Question:
I just moved into a 20-year old 2-story house with basement. It has a
single air conditioning unit cooling the whole house and I am often
uncomfortable on the 2nd floor of the house. I am looking for the
most cost-efficient way to cool the 2nd floor of the house, or
alternately one or two of the rooms. There are basically two rooms on
the second floor - the master bedroom and the adjacent bedroom that is
used as an office.
I am considering the following options:
Convert entire system to dual-zone system
Window unit in master bathroom (don't want to put window units in
windows in master and office since they're on front of house)
Wall unit in master bedroom
Portable air conditioner
Right now I'm leaning towards the portable air conditioner, which
looks like it will cost $800 or so. The dual-zone looks too
expensive, and the wall/window unit options will not cool the office.
I have already fiddled with all the vents in the house and the a/c
unit doesn't have a damper to adjust so I'm trying to figure out the
best option. I plan on selling the house in about 5 years.
Answer:
There may be another option. If you are thinking of mounting a window
unit in the wall, consider a small "split unit" which has the
compressor and coil on the roof and freon lines leading to the
evaporator inside, which looks similar to the front of a standard
window unit. IIRC, it'll cost about the same as the portable, but
require professional installation. These units are fairly common in
commercial situations but many homeowners don't know about them.
You would need a condensate drain for such a unit.
Place a big fan in a window on the sunrise facing side
of your home. This will draw in cool air most of the day.
If you're going to be in the room with the fan and feel
really desperate put ice in front of the fan. 2 liter
soda bottles of ice work great and those soda bottles
can usually be re-frozen dozens of times.
