Air conditioning

conditioning

conditioning,

whole house

connect it to my

expensive, trying to get and you'll be lucky if it drops the house's temperature a whole degree.

window units work because they only have to cool a single small room.

snipped-for-privacy@pitt.edu (GregS) wrote in news:e7hkak$5i5$ snipped-for-privacy@usenet01.srv.cis.pitt.edu:

At one time you could buy the central system and install it yourself, because the lines were pre-charged.

A window unit works best using gravity by putting it in a window in a room upstairs and of course leaving the door open!

In my present house that is a long ranch, I run an air conditioner in a room at one end of the house and leave the doors open, room to room. It's surprising how well the air travels from one end to the other. Sometimes I run an air conditioner at both ends of the house. The main idea is to dry the air anyway. You should be carefull not to put an air conditioner BTU rated for more than the room square feet calls for, because when the door is closed, it will be drafty.

conditioning

conditioning,

whole house

and connect it to my

expensive, trying to get

Those window units are rather low efficiency, usually around 8 EER. If you're a serious DIY, have a look at

It really is a rip to have a contractor install it, sure they've gotta put food on the table but they normally buy the equipment wholesale, double the price, then charge $100+/hr for labor on top of that.

You do have to make *really* good soldered joints on the pipes though. Most pros braze them but that requires a source of dry nitrogen and it can harden the copper. I use good silver solder and a special water based flux. For a vacuum pump I got a surplus window AC compressor from usamfg for about 8 bucks and soldered a fitting to it. Most systems come pre-charged with enough refrigerant for 15-25' of line but you can easily get certified online to purchase more. It is not trivial to put one in but I had a lot of fun, learned a lot and saved a bundle in the process. I've put in two systems now and was very satisfied with the results.

Look for something that's at least 12 BTU/W efficiency, with the price of energy going up, any money you save with a lower efficiency unit you'll spend later on power.

Thanks. I see window units up over 10 now.

greg