Installed a cheap air conditioner today

"Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing." (granfury)
06/17/2016 at 22:20 • Filed to: None

I really didn’t see the point of running the whole house A/C if I’m going to spend a vast majority of my time downstairs in the home office, so I acquired a cheap window unit to cool down this space. I bought it off my supervisor for $75, new in the box. She purchased a few for a rental property she once owned, but sold the property before she got them installed. I did slice up my fingertips pulling the unit out of the box, accidentally trying to pull it up via the cooling fins; now I have about a dozen little slices on each fingertip on my right hand. This will be interesting when I get to work tomorrow as the timeclocks have biometric sensors for clocking in and out. I should have done a finger on each hand instead of doing two on the same hand. Oops.

I had a window mount years ago, but gave it away when I moved. I figured that I wasn’t going to need it since the new place had central air, but the ridiculous electric bills my first summer had me changing my mind and regretting that move. This thing is somewhat cheap, and has various rattles and buzzes expected with low-end stuff; it’s like the sound of a fly repeatedly smacking into a window trying to get out. Whatever - I’m cool.

A friend of mine is having the HVAC system replaced at his house, to the tune of $17,000. Work was temporarily halted when one of the workers sliced his hand open right down to the tendon. But even in the incomplete state it does an excellent job of cooling his place down. This new system, although properly sized for his place, is massive. Instead of just one little vertical air handler, like was installed before, this new one has several components, all laid out horizontally on a platform the size of a dining room table. Electronic air filtering, humidifier, fancy touch screen, Internet-enabled thermostat - the works. I guess if I want something like that I’ll have to marry an airline captain as well. Once she moves on to FedEx

DISCUSSION (12)

Bman76 (no it doesn't need a WS6 hood) M. Arch > Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing.
06/17/2016 at 22:26

So long as it doesn’t get too hot and humid in the rest of the place, that’ll cause mold and such.

Autofixation > Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing.
06/17/2016 at 22:27

Moved into house, installed one of two free air conditioners, winning!

LongbowMkII > Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing.
06/17/2016 at 22:27

While our central fan is out we’ve just had a single portable a/c upstairs. Keeping the top floor in check has let the rest of the house be merely uncomfortable on these 90+ days.

Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing. > LongbowMkII
06/17/2016 at 22:32

This is somewhat inverse of what I did during winter. Instead of using the inefficient electric central heater to warm up a thousand square feet I wasn’t using I just heated the bedrooms with some oil-filled radiator heaters. Yeah, it was cold in the kitchen and living/dining room, but I wasn’t using those areas. Same thing with this 90+ degree heat - I can stand some heat on a temporary basis in some rooms I’m not using while remaining cool in the room(s) I do use. It’s not ideal, but it is cheap. And I like cheap.

Amoore100 > Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing.
06/17/2016 at 22:52

We have no A/C since my mom hates “artificial air” as well as the fact that it would have added $20 grand to our house construction costs; thus, we just use the California method of opening windows in the morning when it's around 60 then closing them so the temperature is sealed in the house for the rest of the day...it does the job though, so I'm not complaining.

Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing. > Amoore100
06/17/2016 at 22:57

When I lived in Los Angeles I was next to the airport, about 2 miles from the coast. For years I regulated the temp in that place year ‘round just by opening or closing a few windows. I didn’t even use the A/C for a few years, and I turned off the pilot on the heater since I never used it either.

Now I’m in the midwest, with ungodly heat and humidity during the summer and miserable cold in the winter. I do like the actual change of seasons we get out here, but I wouldn’t mind a smaller swing in temperature changes between winter and summer...

MrDakka > Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing.
06/17/2016 at 23:01

Wait, the Midwest gets humid in summer? Why?

Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing. > MrDakka
06/17/2016 at 23:09

I blame Texas - that’s where it all seems to come from. I’m so glad I didn’t take that transfer to Houston a few years back. The one weekend I spent there was absolutely miserable, and I couldn’t imagine dealing with that every single day.

I remember hopping off a plane in Hawaii and just about stopped breathing when the full force of the humidity hit me as I stepped onto the jetbridge. But the temps were reasonable, unlike Houston, and I was by the beach, so it really wasn’t a problem.

Amoore100 > Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing.
06/17/2016 at 23:27

Yeah, not having seasons kind of sucks, there's just hot and hotter.

Mr. Ontop, No Strokes, No Smokes...Goes Fast. > Amoore100
06/18/2016 at 01:30

We used to do that too, but the past couple of years have just been getting worse and worse. So tonight, I gave in and bought my first California Air conditioner

Mr. Ontop, No Strokes, No Smokes...Goes Fast. > Amoore100
06/18/2016 at 01:32

I used to think that too, then I remembered how much I hate summer heat. and the winter cold. San Diego eterna-spring is pretty easy to live with.

Amoore100 > Mr. Ontop, No Strokes, No Smokes...Goes Fast.
06/18/2016 at 02:00

I think good insulation is probably a big part of it. That and we have an upstairs library which is around 20 feet high so a lot of the accumulated hot air can gather leaving the first floor a lot cooler.