A/C Through Brick Wall - Mason Is On Site Today
I have an air conditioner that I am installing through a brick wall. The wall is 3 layers of brick thick and furred out inside the room ~4" -- total thickness ~16". The side louvres will be inside the wall and the unit will only hang out ~2". How critical is it for the side louvres to be covered? Is there a way that this should be installed?
Answer:
I'd say it's critical to allow the thing to be able to cool off. Most 'window' AC's need to throw water around on the compressor etc. for the cooling effect. It may not get that in a three sided box with only 2" of the back end sticking out and no side to side to top air flow thru it. I'd think the side and top clearances should be at least 4-6" but I really don't know. I'd want that in case the replacement AC is larger. Plus you might have a lot of moisture inside the brick box, keep it from running toward the room on the sides, top and bottom. This arrangement doesn't sound good to me, mainly 'cuz it's not standard installation. For the record, window style ac's do not "throw water around on the compressor etc for the cooling effect" . Louvers on the side suck in outdoor air, which is then discharged thru the back of the unit and the outdoor coil. If you block this airflow, you are dooming your ac to failure, as well as ensuring it will not cool your room. I have a far better idea for you. look up a Pinguini PAC 210 on the web. or any other portable air conditioner. Or pay your favorite contractor to install a ductless mini split. Air flow through the side louvers is just as important as airflow through the front of the unit on the inside. There are coils on the back that need air flow to be cooled off. Air is sucked in through the side louvers and sometimes top louvers as well, then blown through the coils and out the back. Air conditioners work by compressing a gas which causes it to heat up. The gas then flows through the coils on the back of the unit and air blowing through the coils cools off the gas. Next the gas is decompressed and it gets very cold. Next it flows through the coils in the front of the unit and air blows over these coils and cold air comes out. Actually at this point the unit is "removing the heat" from the air blowing over the front coils. This warms up the gas. Then the gas is again compressed and now has more heat which has been removed from the inside. The gas then again flows through the back coils. It is very important that the unit be able to cool off the back coils and get rid of that heat. I guess you could make part of the wall larger where the side vents are so air can get in, but you might have the problem of hot air going out the back and right back into the sides of the unit. Normally the design of the unit would be blowing the hot air away from the unit and cooler air would come in through the sides. You may want to place some sheet metal about a foot longer around the back of the unit so the hot air blowing out mixes with the outside air before going back into the sides of the unit. If you can't get this to work, there are "split" units that have separate inside and outside units. Check with an air conditioning company about these.