How to help my little air conditioner cool the room
March 22, 2024 12:32 PM Subscribe
My room has an old thru-the-wall air conditioner like this model. The landlord mounted it in a wall hole that's a foot above the floor. The A/C blows cool air which hovers near the floor, and the majority of the room is still hot. What can I do to use the A/C more effectively?
When I turn on the A/C, I feel cool air coming out. Because the landlord mounted the A/C in a wall hole close to the ground, the cool air hovers in the ankle/shin area. My bed is a few feet away from the A/C. There ends up being a little pocket of cold air between the bed and A/C, low to the ground. That cold air isn't getting distributed to the rest of the room.
The landlord won't allow a new hole in the wall, so I can't relocate the air conditioner's position.
What can I do to make my A/C more effective? Here are my ideas:
1. Would it help to lower my bed as close to the ground as possible, so that a little A/C air goes over it?
2. I have a powerful fan at the foot of the bed pointed at my head, but it ends up re-circulating the warm air near my head. Is there a way I can position the fan so that it's instead funneling the cold A/C air up to my head?
3. Will getting the A/C unit serviced frequently help?
Any other suggestions? Thanks!
When I turn on the A/C, I feel cool air coming out. Because the landlord mounted the A/C in a wall hole close to the ground, the cool air hovers in the ankle/shin area. My bed is a few feet away from the A/C. There ends up being a little pocket of cold air between the bed and A/C, low to the ground. That cold air isn't getting distributed to the rest of the room.
The landlord won't allow a new hole in the wall, so I can't relocate the air conditioner's position.
What can I do to make my A/C more effective? Here are my ideas:
1. Would it help to lower my bed as close to the ground as possible, so that a little A/C air goes over it?
2. I have a powerful fan at the foot of the bed pointed at my head, but it ends up re-circulating the warm air near my head. Is there a way I can position the fan so that it's instead funneling the cold A/C air up to my head?
3. Will getting the A/C unit serviced frequently help?
Any other suggestions? Thanks!
Best answer: I think your fan will be the key to easily circulating the cool air, you just need to direct it so that it helps push the cool air up and around the room. Folks do a similar thing in the winter with ceiling fans so that they circulate the warm air that's trapped up near the ceiling. Lowering your bed and getting the AC serviced can help too. You might also want to think about how to direct the air coming out of the AC unit upwards as it leaves the unit.
posted by pappy at 12:45 PM on March 22
posted by pappy at 12:45 PM on March 22
Best answer: I think it's just not strong enough to cool the room. A fan will help circulate the cool air through the room, but as it mixes with the warm air in the rest of the room it'll average out and only result in a (very) small cooling effect.
Servicing the unit will help increase its power and overall effectiveness (you'll still need the fan to mix its cold air with the rest of the room).
Another option to help is put in a window fan to exhaust the hot air in the room so there's less warmth for the AC to overcome.
posted by jpeacock at 1:23 PM on March 22 [2 favorites]
Servicing the unit will help increase its power and overall effectiveness (you'll still need the fan to mix its cold air with the rest of the room).
Another option to help is put in a window fan to exhaust the hot air in the room so there's less warmth for the AC to overcome.
posted by jpeacock at 1:23 PM on March 22 [2 favorites]
Before you do anything else I would get some big cardboard sheets or boxes and refashion them into a big snorkel or duct, using packing tape or duct tape to seal all edges. It should be shaped to direct air that flows out of the unit up, and then out toward your bed. Make the bottom end so it fits snugly over the face of the unit, but can be removed to turn it on and off. You can even put a little foam rubber around that edge to that nearly all the air from the unit flows through the snorkel. This has the same effect as lowering your bed but will be more comfortable, and more efficient than any kind of fan redirecting the cold air (except if you put a fan inside the snorkel, that could help). The snorkel should have the same cross section from bottom to top so air flows well. Ideally, at the two 90 degree turns, build a curved surface like this.
posted by beagle at 2:04 PM on March 22 [1 favorite]
posted by beagle at 2:04 PM on March 22 [1 favorite]
I want to second jpeacock's suggestion to put in a window fan to exhaust the hot air in the room to the outside. Not only will this expel some of the heat, it will also draw the cool air upwards, and in conjunction with your fan, help with the mixing of the air. Something like this, pulling the air out, rather than drawing it in (I have know experience of this specific one, I'm just using it to illustrate).
posted by OrangeDisk at 2:06 PM on March 22 [2 favorites]
posted by OrangeDisk at 2:06 PM on March 22 [2 favorites]
If you have some money to throw at this/if you'll be there awhile/if you pay your own electric bill:
Do you have a window you could put a newer window a/c into? Or if the existing unit is pretty old, can you just replace the through-the-wall one? Bedroom-sized a/c units aren't super expensive.
I've lived in a house where the central heating and air conditioning system only had ducts in the floor and the system was still able to cool the house, so it seems possible that your a/c just isn't powerful enough or working well.
posted by needs more cowbell at 3:25 PM on March 22
Do you have a window you could put a newer window a/c into? Or if the existing unit is pretty old, can you just replace the through-the-wall one? Bedroom-sized a/c units aren't super expensive.
I've lived in a house where the central heating and air conditioning system only had ducts in the floor and the system was still able to cool the house, so it seems possible that your a/c just isn't powerful enough or working well.
posted by needs more cowbell at 3:25 PM on March 22
Best answer: A hassock fan might help. They're essentially a footstool with a fan inside, and the fan spins parallel to the floor like a ceiling fan. So they move air upwards. I don't know if anyone makes new ones, I have a vintage one and love it.
posted by sepviva at 5:25 PM on March 22 [2 favorites]
posted by sepviva at 5:25 PM on March 22 [2 favorites]
vienna, the a/c example in your link is a window unit — can you clarify the model in your room? "Through-the-Wall units and Window units are not necessarily interchangeable—even if they’re the same size. This is due to the difference in venting. However, there are Window ACs that can be installed through a wall, and are designed with slide-out chassis for this purpose." Your in-wall air conditioner was installed too low; additional landlord miscalculations would influence suggestions.
posted by Iris Gambol at 11:51 PM on March 22
posted by Iris Gambol at 11:51 PM on March 22
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I would put a small powerful fan on the floor underneath/in front of the unit, blowing directly up. I have used these in several air-routing situations and they've served me well.
posted by Lyn Never at 12:45 PM on March 22 [3 favorites]