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Originally posted by terracore

With the possibility of bad air being constantly in our forecast I wanted to get an air conditioner so that if we had to close all our doors and windows we wouldn't also have to battle heat exhaustion.

At first I wanted a portable air conditioner- one that I could move from room to room (they use tubes to hook up to the outside). This paragraph only serves as a warning. They are incredibly energy inefficient. Air conditioners have an "energy efficiency rating" (EER) that compare their energy consumption to the BTUs they deliver. The portable units had EERs between 2-3. A crappy window A/C was around 10, 11 was the norm, and "energy star" was about 12.2. (higher numbers are better) Portable air conditioners I researched used between 940-1200 watts to deliver the same cooling capacity as a cheap window unit burning 360-700 watts. Also, the portable units cost at least twice as much. If you are looking to move a portable air conditioner between two rooms, it's actually cheaper to buy two window units in the upfront cost, and in the ongoing cost you'll save money forever, even if you frequently run them both at the same time.

I checked out Home Depot and Walmart for air conditioners today. I wasn't impressed, so I went home and looked at Amazon and found a model I was interested in. Since I have Prime, ordering an appliance is usually a PASS/FAIL situation. Either they let you order to be shipped to Hawaii, or they do not. They let me order it, but instead of free prime shipping, I had to select between two different shipping charges (I think Expedited or Express). Around $25 and $31 for 6 or 7 day delivery.

I got on the amazon chat and inquired. The first time they offered no explanation but told me to place the order, give them the order number, and that they would waive the shipping charges. But while chatting I was getting buyers remorse on the unit I selected and decided I wasn't ready to order yet, so I thanked them and left the chat. I eventually found a different unit I wanted that looked like my solar array would run it and.... same problem. "Choose your Prime shipping options." No free options. Back to the chat I went.

On the next chat agent I inquired more specifically why this was happening and it explained that my zip code had no "standard" shipping cost available so I had to choose between Expedited or Express, but to place the order and that they would try to take the shipping cost off, but that there was no guarantee, but they could cancel it if I wasn't okay with the shipping cost. I placed the order and they were able to remove the shipping cost.

Amazon prime cost just went up from $99 to $119. What I gathered from my experience today is that free prime shipping to Hawaii is 1) either coming to an end or will have limitations or 2) some things that they would never ship to Hawaii they will if you pay a shipping cost. I'm hoping it's the latter.

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