any advice on buying a window AC unit?
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We have to buy a window unit for our house. We have Central AC but it's not keeping up and we can't afford to upsize it right now. So until then I'm researching which window units to buy. Any advice or anything to cut through all the marketing spam and AI copy that I have to wade thru?
I know it's a considerable cost increase and installation, but still way cheaper than upgrading your central A/C, and way more efficient, quiet, elegant than a window unit: add a mini-split to the room. I added a Mitsubishi to our hot office with tons of electronics and it's one of the best home investments I made.
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We have to buy a window unit for our house. We have Central AC but it's not keeping up and we can't afford to upsize it right now. So until then I'm researching which window units to buy. Any advice or anything to cut through all the marketing spam and AI copy that I have to wade thru?
Make sure you buy one with enough cooling power to cool the room it's in. If it's a small bedroom you'll want 5,000-8,000 BTU and if it's a larger area like a living room you'll probably want 12,000-14,000 BTU.
I just put a 12,000 BTU unit in my living room because it's open to the kitchen and it's about 550ft².
A good rule of thumb is 20 BTU per Ft², so my 550ft² living room/kitchen area would require at least 11,000 BTU. -
All I can really say is to avoid the floor models, since they put the hot part of the conditioner inside your home, thus have to work a lot harder
See Technology Connections (Piped) for an informational video
wrote on last edited by [email protected]My experience with these units is that they're horribly unreliable too. I worked in an industry where we'd use these for temporary or emergency cooling for server rooms and I don't know if I ever saw a model last more than a year. A lot of window units are pretty flaky too, unfortunately, but you'll probably at least get 2-3 years out of one.
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My experience with these units is that they're horribly unreliable too. I worked in an industry where we'd use these for temporary or emergency cooling for server rooms and I don't know if I ever saw a model last more than a year. A lot of window units are pretty flaky too, unfortunately, but you'll probably at least get 2-3 years out of one.
wrote on last edited by [email protected]Well most of the world lives in apartments where only floor* units are an option so they do exactly what they should. Ofc it's less efficient if the hose is uninsulated. But that's fixed with 20bucks and some tape
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We have to buy a window unit for our house. We have Central AC but it's not keeping up and we can't afford to upsize it right now. So until then I'm researching which window units to buy. Any advice or anything to cut through all the marketing spam and AI copy that I have to wade thru?
We have one in an upstairs bedroom from midea, the window slides right between the front and back of the unit and it's excellent. Our power consumption didn't increase too terribly much and it's actually decently quiet.
Not gonna put the model here but just look for U shaped window units. It has little legs that go outside.
Don't get the inside standing units, they're massive, loud, power hungry, and most of them are less effective than even the cheap window units.
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We have to buy a window unit for our house. We have Central AC but it's not keeping up and we can't afford to upsize it right now. So until then I'm researching which window units to buy. Any advice or anything to cut through all the marketing spam and AI copy that I have to wade thru?
Check the minimum operating temperature. Most ACs will start throwing hot air if the outside temp drops to 18c/64F. Not a problem if it's going to stay warm overnight but towards the end of summer the night temps can dip fairly low.
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We have one in an upstairs bedroom from midea, the window slides right between the front and back of the unit and it's excellent. Our power consumption didn't increase too terribly much and it's actually decently quiet.
Not gonna put the model here but just look for U shaped window units. It has little legs that go outside.
Don't get the inside standing units, they're massive, loud, power hungry, and most of them are less effective than even the cheap window units.
The U shaped units manufactured by midea were all recalled and are not currently available for sale.
You might want to look up the recall and get the repair kit. They were recalled for excessive mold build up.
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We have to buy a window unit for our house. We have Central AC but it's not keeping up and we can't afford to upsize it right now. So until then I'm researching which window units to buy. Any advice or anything to cut through all the marketing spam and AI copy that I have to wade thru?
wrote on last edited by [email protected] -
We have to buy a window unit for our house. We have Central AC but it's not keeping up and we can't afford to upsize it right now. So until then I'm researching which window units to buy. Any advice or anything to cut through all the marketing spam and AI copy that I have to wade thru?
wrote on last edited by [email protected]Not what you asked, but you might check that:
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The central AC doesn't need to be recharged. If it has leaked coolant and is low, it will drop in effectiveness.
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Or, even more simply, that the air filters don't need to be replaced.
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You can't improve insulation. Doing so is a one-off cost, as opposed to the ongoing cost of throwing more air conditioning muscle at the problem. Weatherstrip leaks, replace any single-pane windows with double-pane, etc.
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We have to buy a window unit for our house. We have Central AC but it's not keeping up and we can't afford to upsize it right now. So until then I'm researching which window units to buy. Any advice or anything to cut through all the marketing spam and AI copy that I have to wade thru?
Been a while since I had to buy one so might no longer be accurate, but an inverter-type window A/C will be more energy efficient than the regular one.
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The U shaped units manufactured by midea were all recalled and are not currently available for sale.
You might want to look up the recall and get the repair kit. They were recalled for excessive mold build up.
