Providing shade to your air conditioner may not pay off like you'd hope
Dana Burke/Houston Chronicle
As Texas swelters during this year's record heat, the noisy machine responsible for keeping your house comfortably cool bakes in a metal surround for months under the summer sun.It withstands outdoor temperatures that feel like 110 degrees while moving the warm air from indoors to outdoors with the help of refrigerant, according to Carrier, one of the major manufacturers. The machine cycles on and off continuously for most of the year in Texas.
Or it might not. Like the HVAC system, itself, expert opinions run hot and cold on the benefits of shade for an air-conditioner.two-year study completed in 1996 by the Florida Solar Energy Center . The results found that shading an A/C unit from direct sunlight offers only"miniscule" savings, with efficiency increasing by less than a half-percent.
But if you gain peace of mind by making your air conditioner the coolest on the block, it's unlikely to do any harm as long vegetation isn't collecting inside. Experts simply warn homeowners to provide enough air flow.
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