Is it more energy efficient to use a portable A/C in the bedroom at night over central air

Trashy arse Alabama fans.

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Trashy arse Alabama fans.

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If it's trashy trying to cut down on energy costs then consider me the trashiest of them all.

I have one in my bedroom that we bought for our RV. It cools our bedroom to 64 degrees and I turn the thermostat for the main AC in our house to 74 and let the kids sweat at night

And there’s a small vent that we ran to the window but it faces our back patio/pool area so nobody sees it but us

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Gonna need pics of your wife first.

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We put a split in our bedroom and it does help. We turn the house AC up to 78 at night and grand the BR down to the 60s

When i bought my house it had a window unit in the master bedroom. A/C was also also less than 6 months old. I thought, awesome we have A/C if we lose power since a have a generator. Within the 1st Month I cranked that baby up to 67 and slept like a baby all night. We have no kids in a 4 bedroom home. Every night the Window unit goes on and the AC unit is set to 78. Saves us a ton in the summer months.

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Does anyone use a portable A/C in their bedroom?

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Yep. Our bedroom is on the opposite side of the house from our AC unit and where the sun beats down all day. For that reason, that side of the house is warmer than the opposite side.
We bought a window unit about three years ago, and though it’s technically against our HOA rules, I built a fake flower box around it so it isn’t visible from the street.
We run it on 65 every night and keep the main unit around 75.
I love the white noise from the unit and with the room being cold, I sleep much better. And since I work shift work, I covered the windows with wooden shutters which keeps the room dark as well.

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It got me thinking about buying a portable A/C.

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Your mileage may vary, but the portable unit I tried was similarly priced to what you're thinking about buying, and it was complete garbage.

ETA: Unless you're talking about a window unit, which is entirely different than the "portable" units out there these days.

I have a cheap window unit I left in the bedroom window after Ida and used it during the months where it was t hot enough to run the central but warm enough to want to be cooler, especially at night. It cools the room to perfection but it only has an on/off switch so it does burn a lot of energy. Get one that has a thermostat so it can regulate itself and it might be worth it.

single hose portable units are trash.

If you want to know why, go outside where the hose is venting out outside. Feel how much air is being blown at you. Its a lot. All that air getting blown out of the house has to be replaced. That replacement air will come in through every crack and crevasse air can be pulled in from. Hopefully all that outside air being pulled in is only the 90 degree humid-arse ambient outside air. If its getting pulled in from the attic ( and some is guaranteed to be) its going to be 130 degree air.

On the surface, they seem to work like window units. Cold air blowing inside; Hot air blowing outside. The key difference is the hot air blowing outside on a window unit isn't coming from inside the home. Its outside air being pulled in from the sides and back out through the hot condenser. With those garbage portable units, interior air is being used to cool the condenser. This air exiting the home is causing the home to be under vacuum.