All around, people looking half dead/Walking on the sidewalk, hotter than a match head

SassHat — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 18:40:35 -0800

Yet another air conditioner question...please hope me. So I buckled today and bought a window air conditioner after a week straight of near-sleepless nights in my second floor apartment. Bought a 5000 BTU window unit, the kind meant for a window to shut down on top of it. My neighbor (in my building) has the same windows, same window a/c unit, and said it didn't cause him any problems. So I lugged the stupid thing home, nearly got heat stroke installing it, then hit a brick wall. Well two.

The first (and most important) thing is that the outlet nearest the two windows which would fit it (incidentally, in the kitchen) does not seem to have sufficient power to make it work. To test it, I set it on the edge of the counter and stretched the plug across to the outlet the fridge is plugged into...worked. This was fine to make sure the unit itself worked but there is no way the cord will reach that far, and if it did it would span the length of my kitchen.

So now I'm stuck with a unit that I can't power. I live in a bachelor apt and vaguely remember my landlord explaining to me that there wasn't an oven because there wasn't an outlet to plug it into and that she was going to have an electrician in some day (this was last sept). So now what? I put in a peeved voicemail with the landlady, she will likely take her sweet time on this, to the tune of me getting air conditioning some time next fall. My neighbor suggested an extension cord but that seems like a sketchy proposition at best. I've read the previous air conditioning askmes, but they were mostly about playing with wiring (something I will not and am not allowed to do). Any other workarounds you can suggest?

Secondly, should I ever get the power source issue taken care of - the window is a slide-sideways kind of window, the panes of which pop right out for easy cleaning. So while the unit fits in there, it's got about five or six inches of "head room" which covered up with cardboard for the time being. What's the best way of permanently (or at least seasonally) blocking off this area? And how to seal it up so cold air stays in and warm air/hornets/squirrels stay out?

Thanks in advance!

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All around, people looking half dead/Walking on the sidewalk, hotter than a match head