We have to buy a window unit for our house. We have Central AC but it’s not keeping up and we can’t afford to upsize it right now. So until then I’m researching which window units to buy. Any advice or anything to cut through all the marketing spam and AI copy that I have to wade thru?
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Call a service tech to look at your central. If it’s not keeping up then it might be cheaper to fix the issues with it over buying a window unit and paying the electricity to run it.
Central Units are typically much more powerful and therefore need to run less, and if it’s something simple like it need to have the condenser cleaned out or the refrigerant recharged the cost to just get it done is much less than the cost of window units plus electricity plus your time to install and remove them
This isn’t actually necessarily true if you just need specific cooling.
If for instance, you just care about cooling your bedroom for sleeping, then it can be more efficient to install a window unit in just that room and let the rest of your house be warmer. A mini-split would be more efficient than a window unit for that role, but they’re also a lot more expensive and permanent.
Yeah for new installs but service for the existing unit might be like $200 for a cleaning and it’s certainly going to be cheaper to run in the long run
Window units are built to fail, are mold prone, use an excessive amount of electricity comparatively (even the newer inverter ones) and a higher risk of injuring a person or damaging the building. Also their smart features often entice people to install apps that track you to sell to advertisers. So not only are you buying an inferior product but they’re also capitalizing of spying on you.
(tl/dr: fuck Frigidaire lol)
Yeah for new installs but service for the existing unit might be like $200 for a cleaning and it’s certainly going to be cheaper to run in the long run
No, it’s not necessarily.
From an electricity usage standpoint, it’s cheaper to inefficiently cool one room than it is to efficiently cool a whole house.
Cleaning it also may solve nothing, it’s $200 on a chance of it solving the problem. If cleanliness wasn’t the issue, then you just wasted $200. On the flip side, you can find a used window AC for $200 easily, or buy a new one for $400 and then sell it when you’re done with it and get $200 back, and it is guaranteed to solve your problem assuming you’re concerned with a specific room.
I didn’t say cleaning would solve it. I said that a service tech should look at it and it was possibly a simple fix.
Also window units will have to fight against the rest of the house being warm. Interior walls are seldom insulated, warm air drafts in around the unit and around doors. A window unit in one room could cost as much as a dedicated unit for the whole house, as it has to work harder to maintain the desired cooling.
get one rated for the room size.
I have one for an attic room that gets around 100°F without one. it’s about 100sqft and I’m running a 9000BTU system. with the unit it stays around 71-74°.
stay away from “Mr cool”. they’ve had lots of defects from factory.
I would get something local, probably Walmart. reason for that, if you have any problems you can just take it back.
DO NOT BUY ONE THAT SITS IN YOUR ROOM. The ones that sit in the window are better because the heat is already outside instead of having to go through a tube.
Don’t do it at this time of year.
I know it’s a considerable cost increase and installation, but still way cheaper than upgrading your central A/C, and way more efficient, quiet, elegant than a window unit: add a mini-split to the room. I added a Mitsubishi to our hot office with tons of electronics and it’s one of the best home investments I made.
What’s your budget? There are a lot of options to narrow down. I have an amazing unit that was around 400 bucks but you can find reliable ones a quarter of that price, or 4x.
I was in the same situation as you at my last house. Central AC was added to a 100 year old house but it was never enough. I got new windows put in, and that helped, but it still got to hot in the summer.
We got this U Shaped Midea window unit and that did the trick: https://www.midea.com/us/store/cooling-and-heating/window-air-conditioners/u-shaped-air-conditioner-ultra-quiet.MAW08U1QWT
It’s better than a standard window unit because you can close the window nearly all the way, unlike standard window units that rely on those crappy plastic accordion things.
Best of luck.
I have 3 of these and love them. Unfortunately there is a recall on them for mold (never had a problem with mold in my units) and I think because if it, they’re really hard to find now. Amazon has pulled them from sales.
I read you’re planning on upgrading your insulation and windows, and speaking from personal experience those two things make a huge difference. They’re also somewhat expensive to do, so I’m guessing you’re planning on doing these changes within a year.
In which case, you only need this window A/C for about 2-3 months. You might as well go with the cheapest one and save the money. Just make sure to get something to seal the door too so the cold air doesn’t leak out.
Most window air conditioners come from like 4 factories anyhow. Only if you’re planning on keeping it around for years do you want to look for something specific.
All I can really say is to avoid the floor models, since they put the hot part of the conditioner inside your home, thus have to work a lot harder
See Technology Connections (Piped) for an informational video
My experience with these units is that they’re horribly unreliable too. I worked in an industry where we’d use these for temporary or emergency cooling for server rooms and I don’t know if I ever saw a model last more than a year. A lot of window units are pretty flaky too, unfortunately, but you’ll probably at least get 2-3 years out of one.
Well most of the world lives in apartments where only floor* units are an option so they do exactly what they should. Ofc it’s less efficient if the hose is uninsulated. But that’s fixed with 20bucks and some tape
Even renting a house it’s in my lease I can’t use a window unit. Which sucks because our swamp cooler outputs into the living room in a way that makes it very difficult to get its air into the second bedroom.
Always depends where one lives, here in my case nobody complains about any noise so I just say fuck it we ball. friend of mine too has it even tho they don’t want it, but nobody complains so we keep it
What’s their reasoning on no window units?
I’ve been told this everywhere I’ve rented with different reasons ranging from it’ll put undue stress on the sill, liability (non first floor apartment would’ve been bad if it fell out), and the current ones thought was they tend to leak water which can damage the pain and then damage the sill.
Make sure you buy one with enough cooling power to cool the room it’s in. If it’s a small bedroom you’ll want 5,000-8,000 BTU and if it’s a larger area like a living room you’ll probably want 12,000-14,000 BTU.
I just put a 12,000 BTU unit in my living room because it’s open to the kitchen and it’s about 550ft².
A good rule of thumb is 20 BTU per Ft², so my 550ft² living room/kitchen area would require at least 11,000 BTU.What size is your central AC (usually measured in “tons”) and what’s the total area of the space you’re trying to condition? Single story or multiple stories?
Be aware that most window A/C units are power hogs. Expect to see a significant rise in your power bill. It might be cheaper to have your home A/C unit serviced instead. Could it be low on freon? Would it benefit from having the coils cleaned?
They’re mostly all made in one or two factories in China. Midea and another one.
When it comes time to replace the AC, consider getting one that’s reversible and runs as a heat pump. You don’t need to use it, but it shouldn’t cost much more and gives you flexibility.
It’s probably not undersized. You might have a duct leak, insulation gap, air gaps, etc.
You might have rebates in your area that pay for some of these things. One inexpensive thing you can do is run reflectrex across your roof rafters. While you’re up there air seal any gaps into the living space like can lights and hvac vents.
You can also seal your windows with plastic.
You can get a flir camera for your phone to see where the heat is coming in the most.
Look for a high SEER, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seasonal_energy_efficiency_ratio
Window AC can be much cheaper to operate than central even if the window unit is less efficient, since it’s cooling just one room instead of the whole house.
Where I am, we’ve had some quite hot days (100 degrees but not much above that so far) and I haven’t had to use the AC yet, because it’s still pretty cool out at night and the house stays cool enough during the day. That might change if it starts getting hot at night.
