Air conditioning blog

[Caslon]

I own a modest condominum. 887 sq. ft.
Last summer was the last time I put up without AC.

Hell, my PC can't take the summer heat, even tho it's a kick ass Antec case.

Wish me luck on approval from my HOA for this unit on my entry deck.

I'm replacing the 20 year old furnace too. Total estimate. Around 5 grand.

Performance Compact Central Air Conditioner - Carrier Air Conditioning



Carrier is the only company that makes this slim line design,

Ya..it'll look butt ugly on my entry deck, but so what.

I WAS gonna put the condenser down below my deck, but last year the HOA turned down my proposal because I didn't go into enough detail about how I would waterproof the linesets going up thru my deck. That's a common utility area below my entry deck.

[slytiger]

HOA ftl...

[hsimah]

Cool.

[RichM]

Originally Posted by hsimah

Cool.

I see what you did there....

And Cas - living in SoCal (IIRC) without AC? You MUST be crazy.

We did that for a year, in a studio apartment in Torrance; the entire west wall of the place was glass, and it turned in to a fucking inferno come August....

[NavalLord]

I fried a graphics card last summer because my room got so hot. Then my CPU kept overheating and shutdown my computer. It was very sad.

[slytiger]

Heh, my house in socal doesnt have ac, never will either. Just open the windows and let the breeze in.

[RichM]

Nah, dude - if you're TRULY at LAX (Unless you're under the takeoff pattern, which presents a whole DIFFERENT set of issues ), it sure as fuck DID get hot enough.

When we lived in Torrance, we were about 1 - 1 1/2 miles to Redondo/Hermosa as the crow flies (Due East, obviously, near Torrance Blvd. and Hawthorne Blvd.), and it got stupidly hot. When we lived up near 118th and Hawthorne, it was a BIT better, but still....

Had I been able to afford an AC, I would've dropped the coin.

[slytiger]

Ah, our house is down in el segundo. Yall must have a higher sensitivity to the heat than i do. That might also come from me being in phoenix during the summer, hehe...

[Copperhead]

ACs always look butt ugly. With those fucking plywood boards or in some cases cardboard replacing the window.

Tell them youll put some kind of white box around it so it doesnt become an eyesore. Kinda lame if you have to suffer the heat cause they are worried about a how the entrance looks.

[RichM]

I LEFT MY WALLET IN EL SEGUNDO....

[Caslon]

Originally Posted by Copperhead

ACs always look butt ugly. With those fucking plywood boards or in some cases cardboard replacing the window.

Tell them youll put some kind of white box around it so it doesnt become an eyesore. Kinda lame if you have to suffer the heat cause they are worried about a how the entrance looks.

Kinda a long reply, but bear with me. (haven't you always)? Appreciated.

I'm pretty sure the HOA (Home Owners Association) won't object to it visual wise. My condo is located deeper inside the complex, so it's not seen from the main cul-de-sac public
street. Ya never know about HOA's tho. They've been called the Stalins of condos by owners for decades. My HOA is farily mellow, even tho it's a 220 unit complex. I need to wait 4-6 weeks for approval/dissaproval. They are good enough to tell you why they turned it down, so you can ammend your proposal. If they turn it down for asthetic reasons, I can go back to plan A about putting the condenser under my deck. I found a kick ass product for
waterproofing lines up thru a deck. Here's a short You-Tube video. You only need check out the first 3 minutes (that's how easy it is to install).
Then I would revert back to my turned down plan A and submit that to HOA.

Chem Link Chem Curb Installation Video - AOL Video

As far as how the AC looks up on my deck, I'd pretty much want it there anyways. When I sell my condo to buy a house, I doubt it will be a deal breaker.
Also, while my condo is in an upscale area, there's always vandalism to consider if I place the condenser way down below my deck, out of sight from me.


Copperhead:
I can't really place too much in front of the AC condenser on my deck, as this impedes air flow. Maybe a few artificial small palm trees or something.

And yes Rich, I live in So. Calif. My unit is an upper end unit with double car garages below my living room and my bedroom (my bedroom is above MY garage...and neither are car noisy). All that heat has to go somewhere.
It goes up into my unit. Window AC units are not allowed. A box fan blowing in air doesn't do much when it's 88 degrees outside. Lots of soot comes in too.

I tried one of those portable room AC units. Loud as a vacume cleaner and didn't cool things down worth a damn.

Anyways...I put this entire proposal package (took me 5 days with all the photoshop photos, the AC installer company info, the HOA forms)...and sent it off to them.


BTW, just wondering.
Where is Melee about now? His european tour. Why doesn't he chime in to BFnation from some Amsterdamn internet cafe? Having too good a time or (no internet cafes)...or... now working for the Russian mafia slave trade?

[hsimah]

Wow, you need air con for 88°F?

However do you survive. I hope the other advocates of air con here at least are above 104°F in summer...

[Caslon]

Hsimah, I've got ceiling fans in all rooms. I don't mind hitting the hay with the fan going full blast, I can get a comfortable nights sleep, even when it's hot.

It's during the day, when I've decided that the loud box fan at the open window isn't doing the job.

[hsimah]

Fair enough. Maybe its just me, but in my house we never hit the a/c (when we even had it) unless the mercury was hitting 40+°C, or 104°F for you guys. That was only really in Kuwait.

Ceiling fans, I find, are the best thing. But that said, your house. And if your computer is failing due to heat, thats no good. Computers are vital to accessing BFN.

[faker_phil]

May I, as one of the Europeans, chime in to say that air conditioning contributes to global warming? I am still hoping for the day when electricity prices in the U.S. rise so less people can afford having their home cooled day in, day out.

[Caslon]

Originally Posted by faker_phil

May I, as one of the Europeans, chime in to say that air conditioning contributes to global warming? I am still hoping for the day when electricity prices in the U.S. rise so less people can afford having their home cooled day in, day out.

The Carrier 38HDR uses Puron as a refridgerant. Ozone friendly. Carrier developed Puron as a replacement to freon.

[mrhahn]

To be fair, I've been to Arizona in the summer and AC is definitely necessary. I mean some places have it cranked so high that you walk in and you're shivering, which is excessive really, but I definitely couldn't live without it in those kinda temperatures.

[slytiger]

Yea, here in az you couldnt survive summers without ac, literally. But places like la need it, especially in the valley, when it does reach high temps like above 85 because its a humid temp. Here in az its a dry temp so you can cool yourself easier than in a humid temp, another reason not to go to the south during summer. Every time there is a hike in temps in la there are several fatalities who dont have ac, usually the elderly and children.