De'Longhi Pinguino PAC EM82

The De'Longhi Pinguino PAC EM82 is the lowest-priced full-size model in De'Longhi's current UK portable range, a 9,400 BTU (2.4 kW) portable that cools, dehumidifies and runs as a fan. Its strength is straightforward: it brings a bedroom, study or small living room down to a comfortable temperature quickly and without fuss, with a remote, a 24-hour timer and a window bracket in the box. As a single-hose design it does its best work with the internal doors shut and the window gap sealed. It also pulls a lot of moisture out of the air, up to 43 litres a day on De'Longhi's figures, so it earns its floor space in a damp spare room as well as on hot nights. For occasional summer cooling of a modest room, it does the job well at a fair price for the brand.

The savings show up elsewhere. It is A rated with an EER of 2.6 and draws about 1,000 W flat out, whereas the pricier PAC EX100 Silent manages A++ on around 700 W for slightly more cooling, so the EM82 costs more for every hour it runs. That gap only matters if you use it a lot: at current electricity prices the EX100 would need thousands of hours at full power to earn back its £350 higher list price, which is why we see the EM82 as the better buy for occasional use and the EX100 as the better buy for daily use. The other compromises are practical. The exhaust hose is only about 1.2 m long, the thing most likely to catch you out, since it can stop short of a high sill or a roof window. It is audible at full power, with no night or silent mode to fall back on, and at around 31.5 kg it is a unit you wheel rather than carry. There is no Wi-Fi and no heating. Accept those limits and it is a sound, no-frills cooler.

The PAC EM82 belongs to De'Longhi's EM series, the plainer, lower-priced end of the Pinguino family. It is a free-standing portable on castors: it draws in room air, cools it and pushes the heat it removes out through one exhaust hose to a window, using low-impact R290 refrigerant in a sealed circuit. That sealed design is why there is no installer, no wall drilling and no F-Gas engineer involved. You stand it up, leave it upright for a few hours so the refrigerant settles after delivery, fit the window bracket and switch it on.

At 9,400 BTU it is built for smaller rooms than the 10,000 BTU EX100. De'Longhi rates it for spaces of up to about 80 m³, roughly 30 m² with a standard ceiling height, but in a typical UK home it is happiest in a bedroom, study or compact living room of 15 to 25 m². Put it in a large, sunny or open-plan space and it will run flat out without ever quite catching up, so check the sizing for your room before you buy, or put your room into our BTU calculator, rather than hoping a smaller unit will stretch.

It suits someone who wants a dependable De'Longhi for the hottest weeks of the year without paying for features they will not use. It is less suited to anyone who wants to control it from a phone or warm a room in spring and autumn, since it does neither; the MeacoCool Pro 9000 adds both. And if it is going in a bedroom, plan around the noise: cool the room before bed with the door shut, then turn it down or off once you settle.

De'Longhi lists the PAC EM82 at £599.99 and Argos sells it at £600. Specialist sellers have been a little cheaper, with Air Con Centre at £568.95 and Ecowizard at £553.57, though both were sold out when we checked prices in October 2026, as was De'Longhi's own stock. Portable stock thins out every autumn and returns in spring, so if you are not in a hurry, early-season prices are the ones to watch. Within the Pinguino range it is around £350 less than the PAC EX100 Silent at list price; against budget brands it is no bargain, since some rival portables of similar or larger capacity cost less.

Running costs are the trade-off for that lower price. It draws about 1,000 W on full cooling, so at the October 2026 Ofgem price cap of 26.32p per kWh that is roughly 26p an hour, against about 18p for the EX100. Once the room reaches temperature the compressor cycles on and off, so real-world costs come in lower, and a typical summer of evening and weekend use should land somewhere around £20 to £40. Over a season the difference from the EX100 is roughly £6 to £12, which is why the EM82 makes more sense for occasional use than for all-day, every-day cooling through a long heatwave. Prices correct as of October 2026; electricity rates updated for the October to December 2026 price cap. The energy price cap changes quarterly, so check current rates before budgeting.