Shade for Air conditioner?

Hi!

Our central air conditioning condensing unit is on the south side of our house and thus is subject to quite hot direct sunlight during the summer days. We have a six foot high fence about four feet away from the unit.

My question: Should I provide some shade for the unit? Does the unit have to work extra hard because of it's location? I was thinking about installing a simple roller blind about 6' above the unit on the fence and pull it out when necessary. I know that air flow is important to the unit, is 6' high enough to not impede air flow yet give the unit some shade?



Is this a crazy idea? Just a thought.

 

I don't think that will make a whits worth of difference. How well it works is based on air temps, and the air temp is probably the same. Even if it made a slight diff at startup, after a few seconds of running, I'm sure the operating temps would equalize. And it prob wouldn't equal the cost of the blind and attaching hardware.

 

I just found this post on this forum (http://forum.doityourself.com/showth...ghlight=shade), Grady states:

"In a word, yes. Now an explanaiton: It's not just the compressor but the whole condensing unit. Shade = lower air temps into the unit = lower head pressure = lower amps = less electricity used."

comments?

 

This is an interesting question. I did the same thing a few years ago, planted a big tree to block the sun, but I did not see that much difference, even theoretically that should help. There may be other theory, but I tend to side with Gungay45. My suggest is put some temporary block there to make sure you got what you want, don't do what I did, spent a lot money to put a big tree there without test.

 

I wouldn't think to argue with Grady. I should have included "IMO". And "not an A/C guy".

That said, I still think ambient air temp is the most important thing. Drybulb temps, if my heat stress training memories are correct after all these years, lol.

Heres my way of thinking, and I may be way off-base...I think that happened once or twice before... .

Now, if the area around the unit is all dark concrete or dark rock, then, ok, I can believe that the ambient air temps there may be higher on a completely windless day.

Here in AZ, I have reflective white rock and concrete around most of my home. I can absolutely feel the diff when I walk out from the shaded area in back into the rock areas. But (and I checked this pretty thoroughly when we move here) on days with any wind (most of them..), the actual air temp is the same in both locations. I feel warmer in the rocky parts, but thats the radiant heat. Don't know whether that would affect the outside A/C unit the same, as the compressor and
most of the componants are shaded by the exterior case. Even the coils sometimes are double layers (? if thats the term), so only the outer fins are exposed to the sunlight.

I guess the only way to know for sure would be to rig a temporary shade of some sort and measure coil and lineset temps under the exact same outside and inside conditions.