"House" for my A/C condensor

[DonR]

The mental midgets who installed the a/c in my house put it on the south side. I would like to build a 3 sided shelter with a roof to keep it in the shade. How much gap should I leave around the sides & top for airflow?

I was going to leave a 6" to 8" gap between the bottom of the "walls" & the ground. i was also thinking of using the Reflectix insulation (foil coated bubble wrap) on the inside of the walls & roof.

Any other suggestions?

Don

[shovel]

from my experience you definitely want plenty of airflow, in fact I'd recommend making the shelter 3-sided, or make 2 walls out of lattice or something. If it exhausts through the top, leave at least a foot above the top and a clear path for that heated air to buzz off. Direct sun is bad, but so's blanketing. You don't need to absolutely shade it though, all the refrigerant needs to do is condense - there's not really any additional benefit to cooling it beyond condensing.

Not super scientific, but as an experiment at my old house I ran a sprinkler on my a/c condenser to see if supercooling it with water would increase effectiveness, by measuring the temperature of the cooling vent nearest the evaporator inside my house. It was 58 degrees during the half hour I was watering it, and 58 degrees for the remainder of the day that I wasn't watering it.

[Who]

Can you do louvres on the 3 sides inside of solid surfaces?

[PaleMelanesian]

What about making 3 sides tall enough to shade it while still leaving the top open?

Louvers - I like.

[DonR]

I could make "shutter" like sides to try & match the stupid fake shutters on the house already. That would leave enough airflow on the sides & top yet still shade the unit.

2x2's for the vertical corners. I could hinge the top to fold back over, & hinge the sides to fold flat. Easier to store for the winter.

Dang you guys are smart. I'll try to remember to take pictures & post them.

I don't think my wife would appreciate the louvred stainless sheets as much as I would.

Shovel,
Someone, either Plow & Hearth or Gardner's is selling a device that you attach to your garden hose that mists your condensor when ever the motor kicks on. Due to the evaporation it passes cooler air over the coils & shorten the time the condensor runs. I don't think it would reduce the temp inside unless it is very hot. It works better the lower the humidity (water evaporates better).

Thank you,
Don

[PaleMelanesian]

Someone tested one of those units and it ended up leaving mineral deposits on the coils. I was going to install one until I saw those results.

[shovel]

Originally Posted by DonR

Someone, either Plow & Hearth or Gardner's is selling a device that you attach to your garden hose that mists your condensor when ever the motor kicks on. Due to the evaporation it passes cooler air over the coils & shorten the time the condensor runs. I don't think it would reduce the temp inside unless it is very hot. It works better the lower the humidity (water evaporates better).

I don't doubt that someone sells such a device, just like someone sells those blasted tornado wallet lighteners for your car

however once the refrigerant has changed state it's done its job, cooling it more won't improve its efficiency. if more btu's were being exchanged, the vent temperature would have been cooler.

my only motivation for housing the a/c condenser is to keep the absorbed radiant heat from the sun from preventing condensation inside the condenser (as opposed to the ambient temperature of the air in the shade which wouldn't get half as hot)

[Mara]

Originally Posted by DonR

Shovel,
Someone, either Plow & Hearth or Gardner's is selling a device that you attach to your garden hose that mists your condensor when ever the motor kicks on. Due to the evaporation it passes cooler air over the coils & shorten the time the condensor runs. I don't think it would reduce the temp inside unless it is very hot. It works better the lower the humidity (water evaporates better).

Thank you,
Don

I can confirm that this misting does help on reducing the condenser power consumption during operation. (It does not shorten the time, just the power consumption.) In fact it is most effective if the mist hits the coil before it evaporates. The downside is, as mentioned below, the deposit that accumulates on the coil because the water is not perfectly pure.