Every year I install this sunsail to shade my ac unit.
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Shading the condenser unit keeps it cooler and increases it's efficiency and helps keeps my electricity costs down. The sail is high enough and mesh like so that it doesn't trap the hot air. In fact it creates a slight wind tunnel effect. The shade it provides lasts during the hottest part of the day and a tree helpfully blocks the sun for the remainder. The unit is never in full sun this way. Keeping the weeds and other debris away from the unit so that it gets good airflow and cleaning the condenser every year also help with the units efficiency.
Shit, my AC unit is on the south side of my house. Should've built the house with the furnace on the north side.
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I'm curious why you rehang it every year and don't just install a retractable awning. Hell, putting some smaller retractable shades over the windows, especially the sunnier ones, would probably also save you a chunk of change on those bills.
Makes me think of this gem
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This is interesting. Gut says that it does increase efficiency. Thing I'm questioning is by how much?
Anybody got numbers or a good educated guesstimate?
wrote last edited by [email protected]Not going to give an educated guesstimate, but I do know our ac unit is in full shade of trees, with not much greenery around. It is probably 20 years old. We were told, ten years ago by a repair man, it was close to kicking the bucket, yet it's still going.
My neighbor, has the same unit, newer, leas than ten years old unit, in full sun with bittersweet growing all around it. Last summer they spent half the time trying to fix it, and this year I saw them install window units..
I'm guess, it helps to have it shadded with no plant debris.
Purely anecdotal.Knock on wood oh boy..
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Shading the condenser unit keeps it cooler and increases it's efficiency and helps keeps my electricity costs down. The sail is high enough and mesh like so that it doesn't trap the hot air. In fact it creates a slight wind tunnel effect. The shade it provides lasts during the hottest part of the day and a tree helpfully blocks the sun for the remainder. The unit is never in full sun this way. Keeping the weeds and other debris away from the unit so that it gets good airflow and cleaning the condenser every year also help with the units efficiency.
wrote last edited by [email protected]I doubt it will make it more efficient. The air it sucks in is still the same temperature.
It might help with longevity of the device itself though, as it doesn’t stand in direct sunlight.
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I doubt it will make it more efficient. The air it sucks in is still the same temperature.
It might help with longevity of the device itself though, as it doesn’t stand in direct sunlight.
By keeping the sun off it, that helps with keeping the equipment cool which the radiator is part of so there's less heat the fins have to dissipate no?
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By keeping the sun off it, that helps with keeping the equipment cool which the radiator is part of so there's less heat the fins have to dissipate no?
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By keeping the sun off it, that helps with keeping the equipment cool which the radiator is part of so there's less heat the fins have to dissipate no?
wrote last edited by [email protected]There's no radiator, it's a heat exchanger.
You have two sections in your heat exchanger. One part wants the cooling agent cold so it can effectively imterchange heat from your room into the cooling liquid. The other part wants the cooling agent hotter than the air outside so it can effectively dissipate the heat to the outside. To achieve that the liquid gets compressed. On the cold side it gets cooled with airflow.
I don't think sunlight will change anything significant in that mechanism.
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If I thought I'd get a 10% efficiency bump on my AC by doing this, I would do it in a heartbeat.
Looks like a yearly 20 minute jobs (10 up, 10 down), would save 40$ a year. Few of my yearly tasks pay 120$/hr.
Yes I said max, unfortunately the research about real world saving was much less effective.
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There's no radiator, it's a heat exchanger.
You have two sections in your heat exchanger. One part wants the cooling agent cold so it can effectively imterchange heat from your room into the cooling liquid. The other part wants the cooling agent hotter than the air outside so it can effectively dissipate the heat to the outside. To achieve that the liquid gets compressed. On the cold side it gets cooled with airflow.
I don't think sunlight will change anything significant in that mechanism.
...I hate the be the one to tell you this but there are two radiators in a heat pump. The condenser and the evaporator are both evaporators.
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Not all HOAs are bad... mine pretty much only exists to take care of our neighborhood pool, they've even loosened some of the few restrictions that had been in place since the 70s (restrictions on the type of fencing or sheds has been lifted). And it tends to run with a flat budget so our rates are very low for the area.
I'm glad it's working out for you, but fuck if I'm about to pay some self appointment group to tell me what kind of fence or shed is unacceptable for me to own on my own property.
If I want to plop down a shopping container on my own front lawn, anyone who doesn't like it can kick rocks.
