you experts can give me experienced advice here...

We have an un air-conditioned, 100 square foot room in Tucson AZ. It has 8 foot ceilings and one small to medium window, facing south. What type of AC would work here?

I prefer a mini-split, but the smallest DIY model I can find is a 9000 BTU, for 350 sq feet. I've been told that will short cycle. Does anybody have any experience with that size mini-split in a 100 square foot room? I would love to have a professional install, but I just don't have the money.

I've considered a window unit, but I have slider windows, and finding a small enough casement AC unit has been difficult. Again, short cycling.

We have a portable AC unit in there now, but boy is that clunky and ugly.

Any other ideas? Ideally, I'm looking for advice from somebody with experience running a 9,000 BTU mini-split in a room this size--will the short cycling be that big of a deal?

Thank you so much! I feel as though I have no good options here.

Nick

Most if not all split units are nowadays inverter driven and adapts their capacity and will not short cycle. Smallest is 2 kW ;-) Don't instal a window unit, noisy , difficult to maintain and is old technique.

Hi Peter. Thanks for the reply.

I agree with you, there is a range that the mini-splits can operate in. But isn't 100 square feet even too small for a 9,000 btu (about 2.6 kw) unit? In other words, isn't it below the minimum size room the unit can adapt to? The budget only allows for a do-it-yourself install here, and there are no 2 kw (7000 btu) systems available for that, so it would have to be the 9,000/2.6 kw unit.

You're right, I don't want to install a window unit. It looks old-school, it's inefficient. But I need to be *sure* the mini-split will be correct for that room. I see you're the moderator, and I believe you know what you're talking about, I just wanted to be sure.

Thanks,

Nick

Ah, and my apologies for not realizing this was an international forum... to make it easier for everybody, 100 sq feet is 9.29 sq meters.

So, I'm wondering: anybody have any experience with a ~2.5 kw mini split in a 9.29 sq meter room?

Thanks,

Nick

Sizing air conditioning (coolers) shoud be based on the heat gain into the room, not purely room size.

I've installed larger a/c units into smaller rooms but that was due to the high heat gains from computer equipment

If the heat gain into your room was, say, 4kW, then a 2.6kW unit would be undersized

You have a good point!

To clarify, I'll add this: It has a ceiling that's about 7'2 to 7'10 tall (2.18 to 2.38 m), is surrounded on 3 sides by air conditioned room, and has a trundle bed. At most, there will be two people in there, and not much else, just a desk and a computer. No kitchen or other sources of heat.

The one exterior facing wall faces south, with a 58" x 35" (147 cm x 89 cm) window, which has blinds and a blackout curtain. There will also be a pergola outside, partially blocking the sunlight. It has a ceiling fan.

This is relentlessly sunny Arizona, highs of around 100 Fahrenheit (38 C) for 2-3 months of the year.

Also, now that I look at it, the exterior wall where I would have to put a thru-the-wall AC unit is solid brick. I have no idea of the structural integrity loss of cutting an AC-sized hole in that, not to mention the aesthetic cost. I could manage the hole for the mini-split cabling, but not much more.

With all that said....it looks like a window unit is my only option? Unless you think, given these heat gain conditions, a 9,000 BTU/2.5kw mini split would still somehow work?

Thanks so much to everybody...I've been chewing all this in my head, but I do miss things. These opinions are helpful. I'm of course not an expert, so I appreciate the advice from you all.

Nick

Also, as for insulation, it has a "built up" roof, almost flat, with the white elastomeric coating on it to reflect heat. I really don't think there's much between the ceiling and the roof, if anything at all.

Nick

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