There is a wall mount AC in the living room, 14,000 BTU. I need to cool 640 sq feet, which goes also to to the open kitchen, the bath, but also into the bedroom. I use a stand up fan to move air near the bedroom door.
It is a compromise solution. The bedroom is always much warmer. It’s hard to get it below the mid 70s. Right this second I have it on High, 68 degrees, and I think it’s failing or something. Bedroom is now 81 degrees.
Anyone ever try a 16,000 BTU or higher to cool an apt? I have been told that too high a powered unit can make problems because a unit needs to cool and dehumidify at the same rate or it isn’t comfortable.
Has anyone used fans to move cooled air around? I may get a taller one or use two.
The only thing I’ve found that really works is multiple units in enclosed spaces.
I have blackout curtains covering the windows and doorways in my front room where I have a window unit, and separate unit in the bedroom where we always keep the door closed and the shades and curtains drawn. Those rooms are quire comfortable even in heatwave conditions.
The drawback is that the kitchen is always hot as is the bathroom but the kitchen is going to be hot anyway when I’m in there cooking.
Use a window fan that fits within the frame not a box fan to push the hot air out the window. Which may draw the cooler air in from the living area. At night reverse it to draw cooler night air in.
I have central a/c and I still need a floor or table fan in every room (in addition to the ceiling fan in every room) to make the house habitable. So get lots of fans.
Yea, your unit is probably just struggling to keep that much space cool and dehumidified. Lots of fans will help. Is it real humid in your area? What are the outside temps?
I would close off what I could and camp out in the living room. Don’t cook anything in oven or use the dryer. Even boiling pasta will heat up a space. Pray for rain.
ETA make sure the filter is clean.
Fans are great, and the suggestion of a smaller unit in the bedroom is also good–at night, close the door and run the lower-powered unit only.
Beckdawrek is also right about heat sources. My wife for some reason always wants to roast a side of beef for eight hours at the height of summer…make friends with your barbecue if you cook your own dinners.
The windows open horizontally and to use my window in the bedroom for an AC is almost unimaginable to me. I love the view. I feel limited with what to do with a window like that, esp when you have to have a uniform facade.
Indoor units have to vent to a window as well. So somehow the window gets used. The question is is it avoidable, or how much window.
It sounds like the life experience here is that a unit is good for one room. Not many saying they try for more.
I am on the top floor and I get hotter temps. Not enough air blows through, it gets stuffy with no AC at anything over 60 degrees. I need AC for 7 months a year.
Just cleaned the filter yesterday and after that, today, it has been struggling and I put it down to 64. Feels like the thing is dying and I may roast tonight.
I think I’m going to get 2 more tower fans and try to push some air.
The air in each room needs to be conditioned and you need considerable circulation for that to happen. Stuffiness is coming from the humidity in some rooms remaining high and the air in that room not being cold upon contact with warm surfaces, as not only the air needs to be cooled, as warm surfaces radiate heat.
If you can’t circulate the air really well (not just blow cool air into a warm room, but circulate the whole area’s air), then you need to see each section of the apartment as a zone, and get a unit sized for that zone and NOT bigger (because bigger units won’t condition all the air; they drop the temp too fast, and leave you with colder, humid air – Nasty!)
Probably the easiest thing that will be most efficient is to get a cyclone/vornado kind of fan, put it outside the bedroom door, and have it blow into the bedroom. That kind of fan has a strong, straight flow of air which will push the cooler air at the floor of the apartment deep into your bedroom. That will cause the hotter air near the ceiling of your bedroom to get pushed out into the apartment.
If you want to get fancier, also put a fan at the top of your bedroom doorway to blow the hot air from the bedroom ceiling into the living room. With a fan blowing air in at the floor and a fan blowing air out at the ceiling, the bedroom would have excellent circulation.
This is an interesting idea. The bedroom ceiling is about 9 feet, so there is wall space above the door, whch I may be entitled to cut into and make a transom/fan, probably blowing out of the bedroom. If I get a tower pushing air in at ground level it might be worth a try.
This might sound stupid but I’ve never done it. What is your idea of what the temp of a unit should read? If you set it to 70 are you supposed to be reading that temp from the output regardless of the outside temp? How much variance before you think it might be broken?
He means get a reading of the air going INTO the unit and a reading of the air coming OUT. For example, 78 in, 60 out. Nothing to do with the outside temperature at all.