I'm in a west facing apartment and in the summer months the sun is a bit brutal. The central AC will run constantly even set to 76 degrees and even worse it's pretty loud. So even if I don't mind paying for the AC to be running constantly, I still creep up the set temp to shut it up. I've got a small window unit for my office and I'm thinking about getting a u-shaped 12k btu for my living room/kitchen (one large room). The room is pretty close to the max sq foot for the 12k at like 550 and I've got 9'10 ceilings. I'm thinking if the unit can just prevent the central AC from turning on, even if it has to run constantly from 5-9pm it should use less electricity and be quieter while it does it.
My lease is up soon and I'm thinking about moving mostly because of the AC. Will a u-shaped midea be able to cool a 550 sq foot room with tall ceilings? It would be centrally located and if I can aim the vent horizontally it would point towards the living room half.