I own a townhouse where the A/C units are under a raised deck (if the owner has installed A/C). To get sufficient intake and exhaust flow the owners have cut various shaped holes in the deck siding and covered the huge openings with wire mesh which look terrible.
I had an A/C person out today because I'm thinking of putting in A/C (I don't live there, but the tenants have been bugging me). He was not encouraging. First, he said it was a terrible location for the units, something I already knew. Second, he said that most of the existing units had been put in without permits and that if he pulled permits for a new installation then the city would see all the code violations on the other units and make them be corrected (which is something I would not be opposed to since the current ).
The thing I want to figure out is how to replace all these awful looking siding panels on the decks but still get sufficient air-flow for the units. I can't find any information on the CFM of the exhaust of central A/C units.
The panels are about 30" x 30" made out of wood siding. I was thinking that we could build panels with these and paint them to match the deck color, but I don't know if they'll restrict the airflow too much.