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Well most of the world lives in apartments where only floor* units are an option so they do exactly what they should. Ofc it's less efficient if the hose is uninsulated. But that's fixed with 20bucks and some tape
Even renting a house it’s in my lease I can’t use a window unit. Which sucks because our swamp cooler outputs into the living room in a way that makes it very difficult to get its air into the second bedroom.
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We have to buy a window unit for our house. We have Central AC but it's not keeping up and we can't afford to upsize it right now. So until then I'm researching which window units to buy. Any advice or anything to cut through all the marketing spam and AI copy that I have to wade thru?
I mean, can't you just cordon off the hot room and deal with it in the fall? My family did that, I will do it with our master sometimes. If it's too hot home just can't cool everything effectively, so I just close the door to our master and we camp out in the living room on extremely hot days. Uses less power and there's really no real loss.
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We have to buy a window unit for our house. We have Central AC but it's not keeping up and we can't afford to upsize it right now. So until then I'm researching which window units to buy. Any advice or anything to cut through all the marketing spam and AI copy that I have to wade thru?
I just replaced all my recalled Mideas with GE Profile ClearViews. We've been running them through the current northeast US heatwave and they've been very good. Definitely get one of the inverter driven ones (10 or 12k BTUs I think, the smaller ones aren't).
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Not what you asked, but you might check that:
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The central AC doesn't need to be recharged. If it has leaked coolant and is low, it will drop in effectiveness.
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Or, even more simply, that the air filters don't need to be replaced.
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You can't improve insulation. Doing so is a one-off cost, as opposed to the ongoing cost of throwing more air conditioning muscle at the problem. Weatherstrip leaks, replace any single-pane windows with double-pane, etc.
On top of that, some rooms don't have proper cold air return to the furnace, meaning those rooms don't get proper air circulation and can be the reason for a room being warm. I'm experiencing this right now. One bedroom has a cold air return on the other side of the wall, but nothing in the room itself, and it's the hottest room in the house. I gotta cut an entry to that cold air return duct.
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Not what you asked, but you might check that:
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The central AC doesn't need to be recharged. If it has leaked coolant and is low, it will drop in effectiveness.
-
Or, even more simply, that the air filters don't need to be replaced.
-
You can't improve insulation. Doing so is a one-off cost, as opposed to the ongoing cost of throwing more air conditioning muscle at the problem. Weatherstrip leaks, replace any single-pane windows with double-pane, etc.
wrote on last edited by [email protected]Can't improve insulation? Did you mean can? If so, yes, that's on the to do list. We need better windows too.
Yes, those are good tips thanks.
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We have to buy a window unit for our house. We have Central AC but it's not keeping up and we can't afford to upsize it right now. So until then I'm researching which window units to buy. Any advice or anything to cut through all the marketing spam and AI copy that I have to wade thru?
Check farmers markets for second hand ones, usually very cheap and just need a little cleaning. Look up the units while you are there and check the room size it will cover.
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We have to buy a window unit for our house. We have Central AC but it's not keeping up and we can't afford to upsize it right now. So until then I'm researching which window units to buy. Any advice or anything to cut through all the marketing spam and AI copy that I have to wade thru?
Just don't get a portable unit. They suck and are just a waste of money most of the times.
These are portables if you're unfamiliar.
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We have to buy a window unit for our house. We have Central AC but it's not keeping up and we can't afford to upsize it right now. So until then I'm researching which window units to buy. Any advice or anything to cut through all the marketing spam and AI copy that I have to wade thru?
It’s probably not undersized. You might have a duct leak, insulation gap, air gaps, etc.
You might have rebates in your area that pay for some of these things. One inexpensive thing you can do is run reflectrex across your roof rafters. While you’re up there air seal any gaps into the living space like can lights and hvac vents.
You can also seal your windows with plastic.
You can get a flir camera for your phone to see where the heat is coming in the most.
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We have to buy a window unit for our house. We have Central AC but it's not keeping up and we can't afford to upsize it right now. So until then I'm researching which window units to buy. Any advice or anything to cut through all the marketing spam and AI copy that I have to wade thru?
Other comments seem to have covered the advice around checking insulation and system charge, so I'll say that if you need to get a window unit make sure it's an inverter unit; they're typically advertised as ultra-quiet. The reason you want an inverter air conditioner is purely the efficient gains you get over a traditional on/off compressor; they use around half the electricity in some cases for the same cooling.
All of the U-shaped units from various brands use inverter tech, but they might be hard to find because a lot of them are rebranded Mideas. LG's ThinQ "dual-inverter" units are also very good, I have one that's served me well for a couple years and it's very quiet. You can barely hear the compressor start up at all aside from a faint electrical whine for a few seconds and the sound of refrigerant moving through the system. The fan moving the air is the loudest part by far (and it's not bad).
All of that said, consider replacing your central ducted unit with a multi-head mini-split system in the long run. For residential use they're typically the most efficient you can get, and you have the bonus of being able to control room temperatures individually. A mini-split system uses inverter tech too just like the good window units. In fact, the U-shaped window units are just miniaturized mini-split systems in a rigid housing.
