What do you recommend for a 100 sq ft room?

[Nickinaz]

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

[Peter_1]

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.

[Nickinaz]

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

[Nickinaz]

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

[frank]

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

[Nickinaz]

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

[Nickinaz]

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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