My brother in law bought one to use in South Louisiana in an 8x10 room. The windows he installed were too small to hold the smallest window unit. He started running it and found that we have too much humidity. The room had to be wiped down to remove mold & mildew, even when it was on all the time. He had to put the exhaust hose out the very small window to let the moisture it did collect go outside. He ended up buying a window unit and cut a hole in the wall. No more mold & mildew. If you don't have the humidity, the portable unit could be okay. The air that exhausts from the portable unit is warm so I found it had to work harder to create a cool environment in the room.