I want to install a small wall A/C unit in a bedroom of my condo. The other side of the wall I will install the unit in is a storage room with no drywall. The studs are spaced 16" apart and the A/C unit is
17-18" wide. I am handy with saws, etc. I just don't know how to create the opening without compromising the strength of the wall. Are there any tutorials or pictures on how this should look? Thanks.
Get any book on window framing and see how the openings are made and you will be OK. Practice your toenailing technique to get a neat job and choose some better-than-box-store lumber for the new opening. For your maximum efficiency consider some permanent venting in the storage room, like a high up louvered opening and a ground level vent to supply cool air. HTH
Don't forget about the water byproduct. Even if you put a bucket under the unit you will have water splatter - forget to empty the bucket and you've got a mess.
You own the storage room too? If not - even if you do - you need to check with your condo board of directors. One owns the interior surface of one's walls, not the outside...they are common property and may not normally be changed.
Well that's the problem. They won't allow any wall or window a/c units to be installed on an outside wall, which sucks as it gets hot and humid during the summer. I plan on uninstalling the unit when I sell and patching the wall up.
If you are only trying to cool one room, I would think almost any AC would be big enoug, but... bearing in mind that I don't know much about this, I'm wondering if you will need bigger than minimum.
The output froom the AC will still heat the air in the little room even if the door is open. And that will make the AC less efficient, I think, because the cooler the air outside or in the closet, the better the AC works. I suppose that it might actually be cooler in the little room than it is outside now. Will it stay that way? I would think not. I would think it would become hotter than would be an ouside area that surrounds an room AC.
It won't work as you expect. Insufficient air flow in the shed, even with the door open. You will prematurely wear out your AC unit, and if you are honest about it with the manufacturer, will void any warranty.
Given the games you are apparently willing to play with your condo assoc board, and the games which you apparently willing to play with everybody elses' property values, neither honesty nor integrity appear to be big issue with you.
I am glad you are not mine as well. Your presumptuous attitude really stinks. I play no games. The only rules about a/c units in the cc&rs is that a wall or window mounted a/c unit can not be visible on an exterior wall. Maybe talk to your doctor about lowering the dosage, it's not doing you any good.
Do you have AC in the rest of the apartment? Maybe they'll ltet you put a little fanr in the duct so that more of it gets to the bedroom. They make fans for that purpose. Maybe with a switch so that you can turn it off when you want more in the rest of the place.
There are also regular fans that would go in the door way and blow cool air from the rest of the apartment.
I'm not sure how you would be hurting everyone's property values like jjim says (nor am I sure you're not. I don't understand his point yet.) but it still started me thinking of other methods.
I can't imainge your apartment doesn't have AC AND they won't let you put one in. Personnally, unless I could cool the room off before I went to sleep, and then leave the ac off all night, I would not want one in the room with me. But if you are going to leave the central air on all night anyway, there should be a way to get more cool air from it.
OT: I don't even like the noise my central air makes, but my furnace is old. Someday when I get a newer one, I guess it will have a slower fan speed.
But today a neighbor was getting a new furnace and I scrounged all the parts I wanted from her old one. I only wanted the control box, but it was screwed to the oil pump and blower, and spark transformer, etc. It may keep my furnace going a couple years longer than otherwise, depeding on what breaks.)
My office is cooled in a similar manner. I have a small AC through the wall and it vents into what used to be a closet under a stairway. It has been in there for the past 10 years. It works, what else is needed?
This is a fairly simple job. If I read the thread correctly, the opposite side of the wall in open studs, making it easier to work around.
You have to make a box to hold the AC and the studs. One stud has to be cut so you have to put a horizontal piece on the top and the bottom of the opening. They can be tied into the studs on either side and supported with stringers. Take a look at a book that shows framing around a window and you want to make a similar setup.
Mount the AC level and you should have no problems with water dripping. You said you will run tubing, but you really don't want to do that for two reasons:
If you drill a hole in the bottom of the pan, you may hit the coil and ruin the Ac to trash. It happens often.
The fan is designed to take the condensate and sling the water against the heated coil. This evaporates the water and helps cool the coil for better efficiency.
You may want to consider putting a small fan in the storage room to help blow out the hot air and bring in cooler air.
I see some negatives posted by others about this setup, but it will work. My office at work is inside the manufacturing plant and the AC vents into it. It is also a very hot plant as we use steam for our process. The AC still works though. In the same building, there are a few other business that have similar setups with much larger units.
It will be easy enough to remove the AC and drywall over the opening later. Some paint and it will be invisible.
I actually forgot about that. Almost every plant I've seen has an air conditioned office in the middle of it somewhere, and they often haven't a single wall or ceiling that touches an outside wall or roof.
I wonder if the workers realize that not only are you cool, but you're making them hotter. ;) Probably, but they're tough.
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