Portable AC BTU Coverage Comparator

Last updated 2026-08-22

Since 2017, U.S. federal rules have required portable air conditioners to state a Seasonally Adjusted Cooling Capacity (SACC) — a standardized DOE test that replaced the older, more generous ASHRAE lab number specifically so a shopper could compare BTU figures across brands on equal footing. Every brand below now states SACC on its own current page, exactly as required. What the rule didn't standardize is what each brand then claims that identical SACC figure will actually cool. We fetched six named models' own current pages directly and found the same 5,000 BTU SACC rating claimed to cover anywhere from 150 to 400 square feet, depending only on which brand's page you read.

The same federally measured 5,000 BTU SACC, claimed to cool very different rooms Black+Decker's own page for the BP05PWA states "5,000 BTU SACC/CEC" and "rooms up to 150 sq. ft." Midea's own page for its 8,500 BTU model states the identical "5,000 BTU SACC" and the identical "150 sq. ft." Whynter's own page for the ARC-12S states the same "5,000 BTU SACC" — and claims "spaces up to 400 sq. ft.," more than 2.6x the room size the other two brands claim for the exact same DOE-measured cooling capacity. SACC exists to make this comparison fair. It isn't stopping this gap.

Only one of the six pages here says which number its own coverage claim is based on LG's own page for the LP0825WFR is the single row below that explicitly ties its square-footage claim to SACC rather than ASHRAE, in its own words: "Cooling Coverage up to 350 Square ft. ... with 8,000 BTU (11,000 ASHRAE) portable air conditioner." Its own footnote states the SACC rule can make a unit's rated BTU "up to 42% lower when compared to the previous ASHRAE BTU method" — a nearly 2x internal gap, on LG's own page, between the number that used to be printed on the box and the one that's required now. The other five brands below state both numbers but never say, in the page itself, which one the coverage figure is actually keyed to.

Two brands chased and left out

Frigidaire's own domain would not load through this session's fetch tool on any URL tried — a connection failure, not a 403 or 404 — so its own current SACC and coverage figures could not be confirmed. Honeywell's branded portable-AC storefront still lists SACC, ASHRAE and square-footage numbers, but the page itself states "our company, a former trademark licensee of the Honeywell brand, is no longer in business" — so this tool does not treat those figures as Honeywell's own current claim, since nobody holding the license is confirmed to be keeping the page current.

Every claim, every brand, unfiltered

This table doesn't depend on what you typed above — it's every figure this page cites, straight from each brand's own current page.

Brand	Model	SACC (DOE)	ASHRAE (old)	Their own coverage claim
Black+Decker	BP05PWA	5,000 BTU	8,000 BTU	150 sq ft
Midea	8,500 BTU Smart Control	5,000 BTU	8,500 BTU	150 sq ft
Whynter	ARC-12S	5,000 BTU	12,000 BTU	400 sq ft
LG	LP0825WFR	8,000 BTU	11,000 BTU	350 sq ft
Black+Decker	BPP10WTB	10,000 BTU	14,000 BTU	450 sq ft
Whynter	ARC-1230WN	12,000 BTU	14,000 BTU	600 sq ft

What this does not do

It compares one representative model per brand, not every model or every hose configuration (single-hose vs. dual-hose) each brand sells — SACC itself is measured differently for single- and dual-hose units under the same DOE test method.
These are the brands' own marketing claims for their own products, not an independent, repeated, third-party test of every unit in a shared room under shared conditions.
It does not adjust for sun exposure, ceiling height, insulation or climate — every general sizing guide recommends adding headroom for those, and none of the six pages cited here states whether its own square-footage figure already assumes average conditions or best-case ones.
It does not explain WHY the claims differ this much for the identical SACC rating — only that they do, and that the rating created specifically to prevent this disagreement does not appear to be preventing it.

Runs entirely in your browser. Nothing you type is sent anywhere. The space heater coverage comparator found the same "a standardized physical figure, claimed to cover very different rooms depending on the brand" shape in a different market. The whole-house humidifier coverage comparator found it again in a market with no federal rule at all forcing a shared test method. The ceiling fan blade span comparator found it a third time, in a market with no test standard at all, federal or otherwise. The gas grill heat density comparator found BTU doing the same misleading-headline-number job in a fourth market, cooking instead of climate control. The air purifier CADR coverage comparator found it a fifth time — a real independently-tested figure (CADR, not SACC) still paired with a second, much bigger square-footage claim on the same brand's own page.