Senior Friendly Guide to Air Conditioners

Summer is on the horizon, which means more sun and higher temperatures. While we can”t blame you for looking forward to the summer months and the joy the season brings, summer is also associated with heightened health risks. Aging adults are especially prone to risks from heat, such as heat strokes, heat cramps, and heat exhaustion. Lois Aronstein, the State Director of AARP New York says it best: “heat can be miserable for all ages, but potentially life threatening for older persons.”Safety precautions are essential and what better way to beat the heat than staying indoors during the midday heat waves? Staying comfortable commonly requires some sort of efficient cooling system. In certain moderately temperate situations, a fan will do, but the fan”s ability to cool a large amount of open space is limited. That”s where air conditioners come in handy. An air conditioner (also known as the A.C. for short) stabilizes air temperature and humidity within a certain area in order to make hot weather bearable. There are two types of systems: a unit air conditioner (a big box you place in a room) and the central system (which cools the entire house). For our purposes here, we are going to focus on the unit air conditioner. Centrally cooling  usually requires a massive construction project and thus isn”t really an option without an enormous architectural overhaul. There are generally two types of unit air conditioners — portable and window, both of which we will assess. It is difficult to objectively state that window is better than portable  (or vice-versa) but we will look at specific features that seniors might want to look for and match them up with the appropriate models.

What to Look For in an Air Conditioner:

I. Sleep Mode (heat adjusting) – Our bodies sleep best when they can go to bed and wake up in the warm and sleep in the cold. With sleep mode air conditioners, these options are not mutually exclusive. Pending on what time you go to sleep and wake up, you set the air conditioner”s settings, and the heat will rise and fall accordingly. The truth be told that seniors are especially prone to environmental distractions during the sleeping process and thus have a difficult time adapting to heat in the midst of an REM cycle. Sleep mode helps make this easier.Frigidaire FAC124P1A Compact II 12,000-BTU Room Air Conditioner with Electronic ControlsMany air conditioners are equipped with sleep mode functionality but it is important to check how long the sleep mode lasts for. A seven hour sleep mode is better than nothing but a decent sleep lasts about eight hours leaving something to be desired. That”s why we like the Frigidaire FAC124P1A Compact II 12,000-BTU, where sleep mode lasts a complete 24 hours.II. Portability -The benefits of portability shouldn”t come a a shock to anyone — some rooms in your house might be hotter depends on the time of day or specific weather patterns and might need to be cooled down appropriately . Having the ability to easily move an A.C. unit from one from room the next saves not just a huge chunk of time, but also serves as a safety precaution. Moving these hefty, bulky units around is somewhat dangerous for seniors, who lack the muscle power or strength of their younger counterparts. A portable air conditioner is relatively lightweight and comes with wheels to roll around.DeLonghi CF210 8500 BTU Portable Air ConditionerThis Supentown model weights 86 pounds, which might seem a bit heavy but it is not made for lifting; it is made for rolling. This is great if you need to get it from one room to the next to adapt to fluctuating weather conditions.III. Remote Temperature Control -Remote temperature control is pretty self-explanatory; you can change the temperature with a remote control, without having to get out of your seat/ off your couch/ up out of your bed and manually change the settings. As the day goes on, the room gets a bit warmer and you want to lower the temperature but you might not be all that mobile anymore. For many seniors with limited mobility, getting up from a couch is a stressful, physically painful event that take its toll. Having the ability to change temperature with a remote solves that problem.Haier CPRB07XC7 7,000-BTU Portable Air Conditioner with Remote ControlRemote control included, you can change the A.C”s setting from all the way across the room. The remote is battery run, which generally need to be changed once every two years. While some remote controls only have limited capabilities, this Haier model has complete functionality — 24 hour preset controls, adjusting temperature, choosing one of three speeds,IV. Sleep mode (noise reduction) -Sleep mode can be used to describe a number of features. In addition to automatically adjusting temperatures while you sleep, sleep mode can also make the air conditioner quieter. Yet buying an air conditioner with sleep mode does not necessarily mean it always comes with noise reduction, nor does it guarantee heat adjusting functionality. Sometimes you get both features, other times just one. Thus, it is your duty as the consumer to assess the situation at hand.    Seniors are prone to distractions while sleeping, making it a bit harder to achieve a full night”s rest. Standard unit air conditioners are equipped with relatively loud fans that could might provide an auditory distraction. An air conditioner though with sleep mode reduces the noise by having the fan run at lower revolutions that usual during sleeping hours.LG Art Cool It”s a great power cooling device but the real genius comes with its sleep mode, where it can adapt as low as 20 decibels. (For a sense of comparison, silence rates a 0 on the decibel scale and the sound of a refrigerator is a 40; most ACs run around 60 decibels.) Relatively speaking, the LG Art Cool is near silent in sleep mode. We should also note that unlike most air conditioners, this one sports a sleek aesthetic appeal.V. Air Purifier – Purifiers are a nice add on feature for seniors who might be be asthmatics or allergy suffers. By removing contaminants (dust, pollen, dust mite feces) from the immediate environment, the air purifier makes the air more breathable and ultimately healthier. Air purifiers can come as a stand alone product or can be part of an existing air conditioner unit. It should be noted though that there are existing consumer concerns with air purifiers; they have a rather loud noise level and use a sizeable electrical consumption.Soleus PA1-12R-32 12,000 BTU Portable Air Conditioner and Air PurifierFor an air conditioner/air purifier unit, the Soleus model is (reasonably) efficient in terms of energy. It can be used in pretty much any indoor situation to both cool and purify a room. We should also mention that it is portable, so you can move it from space to space to meet your needs.