A window A/C that can cool and circulate?

September 1, 2007 3:22 PM

Is there a window air conditioner that can both cool and circulate air from outside?

So it's toasty hot here in California. We have a couple of window air conditioner units that help us deal with this toastiness, but they don't help so much at night when it is cooler. We'd love to be able to switch from cooling the air inside to bringing in some of that nice cool night air, but our window A/C units can't do that, and I can't find any that can. Has anybody come across any small, quiet window A/C units that can easily switch from cooling to working as a window fan?

posted by baggers to Home & Garden (11 answers total)

Most window units have a way to covert it to fan only function and allow for bringing in outside air... I'm surprised yours doesn't.... I hate to say it, but have you read the manual ??
posted by HuronBob at 3:28 PM on September 1, 2007

Best answer: Have you considered a swamp cooler? I'm sitting in my in-laws' house here in Fontana and their swamp cooler has the house nice and comfy despite an outside temp of 108 degrees and RH of 20%.

The front door and windows are wide open so we're getting plenty of fresh air. The swamp cooler turns into a big old fan that pulls in fresh outside air as soon as you turn off the water pump.
posted by buggzzee23 at 3:29 PM on September 1, 2007

I've got to echo HuronBob, have you read the manual and checked all the switches on the unit? I have never seen a window a/c unit that doesn't also work as a fan, so unless yours is a very old model it's odd that it only cools.
posted by zarah at 3:39 PM on September 1, 2007

swamp coolers work great try it out
posted by kaytrem at 3:44 PM on September 1, 2007

Many A/C units with a fan function only recirculate inside air, and don't pass through air from outside.
posted by sevenyearlurk at 5:36 PM on September 1, 2007

Response by poster: as severnyearlurk says, the ones we have can act as just fans, but they don't bring air in from the outside; they just blow the air inside the room around. That's nice, but not what I am looking for...
posted by baggers at 6:37 PM on September 1, 2007

In my limited experience, larger units are more likely to have an option to bring in outside air than smaller units, and even then, the ones I've seen just add a small volume of outside air to a much larger volume of recirculated air and are really better for bringing in a little fresh air than they are for bringing in a significant quantity of cool outside air.
posted by Good Brain at 7:42 PM on September 1, 2007

Best answer: Ours is a Kenmore, and it has a vent pull that determines whether the fan recirculates inside air or pulls in outside air. My guess is that our particular model isn't made any more, but perhaps current Kenmores have the same feature.
posted by daisyace at 4:42 AM on September 2, 2007

This is a very hard feature to find in new window units. They aren't built to filter outside air, only to heat-sink the condenser to outside, and pulling unfiltered air in across the condenser would dramatically shorten the life of the unit.

If you have enough windows, a fan in another window is a better bet. Years ago I had a little drugstore-special window insert that had two fans in it, and I loved it.
posted by Lyn Never at 5:41 AM on September 2, 2007

Response by poster: Okay, am checking out swamp coolers and the other things that people mentioned. Thanks to everyone who responded.
posted by baggers at 7:42 PM on September 2, 2007

Swamp coolers (aka evaporative coolers) are fabulous and all, but have you considered opening a window and putting a box fan (~$20) in it? Put the fan right up against the window, and open up another window somewhere else, air will move between the two windows.
posted by yohko at 9:40 PM on September 2, 2007