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...I hate the be the one to tell you this but there are two radiators in a heat pump. The condenser and the evaporator are both evaporators.
wrote last edited by [email protected]While they both interchange heat, the principle of evaporators and radiators is different.
The condenser and the evaporator are both evaporators
Did you add that to prove yourself wrong?
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My neighborhood is just too dull to have one I guess. Although once per month the city workers come and pick up leaves and sticks if you place them by the curb, which is pretty exciting.
Easy there, chief. Remember where we are right now.
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It’s a sad reality when people assume having an HOA is a given.
Feel bad for those subjected to it but I’d never purchase a property under the thumb of an HOA. Sucks how ubiquitous they have become.
And you can’t legally stop her!
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There's no radiator, it's a heat exchanger.
You have two sections in your heat exchanger. One part wants the cooling agent cold so it can effectively imterchange heat from your room into the cooling liquid. The other part wants the cooling agent hotter than the air outside so it can effectively dissipate the heat to the outside. To achieve that the liquid gets compressed. On the cold side it gets cooled with airflow.
I don't think sunlight will change anything significant in that mechanism.
I think it’ll have an effect. If you think of the cross section of the piping in the condenser (radiator in the outside unit shown in photo), you have heat trying to transfer from the fluid on the inside diameter, through the pipe wall, then to the air surrounding the outer diameter.
Heat has to flow from hot to cold, so ideally you have a gradient from hot to cold going from inside to outside.
But suppose the sun intensely heats that pipe wall and it ends up higher than either fluid on either side of it. Now you’ve got heat flowing from the wall to both inside and outside.
Not saying that ever happens, but every degree warmer that the pipe wall is, is a slow down in the heat transfer rate. Less of a gradient for the heat flow.
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Have you been able to quantify how much more efficient your unit is because of the shade?
wrote last edited by [email protected]I have an emporia energy meter. While I can't answer your question exactly, I have sprayed mine with a hose during the hottest part of the day and watched the power usage drop a decent amount. So I imagine as long as the shade wasn't too expensive it'll pay for itself.
Sprayed it down with the hose again. Pic added showing energy usage drop. Doesn't last long from water, but does show it not working as hard when cooler.
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For now.
The fun thing about HOA’s is that they can change and are absolutely dynamic. You never know when Karen’s crew is going to come into power.
Oh, they also changed the bylaws so that further changes to the bylaws require 75% approval from all homeowners in the neighborhood. Karen's crew is going to have to do a lot of work if they want to make any significant changes.
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I'm glad it's working out for you, but fuck if I'm about to pay some self appointment group to tell me what kind of fence or shed is unacceptable for me to own on my own property.
If I want to plop down a shopping container on my own front lawn, anyone who doesn't like it can kick rocks.
And that's why I'm glad there are properties without an HOA because I don't want to have to see the shit you put on your front lawn.
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I think it’ll have an effect. If you think of the cross section of the piping in the condenser (radiator in the outside unit shown in photo), you have heat trying to transfer from the fluid on the inside diameter, through the pipe wall, then to the air surrounding the outer diameter.
Heat has to flow from hot to cold, so ideally you have a gradient from hot to cold going from inside to outside.
But suppose the sun intensely heats that pipe wall and it ends up higher than either fluid on either side of it. Now you’ve got heat flowing from the wall to both inside and outside.
Not saying that ever happens, but every degree warmer that the pipe wall is, is a slow down in the heat transfer rate. Less of a gradient for the heat flow.
That makes sense. I was completely focused on only the device.
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While they both interchange heat, the principle of evaporators and radiators is different.
The condenser and the evaporator are both evaporators
Did you add that to prove yourself wrong?
probably just a brain fart - they've both heat exchangers.
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Shading the condenser unit keeps it cooler and increases it's efficiency and helps keeps my electricity costs down. The sail is high enough and mesh like so that it doesn't trap the hot air. In fact it creates a slight wind tunnel effect. The shade it provides lasts during the hottest part of the day and a tree helpfully blocks the sun for the remainder. The unit is never in full sun this way. Keeping the weeds and other debris away from the unit so that it gets good airflow and cleaning the condenser every year also help with the units efficiency.
You're blocking 300-500 W of solar radiation on a heat exchanger that runs 20-100% of the day. So yeah you're definitely going to get some improvements. Most notably it will run less often because it isn't dealing with the excess heat.
AC units SHOULD be designed for 100% duty cycle. But we all know that nothing is really capable of that - even industrial stuff. So if your shade reduces the duty cycle by a few percent, you might increase the longevity of the unit by an order of magnitude.
