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Window air conditioner MM?
We have central air that keeps the first floor of our house nice and cool and can be made to cool the master bedroom if we shut all the vents on the first floor. But it does an awful job of cooling DS's bedroom, which is almost always hot and stuffy when it gets into the 80s outside, like it is now. I think it's because of the way the vent is placed on the floor and the fact that his room is on the opposite side of the house as the basement air conditioner unit. We also have no attic, so the air gets trapped up there.
DS's room is long and narrow. I currently have two fans set up in DS's room, a box fan placed in front of the air vent facing towards his crib to try to direct the cool air that does come out towards him, and window fan in the far end that I alternate between "out" during the day (to suck all the hot air out, especially when he's not napping) and "in" at night to try to draw the cool air in from outside. These seem to have a modest effect. I still have to try to force air up there by closing downstairs vents and running the air longer during the day to cool it for his nap.
I'm considering a window air conditioner unit for DS's room, but I'm not sure if it's MM, since we already have central air and will still need to run it to cool the downstairs and the master, albeit not as intensely during the day. Which is more economical, my current set-up or paying, what, $500? for a window unit and the ectra electricity minus the extra forced air during the day? Or is there a better way to cool an upstairs with just fans?
What would MM do?
Re: Window air conditioner MM?
I'm assuming your house is 2 stories. If so, try putting a fan at the bottom of the steps, and another one at the top to pull the cool air into the upstairs. This works even better if you have 2 staircases and can situate fans to circulate the air up and around.
If that doesn't work, then it honestly doesn't cost much more to put a window AC unit into his bedroom. Just be sure to set it on a low setting.
Our house is very similar, and we struggle with this too. We can usually get away with the fans until it gets 90+ outside for a few days. Then we have to install the window AC. It costs us an extra $30/month when we put the AC in. Which is worth it to us since it's only there for a couple of months.
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Honestly, with the AC on, I would never have any window open. If you are worried that there is too much hot air in there, point one fan out the door to create air flow. IMO, you're making it hotter with the window open, and completely sabotaging the little bit the AC can do.
That being said, I don't think a window unit would be too expensive, esp because I don't think you'd want it to get super cold in the baby's room. You could keep it on a relatively high temp, and with the fan drawing the central air, it should stay cool enough for the baby.
I second the suggestion of finding a small BTU unit on craigslist. I just got two air conditioners off of Craigslist for less than $200. We have a 10,000 BTU unit that cools the entire first floor and an 8,000 BTU unit that moderately cools our entire upstairs (the upstairs is a lot more segmented, so it's harder for the air to flow through all the rooms). Our house is 1800 sq. ft. to give you an idea.
A 3,000-5,000 BTU unit shouldn't cost you that much per month, and you can even find some that have dehumidifiers in them (which might help the room feel better). A small unit will sufficiently cool 1 room without a problem.
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I was told by an HVAC guy that with older Central Air units, you will need a window A/C to properly cool a second floor because most older units aren't large enough to cool a mutiple floor home. I'm sure it's not any more expensive to run a window unit when compared to two fans. Plus if you're not home during the day, you can just turn it on when you get home. A window unit will actually cool down a room fairly quickly.