Need Help with Air Conditioner

Factual Questions
1

Welcome to the heat wave of 2011. Here in “balmy” northwest Indiana we hit 103 degrees F today (40 C). It feels like Arizona, except Arizona has never been this humid. It’s awful.

I have a four year old air conditioner, a window unit, that usually keeps the place cool, but usually my area rarely hits as high as 90 F. Today, it’s 87 degrees F inside. Now, that is better than outside, tis true, and it’s much less humid inside than out so the window unit is doing something… but I am not, shall we say, overjoyed.

I can cope reasonably well, but I have a spouse with multiple chronic health problems who just doesn’t have a lot of heat tolerance. So far, he’s doing OK (I’ve been keeping an eye on him) and between the cool showers, the extra fluids, and the fans we’ve been coping. The family flock has been doing OK, too - I’ve kept the birds supplied with plenty of water, and they’ve all been taking two baths a day. They aren’t showing signs of overheating (hot feet, holding their wings away from their body, panting, etc.) so I guess they’re OK, too.

Now, on to the real question: what, if anything, can I do to improve the AC performance?

Yesterday we did pull the unit out of the window, pull the cover and clean it out front and back.

Is the temperature drop just what I can expect out of a relatively small window unit and I just need to cope?

Is this a sign the AC is dying? (I sure hope not - I don’t have the money to replace it. I don’t have the money to fix it, unless it’s something we can do ourselves).

2

If you’re talking about a small 5,000 BTU room unit for a bedroom then it should be able to keep up in 90 degree heat. Usually these have one switch with a low/high/fan setting and another one for temperature control. If it is on high, and you move the temperature control through the numbers at some point the compressor should kick on and off. It should be able to cool off a 140 sf room in the space of a couple of hours.

3

Ah, well, the room is more like 250 square feet, and of course the air leaks out into the other 700 square feet of apartment. Not sure if it’s as large as 5,000 BTU’s - when we got it all the large units were sold out and ours had completely died, so we were a bit desperate, bought it on sale, and expected to get a larger one when things improved in the subsequent couple of years. Wellll… things haven’t improved, so we still have it.

It’s on the highest setting, and last night when we had it on the table we checked to make sure all the piping was intact, the compressor was kicking on and off… it IS throwing cold air, perhaps it’s just not enough for the job at hand?

4

Spraying water on the exterior coils will help. And it doesnt really take much water to make a big difference. Something like a soda can’s worth every couple minutes would do it. Its not good for the AC long term and in particular the water needs to be shut off before the AC so the whole system has a chance to thoroughly dry out.

So, you need a hose, a supply of water, some sorta misting sprayer/sprinkler from the hardware store, and something to mount the thing up.

5

Kind of DUH moment for me. If cold air is coming out then it’s just too small for your space. Might I suggest you move it to the bedroom temporarily and camp out there until things cool down? 5000 btu is a pretty small unit. If you can’t do that then tape plastic sheeting from the ceiling to isolate the room.

6

Oh, another thing.

Run the AC full out. Set the thermostat so the thing never shuts off. Yeah, it might get a chilly during the night at by first thing in the morning downright nippy. But every degree colder it starts out is a bit cooler it will be be as the temperature rises during the day.

7

It is in the bedroom.

The bedroom is 250 square feet, actually larger than my first studio apartment.

I suspect if we were on the north rather than the south side of the building we’d be better off, but as it is, our main outside wall has the sun beating on it all day.

ETA: It’s been running full-out all week, the only time it shut off was when we unplugged it to clean it. This morning’s low inside the house was 81 degrees. It may simply not be big enough for the current conditions even if normally it’s entirely adequate for our needs.

8

Okay.

You need to build a “cold shelter” and move into it. Use that AC to only cool one room. If there isnt a door to shut, then hang a plastic sheet or better yet a heavy quilt/blanket (more insulation). Some aluminum foil on the exterior of any windows that take sun wouldn’t hurt either.

