An Air Conditioning question

wood / screws / duct tape

I used to cut to shape a foam (or insulation material) block with an exacto and then duct tape into staying in place. It worked well for 5-7 years.

I just remembered - I bought a cheap (really cheap) eggcrate mattress topper, chopped it into sections, and duct-taped it around an old window a/c that didn't fit years ago. It worked pretty well.

Most of the fixes I can think of involve duct tape.

Measure it and have some Plexiglas installed, not expensive to do.

yup! egg-crate foam worked poifectlee!

Buy a two dollar and ninety nine cent Styrofoam ice cooler.
Buy a small box of Mortite. (very cheap)
Duct tape, small roll.



Determine how much each side of the extensions can be drawn out.
Measure those distances.
Using a sharp knife, carefully cut as many panels of Styrofoam as you can out of the cooler and its top to match the measurements of the panels.

(What you are looking to make are nice, thick pieces of insulation.
I can usually get one from each of the narrow sides, two or more from wider sides and bottom and a couple more from the top.)

Duct tape as many panels as you can onto the extensions, inside and out.
The thicker the add-on panels the better the insulation.
(and remember you are going to have to get the damned thing back in the window, so leave yourself a little wiggle room.)
Put the air conditioner back in the window.
Use strips of the Mortite to fill in the cracks between the extension panels and the sides of the window. It's clay on a string. Just press it into the gaps. Use more to seal between the bottom of the window and the top of the A/C.

(Hopefully you put a nice fat piece of foam under the A/C before you put it back in the window.
And another in the area between the two window frames.)

If it's too difficult to insulate both the inside and the outside of the extensions, just do the insides after the A/C is in the window and you've sealed up all the cracks and leaks.

Joe(Send me Fifty bucks --half of what you will save on your a/c bill this summer.)Nation

Plexi is pretty but is doesn't insulate.

Joe(I like the egg-crate foam stuff, ebeth, good one)Nation

cardboard + duct tape...

brilliant

Yeah...you're right. I forgot..in additon, I used that rope-putty stuff to seal off completely the gaps. Loved it long time!

When I moved out and removed the a/c unit, I found Jimmy Hoffa's remains in the space.

spray foam in a can works well for sealing those gaps.

(but don't get it on anything you care about...)

My window A/C had some Styrofoam packing that easily worked with duct tape in my window. The window was smaller than yours. Sometimes a tube of clear caulking can seal a wayward crack that you missed with the tape.

That was my solution, and it worked well.

Bingo! Insulating foam does the trick

Hello Friends,

Not every air conditioner fits every type of window. Determine whether your window is a slider, a double-hung, or a casement style. Most units work only in double-hung windows with a lower sash you can raise and lower. Also, measure the width and the height of the window opening to confirm whether an air conditioner will fit.


Thanks and Regards,
Steve Holmes

So I actually had the same issue. My swamp cooler sits anchored onto one of my side windows, not the roof like many. I bought three small bags of insulation. Two for the sides where air was flowing through and one for the interior of the unit. I used the black foam insulator strips to shove into the space between the frame and the window and then I covered the entire window unit with the plastic sheet insulator to prevent airflow. I guess that's what you get when you buy a house built in 1937. Saved a ton on energy costs.

Air-conditioners work harder as outside temperatures climb because the air-conditioning cycle requires the outside temps to be lower than the heat being released from the unit.

You resurrected a 6 year old thread with an answer that has nothing to do with the question I actually asked.