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Some Like It Cool

Maintenance of your air conditioner is simple but important—if neglected, it will cost you comfort. Here, also, are tips to increase cooling efficiency
 
An air conditioner is an overgrown  refrigerator, designed to cool a big box containing people instead of a small box containing food. Except for size, the mechanisms are pretty much identical, and both have achieved an extraordinarily high degree of reliability. Because an air conditioner is used only a few months out of the year, and then only intermittently rather than steadily, it can be expected to last a long time. It needs only minor maintenance attention.

About the only thing an owner of a conditioner can do for it is inspect the air filter frequently during the cooling season, clean it if it is of the renewable type, or replace it if it is of the disposable type. Practically all conditioners contain a filter of some kind to remove dust and dirt from the air before the machine cools and dehumidifies it and then pushes it into the room. As it gradually becomes blocked with the dust it entraps, the filter reduces the cooling ability of the machine, After a month or so of hot weather, during which the conditioner has been pumping away at a good rate, you're likely to find yourself saying, "Funny, the room doesn't seem to be as comfortable as it was." In central air-conditioning installations, which have the job of moving the air in an entire house, a filter can sometimes become blocked almost solid after a few weeks.

Stagnant pockets of air can be prevented by directing a stream of air ceilingward with an oscillating fan.   This   device  will  help   circulate   cooler   air.
 
Here the ventilating louver on the underside of the roof overhang is covered with screening to keep out insects. Air flowing through here ventilates attic.

An attic fan keeps a constant flow of air moving; this acts as an invisible blanket of moving insulation in cooling downstairs. Note that it's belt-driven.
 
This is the most important operation in air-conditioner maintenance—keeping the air filter clean. The filter shown comes from a central-type unit.
It takes only a few minutes to remove, clean and replace a filter. Some filters of the so-called lifetime type are washed under running water. Because the entrapped dirt is usually fluffy, a vacuum cleaner does a quick job on most other varieties. Frequent vacuuming keeps filters of the glass-wool type at top operating effectiveness and eliminates the need for replacement altogether. First take off all the surface dirt. Then slap the filter flat against the floor several times, and vacuum up the dust that shakes out.

With the vacuum cleaner set up, poke its nozzle carefully into the body of the conditioner, wherever you can reach easily without jogging anything. Of course, the control switch should be "off," or, better, the line plug should be pulled out of its receptacle. This internal cleaning is especially important in the early summer, after the machine has been idle for some months. At the same time, inspect the outside end of the machine, and don't be surprised if you find a family of sparrows well bedded down under it. The space between the window sill and the overhanging cabinet of the cooler is evidently ideal for nesting purposes, being sheltered from rain and snow and of just the right size for small birds.

Most of the "trouble" reported by purchasers of room conditioners is not really in the machines themselves, but is due to the inability of the power wiring and/or the fuses to handle the starting load, the running load, or a combination of these loads and other loads on the same line. (See chapter entitled Is Your Wiring Adequate?) If slow-blow fuses or delayed action circuit breakers don't help, the purchaser is just out of luck, unless he has a firm understanding with the dealer covering  just  such   a  situation.   Some  short-sighted dealers will sell a customer any size machine he asks for, with the attitude that it's the customer's responsibility to know the capabilities of the power circuits in his house or apartment. Other dealers, interested in staying in business in their communities, practically make the customer prove his power lines are suitable before they'll take his money. This is a smart policy, because it protects both seller and buyer.

Improving Conditioner Performance

Because of the sealed construction universally used in refrigeration units, there is nothing you can do about changing the operating characteristics of a cooler. However, you can do a great deal to help it make the room comfortable and livable.

A conditioner draws air from the room over a series of cold pipes, which reduce its temperature and at the same time cause the moisture in it to condense out. The cooled and dried air is then pushed back into the room. A little fresh air from the outside is mixed with the room air to replenish the supply of oxygen. Without this mixing the recirculated air soon becomes stale, and occupants of the room start feeling woozy.

