How Do I, If At All, Rig Up A Window Air Conditioner To Work In An Attic?
Recently thought I was a genius and installed a 15000 BTU 15amp 115 volt window air conditioner in my new 2nd story additon with the rear of the unit hanging into the attic. All is well and good with the unit when the air temp is moderately high, but these past few days with the temp in the attic peaking around 130 degrees, have been causing the unit to trip the 15 amp circuit breaker. I have an attic ventilation fan that I could use (via duct work) to blow outside air directly on the back of the AC unit, or to suck air directly from the back of the unit. I could also increase the ampreage of the circuit breaker, but am not sure if 14 gauge wire can handle anything above 15amps. Another option would be to run a thicker gauge wire to accomodate a larger circuit breaker, but I feel that is not adressing the real problem of the cool air ventilation to the AC unit. Anyone have any suggestions?
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It sounds to me like your on the right track and all you need to do is exhaust the hot air coming off of the back of the a/c unit out of there it is trying to cool the area but also pumping hot air back into the same area off of the back of the a/c unit if you could hook your attic vent fan up to the back of the a/c unit via duct work of some kind like you said and have it exhaust this hot air outside you will have solved your own problem.
get a portable air condition, they typicly need only a small hole to the outside or the vent can be insalled in a window, they are relativly much neater than a window unit hanging out of the house. This is just one I found with a casuel search, there are lots more
You are right, the real culprit is the attic temps, you absolutely NEED good ventilation to your attic even if you are not using the AC, even in winter. The ventilation keeps the insualtion dry and is more efficient.
There needs to be soffit vents to allow air in and ridge or gable end vents to allow the hot air out.
If there is adequate ventilation you should not need a powered attic vent but in some cases the heat is so high that fan powered attic vent with a thermostat switch is necessary.