Shade the air conditioner

[Stormin Mormon]

This web site says that shade decreases energy costs.

[trader4]

I remember a few years ago seeing an actual study that was done using instrumentation to determine if there was any difference in shading the condenser of a central AC. That study showed there was no difference, as James says. It depended soley on the outside air temp which didn't change much from the shade.

Whether that applies to a window unit is another question. I would think it's possible that some of the heat from the sun that is hitting the unit would heat the metal which in turn is connected to the rest of the unit, ie the inside part, evaporator, etc. Also, from a practical standpoint in answer to the question that was asked in another thread, it would help cooling the room because by shading the window AC unit you are almost certainly going to reduce the heat coming in through the rest of the window. There is no question that shade or tinting a window reduces heat entering the building, even if it has no effect on the AC performance directly.

[Pete C.]

Shade decreases solar heat load, energy costs remain unchanged.

[Gz]

You can feel the heat radiating from the brick in the evening on my house, and that also heats the air around the condenser. I felt an efficiency drop when I installed a walkway 3 feet above condenser, code. I then made a deflector which increased efficiency.

I say, the sun hitting the condenser is like having another window in the house letting the sun in, and thats without reflective coating.

Greg