Single room air conditioner

[BUTCH1]

I agree. However, it's important we consider the environment.

I have a friend that sealed his attic (he did some other things too with it all to make it work, but I haven't slept in 30 hours now) and cooled it with his central air. His bills decreased and his house is always comfortable.

My apartment only had a wall mounted A/C...the first one sucked (came with the place) and was really expensive to run once I found that out after I upgraded the unit.

My landlord was awesome. I told him the existing unit failed finally. And he just told me have it fixed and send me the receipt.

In my case I just didn't have the choice, as in the $4K needed for a new central install. There are a few advantages to window units, if no one if going to be in that area you can shut down one unit entirely and save electricity usage, the only really 2 downsides is blocking out a front window and the "ghetto" effect of doing so, for now it will have to do, oh, and they are generally noisier than a central system..

 

[Muse]

US Dept of Energy PDF showing alternative methods of installing window AC to save energy, improve appearance, etc.: www.nrel.gov/docs/fy13osti/58187.pdf

The video: National Renewable Energy Laboratory - NREL, Homeowner's Guide to Window Air Conditioner Installation

 

[BUTCH1]

US Dept of Energy PDF showing alternative methods of installing window AC to save energy, improve appearance, etc.: www.nrel.gov/docs/fy13osti/58187.pdf

The video: National Renewable Energy Laboratory - NREL, Homeowner's Guide to Window Air Conditioner Installation

Yea, those flimsy plastic accordion panels that come with all window units have zero insulation value, the video suggests using foam-board instead which is a good idea but sealing it up with duct tape is going to look rather crappy, I guess there's colored duct tape available if you look around.

 

[Muse]

Yea, those flimsy plastic accordion panels that come with all window units have zero insulation value, the video suggests using foam-board instead which is a good idea but sealing it up with duct tape is going to look rather crappy, I guess there's colored duct tape available if you look around.

Yes, I saw some yesterday in neighborhood hardware store. Sold at a premium compared to grey duct tape. I have some, but use it sparingly (black, brown, yellow).

There's no question I'm going to remove (very soon!) the two accordion panels. I've been thinking alot about what I'm going to do:

What I've pretty much decided is that I'll slide the AC all the way over to the left side (best position for me), then place a screen (~13" x 19") at the right, which I'm going to custom build myself from screen material I already have and some wood slats. I have the tools to make the slats if I don't already have what I need in my collection of wood scraps.

The screen will be transparent (practically), will allow air to waft through (both ways). I will have 2 removable panels on the right which will (at my option) attach on top of the screen... I'll explain:

Two adjacent rectangular panels on the right. The left one will have a 120mm 12v computer case fan attached over a circular cutout. The material of those panels? Well, I haven't decided. I have some 0.236" plexiglass and some 1/2" Owens Corning film-coated thermal insulation. I'm leaning to the latter, although it's worlds less tough than the plexiglass, and of course it's not transparent. They seem to have about equal sound insulation properties... decent, I figure similar to window glass (maybe better), and many times better than the accordion panels.

I'm going to attach those panels with velcro in such a way that they can be removed and replaced readily and will have virtually no air leak. I will have a small detachable circular cutout of material to place over the fan (when the fan is not in use, obviously) in case I want maximum thermal insulation from outside air.

I figure this setup will give me pretty maximum flexibility and I likely won't want to remove the AC itself during cold weather.

Until I do this work I will have no airflow in the room (which I do not like), unless I open the door. I do have a window at the head of the bed but I seldom open it because it faces my very noisy neighbor. During warmer weather I figure to use the computer fan, with or without the right-most panel removed (my option), which will bring cool night air into the room and provide hopefully the right amount of white noise to combat neighborhood noise. I figure I'll like that way more than having the AC fan on -- it doesn't bring in outside air and it's too loud for my liking.

 

[Eug]

In my house the only room where cooling is a significant problem is our baby nursery. We have central air, but that room just isn't cooled properly. I suspect part of the reason is the because it has so many windows, and part of the reason is because the roof insulation probably isn't very good. (I can't easily check though since it has cathedral ceilings. It's mostly relatively OK cooled actually, but on hot days it is a few degrees warmer than the rest of the house in the afternoon - kid's afternoon nap time.

I don't want to use our portable AC unit because it's too loud, and I don't want to get a loud window unit either. What model would you guys recommend for a QUIET window unit? BTUs probably not that important as long as it's quiet, since as mentioned the room is already partially cooled by central AC. Window size is 19" wide x 20" tall maximum.

I'm thinking a quiet model with a higher BTU rating (8000?) running on the low setting might actually be reasonable, but if there is a cheaper lower BTU rating (6000?) that runs quietly on high (or low relatively continuously), that would also work. The room is around 185 square feet, but with cathedral ceilings. I'd just need it to be able to cool about 4 degrees quietly without significant strain, and fit into that 19" x 20" window.

Note that I am in Canada. We have some of the same model and brands of ACs as in the US, but some are country-specific.

