Are you suffering from the hot weather and/or humidity? If so, maybe it's time to consider buying a new room air conditioner--or getting your existing model running properly. An effectively working portable, wall-mounted, or window-mounted air conditioner can change your life.

Whereas central A/C is great for cooling an entire house, room air conditioners are a sensible cooling solution for apartments or situations where you only want to cool only one or two rooms.

Their obvious advantage of a smaller unit like this is that it consumes only the amount of energy required to cool a small area--not the energy needed for cooling the entire house.

Like central air conditioners, room air conditioners extract heat and moisture from the room air, cool and dehumidify it, and return the air to the room. A blower pulls warm room air through a filter. The main difference is that they are a single, self-contained unit with an evaporator or cooling coils, a condenser, and refrigerant-filled tubing all in one box. Air conditioner units mount in a window or through an opening in a wall, since they need to expel hot air.

In this section of HomeTips, you will find unbiased buying guides that can help you make smart buying decisions and step-by-step DIY help with installing and maintaining these helpful appliances.

For information on whole-house central air conditioners, see Air Conditioners: Central.