Small width window air conditioner?

[Jeremy Milam]

My MIL doesn't have ducts and therefore no central A/C. She's like to have me put a window unit on her 1st floor but the only windows that aren't sliding doors are an inside width of only 19 inches. She couldn't find narrower than 21 inches at HD and my internet search is only pulling up a/c units for small rooms.

Her other thought is a free standing unit that vents with a dryer hose like things.

Any thoughts on the effectness of this type of unit, or where to find a narrow width a/c unit would be appreciated!

Thanks,
Jeremy

[Greg R Bradley]

The free standing units require a way to get rid of the water that condenses. Virtually all the lower priced units have a drain or removeable water tray that must be dumped. This is about once a day in SoCal but in a humid area could be way more often. I have seen some units that have two hoses and dump the water out the exhaust unit but I believe they are still expensive.

I used a casement unit that came from Lowes. It is 14" wide and 20" tall. They are about 25% more than the same capacity unit in a horizontal configuration. The Fridgidaire 12,000 BTU unit was $439.

[Brian Tymchak]

Does your MIL live in her own house or in a rented space? I've seen TV advertisements for through-the-wall units which would alleviate your width constraints, but that would be good only for an owned home. I just googled "through the wall air conditioner" and there seem to be lots of possibilities.

[Greg Cuetara]

they make a lot of 5,000 btu units which are in the 18" wide range. You may need to get some help and break open a box to look at the actual unit because sometimes they are giving the width with the side wings attached. I have casement windows and had to take the whole window out to put our unit in. I fabricated a little bracket out of 3/4" ply and sat the unit right on top. I think our windows are 21" wide so just wide enough for the unit and a little space in between that I filled with some foam.

I also have a portable unit and they are great also because you can just roll it around and point it in the right direction. The only issue is that if you have casement windows you need to fabricate a piece of plywood to fit over the whole window so that you can put the exhaust in there. Not sure what Greg is talking about with having to get rid of the water that condenses but our unit doesn't have that issue. I take it outside once or twice a summer and drain it but there is not much water in it. I really don't know how it works but something with the exhaust outside.

You won't find any units over 5k btu that will fit in that window and the portable units can get very expensive very quickly. I heard of a unit at HD that you don't even need to exhaust outside but I havn't had a chance to look into it but i think that will run about $500.

Good Luck,
Greg

[Erik France]

There are some decent sized vertical units out, but as Greg R mentioned, they are more expensive. Search for the casement/slider units.
http://www.amazon.com/Frigidaire-FRA084KT7-Slider-Casement-Conditioner/dp/B0042JXF7U

You might look into the ductless mini split systems. They're going to cost more than a window unit. There are some systems that can have multiple evaporators for different rooms, which also gets more expensive.

[Greg R Bradley]

The one Erik references above is the smallest one in the series that I bought. It is 8,000 BTU. They also list 10,000 and 12,000 BTU units, which seem to be the same dimensions.

I am using the 12,000 BTU one to cool my 700 sq foot master bedroom and it seems completely adequate for that. I recently bought another to use to cool my garage. I haven't installed that yet.

I can't imagine the 5,000 horizontal one would provide much cooling but I guess that depends on climate and insulation of the house. I use a 6,000 BTU unit for my office, which is 12x14' and it struggles to keep it comfortable on our 100 degree days.

As I reread your post, I am wondering if you are expecting one window AC to keep an entire floor comfortable. Is your climate that mild? If you want serious cooling, it sounds like you need to go with one of the split units. There are some really large window AC units but they certainly are not narrow.

The two free standing units at $900 each that I had are pretty well "done" after 7 years. Perhaps the newer ones don't drain as much water but i was pretty sure that requires an intake and exhaust duct out the window. A free standing unit without a duct would probably need to be an evaporation cooler, which adds humidity and probably helps a bunch in a really dry climate.

[Mike Cruz]

Depends on the size of the room she's needing to be cooled, but I used to have an LG 8,000btu unit in my shop. Did okay, but only meant for a 350 sf room and my shop is 720sf. I recently moved to a Sharp 12,000btu unit and really like it. Keeps my well insulated shop at 78 fairly easily...even in this heat. Got it at Costco for what $250? Minimum window width for my unit is 22", though. I would imagine that the 10,000 btu version would fit and do a nice job.