“The Korean made units seem to be the highest rated (Sunpentown, LG, etc)..”
I agree. We bought a Sears and then later realized Sears had re-branded the LG model. So we have a LG model sold through sears. We like this unit.
This is what we bought and is an example of one of the 15,000 BTU or larger window air conditioners that still have a current draw low enough it won’t trip the fuse on a 15 A dedicated circuit (circuit has no other additional current draw). I should explain that you cannot put a 15 A rated air conditioner on a 15 A circuit because it will typically trip the fuse. You need something that is about 12 A or less to ensure no problem on a dedicated 15 A house circuit.
LG LWHD1500ER (15,000 BTU)
This baby will cool down our entire 1200 sq ft vacation condo. And if you want to cool just one room, say 12 ft X 20 ft, this baby will cool that into a deep freeze condition in about 5 min flat. When you turn it on, it sounds like a medium sized diesel generator kicking in. The characters on “Home Improvement” would probably let out a few *argh* grunts if they heard it.
And this LG unit even delivers more (18,000 BTU) at lower current draw:
LWHD1800R
Now there ARE some drawbacks of buying such large window air conditioners:
1) so LOUD you never want them in a bedroom or living room. Put in a back room to hide the noise.
2) So heavy you need a couple guys to install. So heavy you better put strong wood or metal frame (as we did) under the portion that hangs out the window. (many of these have fallen out of windows without such a support!)
3) The only way a 15,000 BTU window AC unit can cool 1200 sq ft of space spread through multiple rooms is you must have massive air circulation spread the cool air out into all those rooms. I’m talking about three box fans or more.
A neat trick is to re-use the white Styrofoam pad sitting under the unit as it ships, and then install the air conditioner into your window sitting upon that same Styrofoam pad, where that pad rests upon a solid plywood base in the window. This pad attenuates the AC’s vibrations from reaching and resonating in the house structure.
