Given that the majority of homes in the US have used horizontally-opening windows for … decades … why are window air conditioners still designed specifically to work with vertically-opening windows? Putting one of these units into a horizontally-opening window inevitably requires adding a shelf or coming up with some other complex method to secure the unit so that it doesn’t fall out, and then finding a good way to block the huge empty space above the unit.
Has anybody come up with a narrow, vertical AC that would fit neatly and securely into the opening of a horizontal window? If not, why not? What are the obstacles here?
I question this assumption. I don’t think it’s true around here (CT) even for new construction. It’s certainly not true for the majority of all houses. It might be true for apartment buildings.
I don’t think it’s even close to being true. I can’t really even think of any houses I know with horizontal windows. Coincidentally my own office, which is in a converted farmhouse, has a new horizontal window. But I can`t think of any others in residential houses.
Really? Maybe it’s regional, then? I’ve lived in Washington state all my life (46 years), and nearly every house and apartment I’ve been in has windows that open by sliding one pane to the left or right. The “vertical” windows I’ve encountered have typically been in “older” houses and other buildings. The last house I lived in was about 100 years old - all the downstairs windows opened vertically (the ones that would open, anyway). The upstairs bedroom windows had now-illegal hinged windows that swung inward. My current apartment appears to be “WW2 vintage” at the newest - it’s got a genuine icebox in the kitchen - and has “vertical” windows only in the kitchen and bathroom, “horizontal” windows everywhere else. But these are much newer vinyl-frame windows, not original equipment. (And what’s the correct terminology so that I can stop saying “horizontal” and “vertical”?) Anecdotal, granted, but it’s what I’ve seen all my life - “vertical” windows seem much more common in older, say, pre-1960s homes.
Interesting - how do those install differently? I can’t tell from the photos. They appear taller than they are wide, but still look like they’d leave a lot of empty space above them.
“Vertical” windows are double-hung windows or sash windows.
“Horizontal” windows are sliding windows, I think. Unless they open in or out instead of sideways, in which case they’re casement windows.
In my years of replacing windows in TX and OK for Pacesetter, American, and Home Depot, I do probably 95% double hung. Sliders are more common in add ons around here for some reason. Casements are a downright rarity.
Of course, regional differences can be huge. Several places I worked on in CO were all sliders and casements.
The most common way I’ve seen people install window A/Cs meant for single or double hung in a slider involves cutting plywood to size and painting it. If done right, it can look normal. Done half-assed, it looks stupid and cheap.
One more data point, around here, central air seems to be the norm. So the window A/Cs are often in add ons, sheds, converted garages, etc. A very popular solution is cutting a hole in the wall just for the A/C and framing it in.
I used to have a Sears window AC designed for horizonatally opening windows. I think I left it with the house when I sold it since the new one doesn’t have those type of windows.
This is in an apartment, so I came up with a solution that requires no nails, screws, or duct tape stuck to the window frame:
Remove sliding pane (vinyl frames, the thing just lifts out - you know how it works) 2) 1" thick DOW Styrofoam insulation, cut to shape and size, fitted into the sliding pane’s track (to avoid needing duct tape) 3) 1" x 2" x 6’ board tightly clamped to flange on top of AC unit, using small C-clamps, to keep it from rocking backward out the window 4) Small pieces of scrap Styrofoam insulation under the front edge of the unit to keep it from rocking forward.
Result: extremely solid mounting without the need to modify or damage the window frame. I had looked into commercially-made AC shelves, but every one I found required driving screws into the window frame, something I didn’t want to do. I came up with some ideas for a self-supporting shelf that wouldn’t require physical attachment to the frame, but I lack both the tools and the carpentry skills to build it.
Central air is quite common here as well - it gets darned hot in eastern Washington in July/August. But again, it’s only in “newer” houses by default. The 100-year-old house I mentioned originally used, I assume, the old “open all the windows and let the wind blow through” method; at some point a hole was cut in the wall and a swamp cooler installed. While I was living there, the cooler gave out and the landlord removed it and stuck a window AC unit in the hole.
