Quote:
Originally Posted by JGibson
This contradicts itself. On one hand, it's saying shade wouldn’t produce any savings and on the other hand, it's saying to put it on the north side in the SHADE. HUH?
Moving it to the north side is not logistically possible, it’s a courtyard villa.
The house's plastic fence shades it from the east but the condenser is in between the two villas so as the sun moves west there is about a 3-hour time frame when it’s baking in the sun of course this is the hottest part of the day so 3 hours may not sound like much but it makes a difference.
I had no intention of putting some sun barrier too close to the unit as I realize it needs airflow for heat transfer.
On my unit, the fan is on top so that is where most of the heat transfer is taking place.
It's not only about monthly cost savings but trying to preserve the unit and not work harder than it needs to be.
I guess after paying $5000 for a new unit last year unexpectedly I’m being a little conservative.
Thanks for the idea Village Tinker.
|
Yes, the fan blows air out of the top of the unit, but the heat transfer process takes place in the coil and it depends on the fan creating a negative pressure and allowing an unrestricted flow of air across the coil which surrounds the perimeter of the unit. Any disruption of that air flow will reduce the efficiency of the condenser unit. An even distribution of air across the entire coil is way more important than shading the unit.