As a middle school lecturer, I sometimes agree to take on the not-so-coveted task of teaching Summer school.
I love what I do plus I love my students, but Summer school means working with youngsters who usually have behavioral problems in a entirely tepid classroom.
In the past, I have used two or three fans that are running consistently. And some afternoons I have taken the class outside for a lesson, but there are usually too many distractions outside to keep their attention. But this year I decided to look into purchasing my own portable a/c. What I found on some sites was that they are better than a fan, but not much. Other sites claimed that portable a/cs are bigger, noisier, more extravagant plus use more energy, and unlike a window a/c, all the mechanical parts of a portable a/c are sitting in the room you’re trying to cool. And it’s debatable how portable they are, because once the hose is fastened to the kit in the window, you won’t want to transport the unit, which weighs 77 pounds or more. I also learn that although portable a/cs have wheels, they don’t transport well on carpets or over raised thresholds between rooms. Finally, one website stated that if a portable a/c is the only choice, you still need fans to distribute the cooled air around the room. In the end, it seemed that there were too many strikes against purchasing a portable a/c. The final straw was the price, which would have almost cancelled out the income that I would make from teaching Summer school.