Even with the best of conditioners, however, the blowers are not always equal to the job of circulating all the air in a room. Warm air tends to rise, and cold air, being heavier, tends to sink toward the floor. If people in the room are smoking, inadequate circulation shows up quickly; the room takes on a bluish haze, and non-smokers who are allergic to nicotine display the initial signs of nausea.

The cure for this condition is so simple that it is overlooked by many sufferers. Set up a small electric fan as near the ceiling as possible, aim at the ceiling in the direction of the air conditioner, and run it at low speed. A fan doesn't cool, but it does move air. With a little experimenting as to position, you'll find that it does wonders in breaking up stagnant pockets of warm air near the ceiling and making the whole room feel cleaner.

In a living room or dining room, a good spot for the fan is the top of a breakfront, a book case, a china closet, etc. In a bedroom, a convenient location is the top of a high dresser.

If the fan is of the oscillating type, so much the better. In any case, keep the speed down, to prevent people from getting stiff necks. After all, the prime object of a fan is to achieve the maximum of comfort under any circumstances.

Occasional wiping and cleaning of refrigerating coil of central air conditioner is helpful in maintaining efficiency; this coil is typical of two-ton unit.

Keeping the Emerson Electric air conditioner in top working order is simple; the lifetime air filter slides out in an instant and can be cleaned in a minute.

Sun Protection Important

The effectiveness of an air conditioner in reducing air temperature depends to a large extent on that temperature at the start. No machine made by man can possibly overcome the full heating effect of the summer sun, but you can give a conditioner a fighting chance by keeping direct sunshine away from the room you want to "condition." As a minimum, draw the blinds or pull down the shades on exposed windows. Outside awnings that keep the sun from striking the window area are very desirable. A darkened room feels cooler than a bright one. A few electric lights generate less heat than a few shafts of sunshine, so the overall result is a gain in the direction of comfort.

It follows naturally that rooms facing north or east are easier to cool than those facing long hours of sunshine to the south or west.

In private houses, the most critical area is the roof, with the attic below it. If the house is in the open and is not completely shaded by large, leafy trees, the attic is a veritable oven after an afternoon of summer sunshine. Temperatures in it can reach incredible   values;   115   to   140   degrees!

Trying to "air condition" the rooms under these ovens was a waste of electricity. Oh, yes, the attic floors might have deep blankets of insulation in them. Insulation is no cure-all; it delays the penetration of heat from the attic downward but it doesn't prevent it. The insulation itself soaks up heat, the way stones do in a slow fire; then, hours after sunset, it is still giving off some of that heat. This explains why room temperature can be in the 80's at ten p.m. when the outside air has already dropped to the 70's.

Since it is next to impossible in most locations to keep all sunshine off a roof, the only alternative is to get rid of the hot air under the roof as quickly as it forms. A powerful attic fan does the trick. The bigger the better! The standard sizes for homes are 24, 30 and 36 inches, these figures representing the diameter of the blower blades. The overall dimensions of the complete unit are greater. The controlling factor in some houses is the size of the trap door or other means of access to the attic. One chap I know installed two 20-inch fans because he couldn't get anything larger through the opening in the ceiling of a closet.

If the attic fan is big enough and the house is of the right shape, it can replace air conditioning altogether! A friend of mine installed a 36-inch blower in the ceiling at the head of the upper landing of a conventional two-story house. When he turns this monster on, newspapers and playing cards on the dining room table start floating upward like the props in a magician's levitation act. His attic temperature on a July day dropped from 121 to 96 degrees fifteen minutes after the fan was put into action. I took the readings, so I know.

In my house the attic is accessible but shallow, and I had to settle for a single 20-inch fan. Although this is small compared with the more desirable 24- and 30-inch sizes, it brings the attic temperature down as much as 20 degrees. In the rooms below, the air temperature a foot below the ceiling used to be about 90; with the fan going, it falls to 82 or 83. Now the air conditioner works to the extent of keeping a party of eleven people comfortable throughout the house on a broiler of a day when the temperature is 93 and the humidity 76%.

