The very energy-efficient models do work like that, and take
forever to cool down a space. For your purposes you would
probably be happier with an inefficient model, and you might
need to size it up.

Dan wrote:
I could try another brand, but I'm
not guaranteed it won't behave the same way (it's been at least 7 years
since I had to deal with a window AC, I thought perhaps this was "just
they way they are now", that maybe they won't go any lower for energy
concerns or something) and if its size is different it may require