Room Air Conditioners…

Do window installation air conditioners have to have access to the outside? In other words, could I set one on a table and have it operate normally? I ask because I saw some "portable" air conditioners that do not need outside air, but are pretty expensive. I would like to get a cheap window one if it will work.
Thanks.
An early thanks for the answers recieved.
I hadn’t heard of airconditioners that don’t mount in a wall or window either, until I went to BestBuy yesterday. They must be new. I guess I can live with spending a little extra.
Thanks again.

only 1000 more units to go.

we are building a new house , its time to buy new airconditioners , ive looked at the prices and the difference are not that significant, however, if we were to consider cooling power, ease of maintenance, reliability, noise, power consumtion and other factors, which would you recommend ?

PS we live in Asia , and it gets pretty warm here…
an engineer has computed that we need a 2 hp , a 1.5 hp, and 5 with 1 hp…

These days with a major water shortage, and many refrigerated airconditioners, is it possible to use the water from these Aircons to use as Drinking Water? Is it clean water or contaminated, or even poisoned? Or is it clean and able to be used to drink, because even my little window airconditioning system puts out a lot of water each day onto the ground.

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I had my dishnetwork’s dish installed but the guy didn’t find my house’s grounding system so he wanted me to ground it. He pulled the green wire from the dish and told me to find a grounding spot and connect to it. I connected that green cable to the Air-conditioner’s blower (the big fan system in the garage/basemnet that blows AC / heater’s air to the house air duct). My idea is since this AC unit is already grounded, it is safe to ground my dish on that. Am I right?

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MARK IV AUTO AIRCONDITIONERS SERVICE MANUAL 1962?

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Thank you very very much

How to technically evaluate a domestic AirConditioner(AC) towards a purchase decision.Assuming te requirements of 1 to 2 ton AC ; what options do manufacturers/vendors in the Indian market provide in terms of technology, price trade-offs and hence total cost of ownership (energy efficiency).AC Tech professionals only please.