Should I be worried about window A/C units?

[Herr Kutz]

I'm looking at an apartment that's in a great location and within walking distance to my current place of employment. The unit is inside a house built in the late 1800's, and what has me worried is that it's cooled by 2 window A/C units. I've never lived in an apartment without central air and was wondering if I should be worried about relying on window units, especially considering the house is old, likely has bad insulation, and is in a very hot part of the U.S. The unit in question is on the bottom floor and somewhat shaded so that may help. Another issue could potentially be noise. I've stayed in hotels with the wall A/C units before and I can't say the noise bothered me, but I've never had to live with one long term. Any advice?

The renter said if my only concern was about the A/C units being able to cool the place he would replace them, but I don't really know if that is necessary tbh.

 

[SMOGZINN]

My Personal experience in living for 3 years in a small wood 2 bedroom house build in 1920 that had window units in the living room and each bedroom is that window units do a fairly good job of cooling the room they are in, but are not usually powerful enough to cool adjacent rooms. In this house the living room and bedrooms were cool, the kitchen and bathrooms were in the high 80 during the day. The units can be a bit noisy, mostly wind noise as they move a lot of air, comparable to a large box fan. Newer units are much quieter then the old ones were which can develop a rattle.

I should mention that this was in Houston, Texas which is hot and humid.

EDIT: Something to also consider is heating. At least in my experience window units don't heat. So how is the place heated? Even if you live in a warm place you will want some heating in the winter.

 

[Herr Kutz]

My Personal experience in living for 3 years in a small wood 2 bedroom house build in 1920 that had window units in the living room and each bedroom is that window units do a fairly good job of cooling the room they are in, but are not usually powerful enough to cool adjacent rooms. In this house the living room and bedrooms were cool, the kitchen and bathrooms were in the high 80 during the day. The units can be a bit noisy, mostly wind noise as they move a lot of air, comparable to a large box fan. Newer units are much quieter then the old ones were which can develop a rattle.

I should mention that this was in Houston, Texas which is hot and humid.

EDIT: Something to also consider is heating. At least in my experience window units don't heat. So how is the place heated? Even if you live in a warm place you will want some heating in the winter.

The apartment layout is somewhat like this with the living room and bed room both roughly 12' x 12'.

I wish I would have looked at the A/C unit nameplates to get BTU or model number but I remember them having a small digital temperature indicator on it, maybe something like this http://www.walmart.com/ip/Danby-DAC...-000-BTU-Room-Window-Air-Conditioner/21391144 but with some age to it.

I saw one electric heater in one of the closets.

 

[Mandres]

They're very loud. Watching movies/tv in the living room will be affected, and sleeping in the bedroom too if you can't get used to the noise.

 

[lxskllr]

A friend of mine has an 18th century two story frame house, and he cools the whole thing with two window units and fans to move the air. Not as orderly as central ac, but it works.

 

[DrPizza]

2 window AC units here, and it's always comfortable in here during the summer - if not too cold. Wife is one of those people who think that if you set the temperature to 60 degrees, it'll cool it off faster when it's 80 outside. Unfortunately, sometimes when they run all night long, and it's a cool night, we do, in fact, hit 60 degrees.

 

[tracerbullet]

I owned a house for about 10 years where I had to have window units (~100 years old). If you're watching TV you do learn to turn up the volume. If you have friends over you learn to deal with it. At night I would cut off the bedroom unit and run a box fan blowing cold air in from a different room. It worked, and you can definitely get past it. But I will say moving into a house w/ central air really is a lot nicer.

In a colder (MN) climate where I didn't run them much, in a house I loved and a neighborhood I loved, I dealt with it. If I was in a hot climate and wasn't really super enamored with the place or location and had other comparable options, I'd definitely not repeat the whole window unit thing if I could have central.

 

[Mike64]

Obviously they're going to be louder than central, but just how loud they are depends on the units and their installation. Good ones, properly installed, shouldn't be all that loud - just a sort of general background hum you'd get used to quickly enough... If it's a potential deal-breaker for you, I'd ask to have them turned on, preferably as early in the AM or late at night as you can schedule an appointment, so general "daytime noise" would be at a minimum. (As you may or may not have noticed, that's usually a lot louder than one might expect except in very sparsely populated areas.)

As for how well they work, it really depends on a lot of variables. I think the biggest difference is that you tend to notice the effect of window A/Cs more easily. Basically, you can tell that a strong blast of cold air is coming from a particular direction, even if the overall air circulation is good, whereas central air usually isn't really noticeable at all. But while central A/C is nearly "perfect" when a good unit is installed during construction of a house designed with it in mind, I've experienced, though never lived with, some seriously crappy A/C in houses where it had to be "shoe-horned" into old construction...

 

[Ken g6]

They're very loud. Watching movies/tv in the living room will be affected, and sleeping in the bedroom too if you can't get used to the noise.

I've gotten used to the noise. But this is a tech forum. So, consider...

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_gw?url=search-alias=aps&field-keywords=noise cancelling headphones

Air conditioners don't usually scream at high frequencies, so those should be effective, I think.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Depends on BTU, but given that layout it seems to be quite open so I would not really worry. But yes they are loud, though not as loud as portable ones, which is what I have in my computer room. I can't play games or watch any videos with the volume on if it's on as I won't hear the speakers.

 

[Subyman]

The layout is optimal for cooling. If the units are appropriately rated for the space then you should have no issues. I'd only be concerned with noise but that is a personal thing. I lived in an apartment with the ac unit above my head in college and I got used to it.