9

From what you described it sounds like the unit is working and it’s just too small for the higher temperatures we’re experiencing. There’s no cheap fix for this unless you’re willing to cut down the size of the room with plastic. From a logistical point of view you could rig it to just cool the bed sheets down. Cardboard, duct tape and a little imagination with an extra set of sheets. They actually make little fans that blow air into the bed so it’s a doable solution for the few days it’s making hubby uncomfortable.

10

5000btu is (I believe) the smallest unit available; I have one in my 150 sf bedroom and it also sort of cools the adjacent office.

Mine is working fine in the SE Michigan heat, but I did turn it from LOW to HIGH cool today. I think the horrid humidity reduces the AC efficiency.

Keep all curtains and window coverings drawn during the day.
Use other fans to circulate air, pull out hot air or blow in cool air, if feasible and depending on your home’s configuration.

11

My dear, it IS in only one room, the smallest one in the apartment (the layout here is a bit unorthodox). There is a door to shut, but as it is an interior door it’s not what I would call insulated.

Subdividing the room has some merit, I think. I just have to rig up a floor to ceiling 14 foot long curtain. Somehow.

Duct tape to the rescue!

Well, not just duct tape, of course, but I have a strong feeling it will figure into the solution.

12

Yep. 5000 btu is the smallest unit you can get, and those are rated to be effective up to 150 square feet. If you can subdivide the room at all to get some additional relief, I think that’s what you may have to do. Of course, the rest of the place will get even warmer, but if the condenser can get a break you’ll probably extend the life of the a/c.

13

Another thing. Anything you’ve got in that room thats plugged in is giving off heat. Probably lots of it. And all that heat has to be pumped out by the AC. Do your best to remove those item. And get the hubby a speedo and insist he use it :slight_smile:

14

Hubby is down to bare skin. He’s a bit of nudist in his own home, anyway.

I’m most worried about him, he just doesn’t have the heat tolerance he used to. Mostly, he’s lying quietly in the dark trying to sleep. We haven’t got that much plugged in anywhere in the house.

Temp’s coming down outside, and it’s dropped a couple degrees in here although it’s still hot.

15

seriously, take cardboard, duct tape and make yourself a funnel to the bed sheets and cool the bed first. If they can sell a fan just for beds I see no reason why you can’t do the same thing with the air conditioner.

16

You could buy vinyl dryer vent hose to make the transition.

17

This reminds me of something we did as kids when we had no AC on hot nights.

We would take your typical 2 foot by 2 foot? square box fan. Then we would get a large, long, and thin bedsheet. We would then wrap one end/edge around the box fan and secure the excess on the floor with various heavy things.

So, basically we were sleeping in a poor mans low speed wind tunnel. It worked wonders on a hot humid night.

18

If you’re mostly worried about keeping hubby cooled down, then there are some other things you can try. (We theoretically had central AC when I was a kid, but were not allowed to use it - too expensive. We had all kinds of other coping mechanisms.) Do you have a fan? Hubby can try soaking a hand towel or washcloth in cold water, laying it across his back (or front, according to the position he wants to sprawl in), then setting the fan to blow over him.

19

Is the a/c freezing up at all? Throwing less cold air into the room? Ours is super duper old (wall unit, came with the place, moving in 2 weeks) so we didn’t replace it but about every hour we turn it onto the “fan” setting so it blows out; if we open it up it looks iced up. If it’s not throwing a lotta air I suggest the fan thing.

Also, I suggest definitely looking into getting another one on Craigslist. You can get cheap window units for like $30-60, units that run retail $150-250. People get central air and sell their good units for cheap.

Otherwise…Can you drop hubby off at the library all day while you’re at work? Send him with a brown bagged lunch and his library card? Does your town have “cooling centers” in the municipal buildings?

20

Probably the easiest is to screw 2 eye bolts just below the ceiling, across from each other, and then run clothesline wire or rope tightly between. Then use that to support floor-length curtains, plastic sheeting, whatever.

Then all you have done to the apartment is 2 holes in the wall, much like people do when hanging pictures, wall-mount TV’s, etc. Might not even be noticed, that high up. Very little damage to a rental apartment, and easily fixed with a bit of spackle when you move out.