Temporary AC rental is portable cooling brought in for days or weeks: a wheeled unit for one room, a spot cooler aimed at a machine or a crowd, or a ducted package for a whole floor. Sizing starts near one ton per 400 square feet and falls fast once you add heat sources. Units of one to five tons run roughly $150 to $400 a day.
Work out the tons before you call
One ton is 12,000 BTU per hour. A plain office starts near one ton per 400 square feet. A room full of people, a kitchen line, a south-facing glass wall or a rack of servers each pull that figure down, sometimes to 150 square feet a ton. Count the heat sources, not just the floor area, and round up.
Where the hot air goes
A portable unit does not destroy heat, it moves it. Single-hose machines dump it out of a window or into a ceiling void and pull make-up air from the room, which costs some of the effect. Ducted and split units send it properly outside and cool far better. Decide the exhaust route first, because it decides the machine.
Power is the usual stumbling block
Around one ton runs on a standard 115-volt circuit if nothing shares it. Above that you need 208 or 230 volts, and a three-ton spot cooler on a shared office circuit will trip the breaker within minutes. Tell the yard what receptacle exists before delivery, or expect the unit to arrive and sit there.
Day, week and the seasonal squeeze
Weekly rates land near three days and monthly near three weeks, so a fortnight is priced far better than fourteen days. In a heat wave the constraint stops being price and becomes stock: portable fleets in a metro commit within hours. Book early in the week and ask what is physically on the yard.
Questions people ask about temporary ac rental
What size portable AC for a 1,000 square foot office?
Start at two and a half to three tons for a plain office and go higher if there is heavy glazing, equipment or a full staff. It is better to be a half ton over than a half ton under, because an undersized unit runs constantly and never catches up.
Can I vent it into a drop ceiling?
Spot coolers are designed for it and it is common in server rooms, provided the void is ventilated. In a sealed void the heat comes straight back down and the room stops improving after an hour, so check what is above the tiles.
How long can I keep a unit?
As long as you need. Beyond about a month, ask for the monthly rate and a service visit in the terms, since filters clog quickly in a construction or kitchen environment and a blocked unit loses capacity fast.