Have an Amana air conditioner. Probably 7 years old. It has a vent setting that can be set at either 'Closed' or 'Exhaust'. I've always kept it on the 'Exhaust' setting. I would guess the Closed setting would prevent air from re-circulating from outside. And, would probably keep the room cooler. But, then you would have stagnant air. Is my logic off? When would you choose one over other?
With "exhaust" you're blowing the air you paid to cool outside. I suspect that setting is best used if you are using the "fan only" setting on the unit. Eg. if it's cooler outside than inside and you want to draw in fresh air from outside through doors and windows.
With the closed setting, it won't be any more stale than if the doors and windows were closed and the AC was off.
Sue(tm) Lead me not into temptation... I can find it myself!
The couple AC I've worked on, I can't remember if the vent blows air from inside to the outside, or from outside in.
"recirculating to the outside" is a built in contradiction. Recirc means inside air goes inside. "vent to the outside" might be closer.
I candidly don't think it makes enough difference to care. If the air gets stale, open the door more often.
Real answer: It does not matter.
The vents on these things are too small to make a difference. Why do they have them? Marketing.
When our company had to modify tooling for a part we made for a major AC company to accommodate a "fresh air" model I asked the engineer about it. His reply: "Totally useless, but the competition has it so we have to also."
Yes....
Different A/C units have different size exhaust vents. You can tell how big yours is by simply noting the change in airflow from the unit between its closed and exhaust settings. If there's little or no change, the exhaust vent is indeed too small and isn't making any difference.
We have a basic Frigidaire model and there's a major difference in how fast our apartment cools down when we leave the A/C on exhaust for several minutes when we first turn it on.
This is Turtle.
To Edwin and OP Charlie ,
Years ago with a big S , I spoke to a Whirlpool Rep. as to why the Fresh air option was on the window units. There was 2 reasons as to having it.
1] To bring in fresh air to a room from outdoors : If you staied in a small room for 12 hours and the room was air tight. You could die from lack of oxygen for you will breath it all up without get more fresh air in the room.2] To bring in fresh air to a room from outdoors : In some parts of the country where you have low humidity conditions like 15% RH all the time. the Air conditioner will even lower this 15% RH down to maybe 5% RH or so and some people will have real bad Nose Bleeding at this very low Humidity condition. So they bring in fresh air in to keep the Fresh air up and some of the humidity level up too. Now anybody in high Humidity parts of the country , it is of no use to run the Fresh air option at all for the humidity will always stay up like in Louisiana. Then there would only be the fresh air problem but most people open a door to a room every 8 to 12 hours.
So in Very Low Humidity areas of the country this option may be of use but in high humidity areas of the country. It has very little useful purpose .
TURTLE
This is Turtle.
All you need to do was change the air in a small room every 12 to 18 hours of run time. We are not talking much air as a small room change out in a half a day of run time. Now as far as being of use in my part of the country where we have
100 % RH all the time and are useless.TURTLE
I agree with you in theory, but in practice, it just does not work that way. Take a look at the opening size of the FA vent. Maybe 15 years ago, they were large enough to actually make a difference, but today they do not. The unit we made the scroll plates for had 1/2 of a square inch (0.5") vent. Doubt it would remove much of a fart.
Charlie S. posted for all of us... I don't top post - see either inline or at bottom.
Yes, how much do fart?
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