Air Conditioner BTU Question
We have to replace 3 air conditioners in our apartment. They need to be “through the wall” units, not window units. There is a sale on 12,000 BTU units so we plan to get this size for our living room/dining room area. Our bedrooms are much smaller and do not require 12,000 BTUs. The sale,…
We have to replace 3 air conditioners in our apartment. They need to be “through the wall” units, not window units. There is a sale on 12,000 BTU units so we plan to get this size for our living room/dining room area. Our bedrooms are much smaller and do not require 12,000 BTUs. The sale, however, makes the price for this size less than the price for a smaller unit. The air conditioning guy is telling me it’s okay to install these units in the bedrooms, that we can just not use all the capacity-i.e. set the thermostat where we want it and it just won’t need all the capacity to keep the temperature at that level. Is he right or is it a bad idea to put these units in our bedrooms? We would be saving a few hundred dollars.
I’m probably too late to stop you….but… Don’t Do It! We have an over sized air conditioner in our bedroom – really, not our fault – we have a tiny bedroom and they don’t make through-the-wall air conditioners with small enough BTUs.
Anyhow, we have to set the air conditioners at a very high degree setting so that the room doesn’t freeze over. This means that the unit is continually turning bits of itself on and off, and on and off, every 10 minutes, in an effort to restrain itself from freezing the room solid. It is very, very annoying to listen to all through the night.
I would just try looking around for cheaper smaller units then. It doesn’t sound like it’s a good idea to over-power the room if it’s just going to be clammy.
bull! thermostats have nothing to do with it. besides, only the real low end a/cs never had thermostats, unless you’re taking 25+ years ago.
A bigger unit will bring down the temperature faster, and dehumidification suffers because it is time-dependent. Also temperature swings will be higher, with less comfort both ways.
The price difference is a few hundred dollars total. The salesman says the humidity is not a problem with new, modern units where you set the temperature on the thermostat as opposed to just choosing high cool or low cool, for example. On one hand, he’s a salesman, but on the other hand I would be spending more on the smaller units so he doesn’t really have a motivation to lie. As far as aesthetics, we have fixed sleeves so it will look the same. These also run pretty quiet, our neighors have already installed one-this is how we heard about the sale.
How much of a price difference is it?
Where’s the sale? We also need to replace a through-the-wall a/c and would love to get a better price. Thanks.
Two aesthetic concerns: If your bedrooms are “much smaller”, I’d be wary of the loudness aspect. Plus, are you sure you wouldn’t prefer a smaller physical presence in the room of the AC?
Dehumdification is just as important as cooling. Oversized units don’t correctly dehumidify as they don’t run long. enough. This leads to that clammy feeling. You actually save more on running costs if you size correctly.
what crown says, never over-size AC units.