Window air conditioners are an excellent way to cool off a room provided you do not want the room to be extra quiet.
That’s because the cycling of the air conditioner becomes a backdrop to your life anytime that the air conditioner is on. Yes it’s kind of annoying.
Is there a silent window air conditioner?
There is no such thing as a completely silent window air conditioner.
A window AC that creates zero noise is a impossibility because of the fact all the parts of a window air conditioner that make noise are located in the same “all-in-one” unit.
The running motor noise that a window AC makes is literally behind the vents where the cool air blows out of.
And there’s no way to have a refrigerated type air conditioner without having a condenser and compressor cycling on and off.
There is a reason that anytime you do a search on Google or a silent air conditioner you find yourself on a search result page of top quietest air conditioners.
A window AC is a all-in-one unit.
And when I say “all in one”, I mean all the components that make an air conditioner work, including the compressor and the fan.
And although there are other noises that a window air conditioner make from time to time, the compressor and the fan are the main running sound that you hear when you operate a window AC.
Window air conditioners use the same type of technology that a central heat and air unit (HVAC) uses.
But the reason that a central heat and air unit seems to cool the air very quietly inside of a house is because the compressor is located outside of the house.
The distance between the part that blows the cool air in the house and the outdoor compressor is far enough from each other that you do not hear the compressor noise.
But if you a window that is next to the outdoor HVAC compressor running then you know very well that they are far from silent.
In fact, they can be very loud. Loud enough that there are people who build sound barriers around them to keep the noise down.
What is the Quietest Window AC?
The type of window AC that is the quietest is the inverter u-shaped style.
It is because a u-shaped window air conditioners like the Soleusair allow for the window to come through the center of the air conditioner, which makes the actual window a barrier between the blower section of the air conditioner and the noise and compressor in the back of the AC.
The noise level of the Soleusair comes in at only 38 decibels. That’s about the same as running a very quiet refrigerator.
Haier Serenity achieves about 42 decibels. Very close to the inverter u-shaped window ACs.
Summary
Is there a silent window air conditioner?
Window air conditioners are a convenient way to get refrigerated air cooling your room. They are all in one solution that work well because they are able to exhaust the heat that they generate directly outside the house.
But being that they are a complete packaged unit including all the components that actually create the cool air including a noisy compressor, it is impossible to have a window air conditioner that creates zero noise and is completely silent.
But that doesn’t mean there are some very quiet window air conditioners on the market.
If it is very important that you have zero noise, other solutions like a mini split air conditioner, that split the location of the air conditioner and the compressor so that the noisy compressor is located outside.
Still not a completely silent option, but nearly.