 

[BUTCH1]

In my house the only room where cooling is a significant problem is our baby nursery. We have central air, but that room just isn't cooled properly. I suspect part of the reason is the because it has so many windows, and part of the reason is because the roof insulation probably isn't very good. (I can't easily check though since it has cathedral ceilings. It's mostly relatively OK cooled actually, but on hot days it is a few degrees warmer than the rest of the house in the afternoon - kid's afternoon nap time.

I don't want to use our portable AC unit because it's too loud, and I don't want to get a loud window unit either. What model would you guys recommend for a QUIET window unit? BTUs probably not that important as long as it's quiet, since as mentioned the room is already partially cooled by central AC. Window size is 19" wide x 20" tall maximum.

I'm thinking a quiet model with a higher BTU rating (8000?) running on the low setting might actually be reasonable, but if there is a cheaper lower BTU rating (6000?) that runs quietly on high (or low relatively continuously), that would also work. The room is around 185 square feet, but with cathedral ceilings. I'd just need it to be able to cool about 4 degrees quietly without significant strain, and fit into that 19" x 20" window.

Note that I am in Canada. We have some of the same model and brands of ACs as in the US, but some are country-specific.

Home depot lists the specs of theirs (including sound levels) on most models, some sites don't, you might have to go to a manufacturer's website and look there or if all else fails go to a store with the model running so you can judge for yourself..

 

[Leros]

I use a 14k BTU portable A/C to cool my garage. The garage has insulated walls including the garage door, but I haven't sealed the gaps around the garage door. I can get the garage down to 72F with it being 95F outside. I might need to fix those gaps when it gets to be 105F, we'll see.

 

[BUTCH1]

I use a 14k BTU portable A/C to cool my garage. The garage has insulated walls including the garage door, but I haven't sealed the gaps around the garage door. I can get the garage down to 72F with it being 95F outside. I might need to fix those gaps when it gets to be 105F, we'll see.

Yea, 14K is the biggest you can get that will run off a 120V outlet and you better have nothing else on that branch either!..

 

[Leros]

Yea, 14K is the biggest you can get that will run off a 120V outlet and you better have nothing else on that branch either!..

Mine draws 10A, which is on the low end for a 14K unit.

 

[Red Squirrel]

More like a package unit.

Anyone remember those Koldwave units from the 80s?
They had water cooled condensers, all you needed was a supply of tapwater and a drain and you had powerful, in house (middle room) AC!

We had some commercial units like that at work, you could practically generate electricity with the water meter. :biggrin:

 

[BUTCH1]

Mine draws 10A, which is on the low end for a 14K unit.

Yea, I was looking at the 14K units at HD, the 14K LG unit draws 9.8 but that's a brand new 2014 unit so I opted for a 12K unit to give my house wiring a little "headroom" since it was built in '72, still punches out a ton of cold air, next I'm going to mod the plastic side panels with something more insulating and air-tight..

 

[Muse]

To recap, I wasn't happy with having the AC in my bedroom window. At night, I need to have air coming in through that window, so I took out the accordion panels and installed a DIY screen. But the area of that screen was only about 1/4 of the area of what I used to have before installing the AC. So, yesterday I installed two 200mm Cooler Master "silent" fans and the results are spectacular. I could hardly be happier with the results. They justify all the grinding, the uncertainty, the work I did researching the alternatives, the thinking, the final decisions. See picture below.

Last night, after a day that was just like the previous, the temperature in the room after about 5 hours with the fans running (drawing air in) was about 6 F degrees lower than the previous night. IOW, the room was much cooler, very tolerable for sleep (i.e. 64 F). I went downstairs and for the first time ever it was warmer downstairs than in my bedroom (by 3 degrees), and I've been living here many years. I actually turned the fans off at that point and I was fine.

Equally spectacular is the fact that the white noise factor is perfect. The "silent" fans give off some noise, and the sum of the two fans amounts to a white noise factor about equivalent to that supplied by my urban environment, what with highways, city traffic, airplanes and whatever other random sounds contribute. So, the sum total of all that with the fans' noise are a pretty optimal buffer to the annoyance of my immediate neighbors. I think I can stop wearing my silicone ear plugs as long as I have the fans going. In cooler weather, when the fans aren't needed to cool the room, I figure to attach circular panels over the fans both to block transfer of air and sounds.

Thar she blows:

Note the 1/8" screening in the custom made screen that fits in the space not filled by the air conditioner. The panel holding the fans is screwed to the thin wooden slats on the perimeter of the screen. You can see a little light between the AC and the fan system. I'm going to stuff any spaces with pieces pulled from cotton balls for added thermal insulation.

The two 200mm Cooler Master fans draw in combination 6-7 watts. I have them powered by a variable voltage wall wart I've had for many years, sitting unused. It's capacity is 13 watts, so the 6 watts shown by my Kill-a-Watt should be no problem. I have a switch by my bed to turn them off with ease (switched extension cord).