When the air in the attic is pumped out through an opening in a side wall, other air must come in to replace it. The source of this air is important. If an individual air conditioner is used in only one room (the master bedroom, in most cases), that room should be kept closed, and air from the rest of the house is allowed to be sucked upward through a grille of some sort in a hallway ceiling or through an open trap door in a room other than the air-conditioned one. If the house has a basement, doors leading to it should be kept open, as cellar air is often noticeably cooler than that in upper rooms.

If there is a unit in a room that cannot be closed off, or if the house is centrally cooled, the attic fan must not be allowed to draw air from the living area, because the conditioner can't possibly cool it at the same rate at which it is expelled through the attic louvers. You have to study the construction of the house and determine if suitable air passages can be cut in the ceilings and floors of closets or through hallways. I know of a 50-year old house in which an ideal "duct" was provided by the shaft of a dumbwaiter that formerly connected the kitchen, in the basement, with the dining room and the bedrooms, upstairs.

If the roof of the house has overhanging eaves that are safely accessible by ladder, by all means cut openings in them about a foot square; two or three on each side, depending on the size of the house. This is a relatively easy job. Bore one-inch holes in the comers, and use a keyhole saw for the rest. Cover the openings with screening, stapled or tacked in place. In the winter cover over with pieces of plywood or hardboard, held with wood screws. These openings have a chimney effect in combination with the roof rafters, and afford very good ventilation in moderate weather even with the attic fan off. Being on the underside of the eaves, they have the further advantage that they do not readily admit rain or snow.

Houses with flat roofs present a special cooling problem. Forced air evacuation obviously is out. Some "breathing" space undoubtedly is provided between the insulation and the roof surface proper, but this  usually  is  not  adequate  when  the weather gets sticky. If the edges or eaves of this roof overhang the walls of the house and are accessible, a series of underside louvers may be a big help. These should be placed at opposite ends of the rafters, so that air can blow through.

"Flat" roofs are never really flat, but are pitched slightly to shed rain. In areas in which water is plentiful, an owner might install a perforated pipe along the high end of the roof, and let water trickle over the entire roof surface to the gutter at the low end. The cooling effect is considerable, and the temperature in the rooms beneath drops to the point where air conditioning becomes successful.

If water is not so cheap that it can be wasted this way, the next best bet is a number of good-sized trees, placed so that they shade the roof, either completely or at least partially. The transplanting of trees is an organized business. You can have a small forest set up around your house in only a day. The trees are trucked in, their roots neatly bundled in burlap. A crew of men dig out holes of just the right size and shape. They drop in the trees, burlap and all, shovel back the earth, and are gone as quickly as you pay the bill.

Central Air Conditioners

There is every indication that the next big "gimmick" in the sale of private houses will be central air conditioning. All other major electrical appliances and gadgets are so commonplace that people take them for granted: refrigerators, freezers, dish and clothes washers, ironers, garbage disposals, broilers, mixers, etc.

Many "better" houses already include full air conditioning. Even some very moderately priced ones have provision for later installation of a unit or for immediate installation as an "extra." Mechanically, the job is less complicated than it appears at first sight. The basic heating system is of the hot air type. (Whether the fuel is oil or gas is immaterial). A system of ducts circulates the warmed air under the push of a turbine-like blower. For central cooling, the same ducts and blower are used, except that now they carry air cooled by a refrigerator unit set directly next to the furnace. In some installations the changeover from heating to cooling, or the other way, is controlled on a completely automatic basis by the relative settings of the hot and cold thermostats in the living area.

If an air conditioner stops working altogether, and you're sure that all fuses, breakers or overload devices are intact and power on, you must call a serviceman. ·

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