Free-standing air conditioners give you the power to enjoy cool breezes no matter where you are. The perfect climate-control solution for those on the move, they're easily transported from room to room or building to building - and boast a wide range of features, such as. They produce hot air that needs to be exhausted through a hose, so they should be placed near a window. Most portable air conditioner units include a window kit with instructions for easy installation. Dual-hose portable air conditioners provide more energy efficiency.

Being stuck in a room without windows isn’t great—but what if that room also lacks climate control? On days when the weather is warm, enclosed rooms like this can become so hot they are practically unbearable.

Maybe you work at a business or factory where some of the rooms or offices have this issue. Or perhaps you live in a northern area where air conditioning isn’t really a necessity—but there’s this one room in your home that you really wish had some AC.

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Instead of sweating through the day, becoming miserable and unproductive, and possibly depressed, you need to take action. There are several ways to cool off a room like this, one of which is the installation of a portable air conditioner. You may have ruled out this possibility since there’s no window through which to vent the unit, but we’re here to tell you that you’ve got other options.

Can you install a portable air conditioner without a window? The answer is yes! However, if you don’t have some other way to vent it, the unit simply won’t work well. You’ll be spending money without reaping any of the cooling benefits—and in fact, the space may become even hotter. Find out how to vent a portable air conditioner without a window so you can enjoy a cooler atmosphere in the warmer, stuffier spaces of your home or business.

What Happens if the Portable Air Conditioner Isn’t Vented?

So what will actually happen if you don’t vent the portable air conditioner in some way, through a window or some other way?

An air conditioner essentially collects heat from the air. Once it has sucked that heat out of the room, the heat needs to go somewhere. Usually, it would be vented outdoors, through a window or some other opening. But if it isn’t vented, the air just recirculates back into the room you’re trying to cool.

Basically, the air conditioner will run like crazy, generating its own heat simply because of the electricity and energy it’s using, but it won’t accomplish anything. It will simply be adding more heat to the space. Plus, you’ll probably notice a higher humidity level due to the struggling AC unit, and that can make a space feel even hotter.

So it’s vital to vent the air conditioner in some way if you plan to benefit from it and achieve a cooler working or living space.

Vent Through an Exterior Wall

The first option is to vent the portable air conditioner through an exterior wall. If the room you’re attempting to cool has an exterior wall that leads directly outdoors, you can cut a hole in that wall, just large enough to provide adequate venting for all the hot air you’re sucking out of the interior space.

Before you start chopping holes in walls, it’s a good idea to review the building’s structural plans and details, as well as applying a stud-finder to locate any supporting studs or beams. You don’t want to weaken the building’s structure at all, and you also want to avoid cutting through pipes or wires that may be in place within the exterior wall.

Once you’ve located a spot that’s safe, one that won’t interfere with the building’s systems or structure, you can carefully cut the hole using a circular saw or a similar tool. Be very careful when cutting through brick, stone, siding, and other types of exterior material.

Place the AC unit right in front of the hole you’ve made, with its exhaust hose or vent passing through the opening you cut into the exterior wall. It’s important to make that opening no larger than necessary since you want to avoid having to pack in extra space with a lot of filler. Ideally, the hose should fit almost perfectly into the hole. If there’s a little gap, add insulation and then seal around the hose or vent with plenty of silicone caulk.

Include a protective vent cover or some other type of cover over the end of the AC unit hose, to prevent moisture and pests from getting in while still allowing hot air to escape.

Vent Through an Interior Wall

You can also vent a portable AC unit through an interior wall. Let’s assume that the windowless room you’re trying to cool down is near the center of the building and has no exterior walls. You could cut a hole through one of the interior walls and run the unit’s vent hose into that other room. So the unit will be sucking heat out of one room and pouring it into another.

Of course, that can be an issue, since the second room will then become much hotter. If the other room is a laundry room, utility room, storage area, or garage that isn’t used often, the extra heat may not be a problem. However, if it becomes an issue, you can always install a second portable air conditioning unit in that other room and vent it outside. That way, you’ll have a way to channel hot air all the way outside effectively.

If you find yourself installing portable AC units in multiple rooms within a home or business, it may be time to evaluate the building’s HVAC system as a whole. You may want to consider installing central air conditioning and climate control for the entire structure and all its rooms.

Vent Through the Ceiling

What if you can’t vent through a wall or window? In that case, you have another option—the ceiling. This option works particularly well if you have a drop ceiling, but it can work with other types of ceilings as well.

You’ll see this type of venting most often in rooms that house banks of computer servers. Computer servers generate a lot of excess heat, but they can’t be allowed to get too hot. Sometimes, if the central AC isn’t sufficient to ease the heat in the room, a portable AC unit can pick up the slack, and in these situations, a ceiling vent is often the answer to the problem of extracting the hot air and moving it elsewhere.

You’ll need to install the AC unit higher up in the room for this scenario, possibly on top of a sturdy metal shelving unit or bracket. Or you could elongate the vent hose so that the AC unit can sit on the floor, and the hose can run up the wall to the ceiling where it is to be vented.

Appliances free installation and delivery code. Use a ladder so you can get close to the ceiling. Carefully cut a hole in the ceiling or remove a whole or partial panel from the drop ceiling. Be sure that you’re not interfering with wires or pipes that may run across the top of the room.

Once you’ve got the hole cut, run the vent hose through it and close the remaining gap with silicone sealant. You’ll need to monitor the temperature and humidity within the attic or the above-ceiling space, to ensure that humidity and heat levels don’t get too high. The last thing you need is a mold problem developing above the ceiling drywall or the drop ceiling tiles.

Vent Through a Dryer Vent

Dryer vents are designed to conduct hot air from one space to another. If there’s an existing dryer vent in or near the room you’re trying to cool off, you may be able to piggyback onto it and use it as a channel to get hot air siphoned away from the hot, windowless room.

However, there are several additional factors to consider if you’re thinking of using a dryer vent as a hot air conduit for a portable AC unit. First of all, dryer vents are typically smaller than the vents used for AC units. So if your dryer vent hose is too small, your AC unit might not be able to purge the hot air effectively, and you might end up spending electricity to run a unit that is simply not cooling the space the way it is supposed to.

Another consideration is the dryer itself. Your dryer must be able to rid itself of excess hot air, or that heat can build up and become a fire hazard. If you plan to hook your AC unit into an existing dryer vent, you need to be willing to constantly monitor the dryer and the air conditioner to ensure that both of those units continue to operate safely and efficiently.

Vent Through a Sliding Door

You may have ruled out the possibility of venting your air conditioner outdoors if the room in question only has a sliding door. However, using this space to vent your p

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