I'm at a loss on what to do about the A/C set up this year. Last year we had a 10,000 BTU portable A/C unit in the living room and a window unit in the kitchen that I think is 4,000BTU (its sitting in the back of my closet atm). The kitchen and living room really should be counted as 1 room because the entry way is like 12 ft wide between the two so thats about 450sq ft. In that area I have the fridge, 16cu ft up right freezer (no garage to store outside), 2 computers and the living room has a large window while the kitchen has a smaller one but from about noon on till dark (about 8:30pm in the summer) the window side of the apt gets lots of sun and heat. Last year even running both A/C 24/7, using thermal curtains and closing the doors to the bedrooms I still had trouble keeping the place below 86F. In the summer we often pulled out the blow up bed and slept in the living room right in front of the portable A/C. I personally can not sleep in a hot room and medically one of my kids needs to be in a temp controlled room.
We didn't have A/C in the bedrooms to speak of since we spent most of the time in the living room and I couldn't afford to buy another unit.
Now I can not survive another summer like last summer! The bedrooms are about 150sq ft each but one only has a sliding door to the back yard which makes it a bit difficult to put in A/C and we use that door a lot of sticking a unit on the ground and boarding the door won't work. Total apt sq ft is about 800)
So I'm wondering... Put a bigger single 18,000BTU unit (cools 700-1000sq ft) in the living room window (yes I know, thats big but since part of the room has full sun and a kitchen you need to add an extra 4,000BTU or so) then do whats usually a no no. Use it to cool the whole apt, I figure I can do it the same way I used to cool an old apt, put a strong fan on the floor to pull/push air into the room low and it pushes the hot air up high out of the room and cycles the air though the house. Makes for a noisy house but it beats sweating to death.
During the day we can close the bedroom doors if were not in there to keep things cool since we'll need the extra BTU's due to cooking and the sun then at night open the bedroom doors and use the extra power to cycle the air in to the bedrooms so we can actually sleep in there.
Make sense? If so, think it would actually work?
I've also considered another trick I did one year at an old apt (this place would literally be 102-110F inside! It held heat like you wouldn't believe! It was usually 20+ deg hotter in that place then outside), I vented the air from the bedroom window a/c (only place I was "allowed" to put it due to complex rules and I only had 2 windows anyway). I literally used flexible air ducts and created a vent to funnel the air from the vent from the A/C into the tunnel then used a fan inside the tunnel to continue to push/pull the air though until it vented into the living room. It was ugly but it worked. At night I just removed the thing catching the air so it would flow into the bedroom at night instead of the living room. Basically I created my own central air system with visible ducts and a window A/C unit. This time though I would run it along the ceiling instead of through the middle of the room
No idea how safe it is though, figured it was ok because nothing was blocking the flow of air and it was forced down the tube as soon as it come out due to the fan at 2 points in the tube.
oh yeah, I rent and I'm not allowed to make changes to the place, technically I'm supposed to get permission to so much as put a nail in the wall to hang a picture so installing a through the wall or central A/C is not going to happen and its not in the budget. I can get the 18,000BTU unit at Home Depot for about $400. Temps are going to rise sharply middle of next month and be in the 90's by the beginning of June so I need to decide what to do now so I can buy it and get the rent a husband/hunny do to install it for me before the temps rise
We didn't have A/C in the bedrooms to speak of since we spent most of the time in the living room and I couldn't afford to buy another unit.
Now I can not survive another summer like last summer! The bedrooms are about 150sq ft each but one only has a sliding door to the back yard which makes it a bit difficult to put in A/C and we use that door a lot of sticking a unit on the ground and boarding the door won't work. Total apt sq ft is about 800)
So I'm wondering... Put a bigger single 18,000BTU unit (cools 700-1000sq ft) in the living room window (yes I know, thats big but since part of the room has full sun and a kitchen you need to add an extra 4,000BTU or so) then do whats usually a no no. Use it to cool the whole apt, I figure I can do it the same way I used to cool an old apt, put a strong fan on the floor to pull/push air into the room low and it pushes the hot air up high out of the room and cycles the air though the house. Makes for a noisy house but it beats sweating to death.
During the day we can close the bedroom doors if were not in there to keep things cool since we'll need the extra BTU's due to cooking and the sun then at night open the bedroom doors and use the extra power to cycle the air in to the bedrooms so we can actually sleep in there.
Make sense? If so, think it would actually work?
I've also considered another trick I did one year at an old apt (this place would literally be 102-110F inside! It held heat like you wouldn't believe! It was usually 20+ deg hotter in that place then outside), I vented the air from the bedroom window a/c (only place I was "allowed" to put it due to complex rules and I only had 2 windows anyway). I literally used flexible air ducts and created a vent to funnel the air from the vent from the A/C into the tunnel then used a fan inside the tunnel to continue to push/pull the air though until it vented into the living room. It was ugly but it worked. At night I just removed the thing catching the air so it would flow into the bedroom at night instead of the living room. Basically I created my own central air system with visible ducts and a window A/C unit. This time though I would run it along the ceiling instead of through the middle of the room
No idea how safe it is though, figured it was ok because nothing was blocking the flow of air and it was forced down the tube as soon as it come out due to the fan at 2 points in the tube.oh yeah, I rent and I'm not allowed to make changes to the place, technically I'm supposed to get permission to so much as put a nail in the wall to hang a picture so installing a through the wall or central A/C is not going to happen and its not in the budget. I can get the 18,000BTU unit at Home Depot for about $400. Temps are going to rise sharply middle of next month and be in the 90's by the beginning of June so I need to decide what to do now so I can buy it and get the rent a husband/hunny do to install it for me before the temps rise
