My husband and I are quickly approaching the empty nesting season of our lives as our youngest moves out to start his career in a few short weeks. Because of this, we are downsizing and moving to a log cabin in the Northwoods of Wisconsin. I love this house. The thing I don’t love about it is the few weeks of the summer when the heat and humidity seem to seep into every corner of the main and upper floors. You see, we don’t have air conditioning there. It’s not really a necessity as there are only a few days of the year when you may want to use it. However, I’d like our sons and their friends to come to visit us and enjoy hanging out, comfortably playing games, and such with us at night. I thought I’d try using a small, portable air conditioner to do this. The Honeywell Contempo portable air conditioner (on sale now for $690 or get it on Amazon for $560!) seemed like a good compromise for my husband and me. It is actually a 3-in-1 unit that incorporates air conditioner cooling, a multi-speed fan, and a dehumidifier. We got the one that was designed for up to 550 square feet. Since it doesn’t cool the entire house, it saves us money and it’s super easy to transport from room to room as it has smooth-gliding wheels.
One thing I really like about this unit is that it uses an environmentally friendly refrigerant. That makes me feel better about using it. Also, the auto-evaporation system automatically removes any water collected from cooling. This means I don’t have to have a bucket available! The drain tube is provided and easily attached when using the dehumidifier function.
I must tell you about what I found to be a little frustrating. Honeywell provides you with an adjustable window kit. While it’s nice that it’s adjustable for practically any size window, I wouldn’t say installing the kit was easy. I mean, it seems like it should be however, my husband and I had a little difficulty getting it installed. It didn’t want to stay in place and, even after finally getting it fully installed, there are gaps. It would have been much better if Honeywell had provided some foam to help the window kit “grip” the window frame and window and fill in the gaps. Now I just have to go get some myself (which is fine, just a little inconvenient).
If you’re like me and would like some air conditioning in a room or two, I’d highly recommend the Honeywell Contempo air conditioner. It cooled my larger than 550 s.f. living room quickly (even though it’s designed for a much smaller space). It’s quiet, easily portable, and works like a champ!
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