Choose a Portable or Plug-in
Personal Air Conditioner
We have to admit we had never heard of or seen a personal air conditioner until recently this summer during a long, dry heat-wave. There are several different kinds of these individual coolers that chill the air in a small area by various methods.
 One of the smallest, simplest and least expensive is the "Cool Box" made by O2 Cool. Available on sale for less than $70, it takes up less than 1 cubic foot of space and when empty weighs only about 5 pounds. How it works is that you fill it up with up to 4 pounds of ice. A two speed fan blows across the ice sending cool air towards you. It is completely portable because it is powered by a built-in rechargeable battery, or 8 D-cells. It also comes with a car adapter so you can use it on the road, plus an AC adapter so you can plug it into regular household current and use it inside. You could take it camping and cool off your tent with it.
There is an even cheaper personal cooling system that comes with a water bottle that you fill, put into the freezer, and then insert into the air conditioner that is battery powered. These retail for only about $30 and provide barely more cooling than an ordinary electric fan.
Amcor makes the APC2000E Personal Air Conditioner that sells for just over $200. This has to be plugged into ordinary household current and it is like a regular small air conditioner with 1,000 BTU power. It also doubles as a dehumidifier with a 30-pint per day capacity and an air purifier. It would be good for a very small room or an office cubicle. The down side is that you have to empty the water container on a regular basis. Sized at almost 2-feet tall by nearly 1-foot high and wide, this personal air cooler is too big and heavy for the desktop, so it would have to sit on the floor.
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