How to install an air conditioner in a window with jalousies.

September 2, 2007 11:52 PM

How do I install an air conditioner unit into a window with jalousies?

Well, after a particularly hot August, my wife and I finally decided to break down and buy and air conditioner for our apartment, specifically for the bed room. We measured the room to calculate the correct BTUs, measured the window, and found an air conditioner that was correct for us at Costco. Good price, too.

We get it home today, I break out the instructions and discover that the instructions are exclusively for wooden sill double or single hung sash-type windows.

I had a similar air conditioner unit in this apartment six or seven years ago (installed by a previous renter). When I removed it (it died a rather unpleasant death), I discovered that the previous owner had created a rather extensive (and by now termite ridden) balance system using loose pieces of wood and a towel. So, while I have no idea how to replicate this system, I know that there must be ways to do it.

So any ideas? Obviously, I need to take some of the jalousies out, but beyond that, I'm rather at a loss. Thank you!

posted by Joey Michaels to home & garden (6 comments total)

I have struggled with this exact problem. I got it balanced just right- the one I got came with brackets that drilled into the windowsill.

it worked great for about a month. then i went to press the "on" button and it fell halfway out the window. now i'm stuck with a fan in this awful shitty heat.

I would advise taking it back and getting the portable kind with the hose that goes out the window. it costs a bit more, but it'll save you headaches in the long run.
posted by drjimmy11 at 12:28 AM on September 3, 2007

I agree with drjimmy11.
I had similar situatuation.
It would save u time, headaches, and money by getting portable unit.

Home Depot has great selections of portable units. They may be a little less powerful but.. they do their job.

If you live in somewhere with not too much humidity, I would go for portable water cooler unit. It does not require heat vent and saves a lot of lectricity. Most of them also filter your room air with HEPA type filter.

I think portable units look nicer and more functional than fixed ac units especially if your home never really had specifically designed one before.
posted by curiousleo at 4:48 AM on September 3, 2007

I've never had to do this myself but I've seen it done. The person built a wooded frame around the brace of the air conditioner (the part that fits inside the window and keeps it from falling out). It basically extended the brace so that it fit against the window. They had beveled it slightly so that it tipped toward the outside to allow the water to drain. It didn't look too hard to do but you probably will need some power tools to work the wood. Depends on the size of the jalousies also.
posted by crios at 5:45 AM on September 3, 2007

There are many commercially available supports that you can install in you window to hold up the air conditioner. I would head back to Costco or Home Depot to find one that will work for you particular situation.

As long as your windows open up or to the side, you should just have to remove enough of the jalousies to fit the air conditioner through and then install the above mentioned brackets.

Without pictures and measurements, I can't really devise a home built solution for this problem.
posted by davey_darling at 6:43 AM on September 3, 2007

So I've tried to type up what I did to fix in our two ACs, but fail every time. We don't have jalousies, but we do have windows that lack a flat strong surface on which a heavy AC can rest.

So what I did was to use scrap wood from Home Depot to build up a platform around the lip of the window. Then, depending on the location of the AC, I either extended the frame out the window and added on supports that come down diagonally to help brace the weight of the AC; or I screwed the AC to a two by for and used clamps to fix it to the windowsill inside. A healthy dose of wooden shims to help keep stuff level and a bunch of towels and cardboard for sealing, and everything works fine.

It took maybe an hour to sketch out and measure what I wanted to do and another hour to put it all together, but my system has lasted for at least three summers and is pretty easy to remove in the wintertime!
posted by robocop is bleeding at 6:44 AM on September 3, 2007

I put a small A/C unit in a jalousie window earlier this year. I spent weeks fretting over how to get the right height with little planks of wood piled up at the bottom but on the morning of a forecasted heat wave, I just slapped down a pair of 2x2s cut to the width of the window. One on top, one on bottom. The bottom one is screwed down tight to the sill, the top one is held place in with L brackets plus being butted up to the inside of the window molding. I used very long wood screws into pre-drilled starter holes.

[front] [side] (Gah. good reminder for me to finish the job by painting the molding.)

As it turned out, the top piece of wood is the most important as it does the major work of holding the unit in place. The bottom 2x2 mostly just serves as a edge for the bottom flange on the A/C unit to butt up against and of course, to support much of the weight of the unit.

The additional dark strip of wood under the bottom 2x2 is just there to keep dust bunnies out from under the A/C unit; it doesn't offer any additional stability. I went outside all prepared to build a little platform with angled legs braced against the house but it turned out not to be necessary, this thing went in solid as is. However, had this install been in a window above head-height, I would have made a platform anyway, just in case.

For the screen, I cut an X into the mesh with an X-acto knife and rolled the edges back (toward the outside) as I eased the entire screen frame over the A/C unit. The plus side is the fit is so tight that no bugs have gotten in and you can't see the cut screen edge. The downside is I can no longer remove the screen as the frame is now embedded behind the 2x2s and under the A/C unit.

I don't know if my method would work on a large A/C unit, but this install has proved to be rock solid as it's become a favorite cat perch.
posted by jamaro at 8:37 AM on September 3, 2007