We built our house in eastern Kommiecticut in 2005 and opted to delete the proposed central air conditioning, since this is New England and not Arizona, Texas, or Florida. At most there is a period of 3 1/2 months where it is needed at times, not 8 months where it is mostly needed. Since our house has all Andersen double hung windows, yearly installation of window mount air conditioners is a breeze. I normally pull them out in late September/early October.
So Saturday morning with summer heat and humidity finally on the way, I spent about an hour and a half to put four units in place. It goes pretty quick because the hard part of initial installation is already done, these are re-installs. I have a fifth, but since the job I had that allowed me to work from home vaporized in 2016, I don't put it in our home office any more. It is just a spare.
My wife was going to be grooming dogs over the weekend, so I started with the basement. Being a walkout, there is a double hung window by the door. In a house with a basement an air conditioner keeps it cool and dry, which helps keep the rest of the house that way. This one is an older Frigidaire 8,000 BTU model that I got from my cousin for nothing. On the lowest setting it keeps the whole basement comfortable and dry. I originally used it for the first floor before upgrading. I store it under the basement stairs so it is handy, unlike the other units that I store in the garage attic. Because it is at ground level, for security purposes, the lower sash that holds the A/C unit in place has 2 L-shaped brackets screwed in place to prevent removal. If a criminal decides to just destroy the entire window and make entry, the monitored alarm system will go off.
Next up was the first floor. That one is a newer LG 10,000 BTU that I had to carry down from the garage attic. I store them in the boxes so while there is some heft to it, I can manage it just fine. We have an open floor plan on the first floor, so the single 10,000 BTU in the family room window combined with a ceiling fan keeps the whole downstairs cool, even on low. Because of the walkout basement, no security measures are required, but the slope doesn't put this one at full second floor level, so the L-brackets are also used to keep the sash locked down.
All of the bedrooms are on the second floor, and for those I have a pair of small Frigidaire 5,000 BTU units. Both are also stored in the garage attic needing to be carried down, and then back up to the second floor. One of the bedrooms is the office I described earlier. I put one in the master bedroom (I don't care if that is now a verbotten term, I will use it) and one in the guest room currently occupied by my Father-In-Law. Leaving both units on low, with the ceiling fans also turning on low, keeps the entire upstairs comfortable.
They only run as described when it is hot and sticky out, and when my FIL isn't staying at the house (he occasionally spends a few days with my wife's brother's family), the upstairs ones are off during the day. While running them certainly shows up on the electric bill, it is not all that much. Once the humidity breaks, we'll go back to having the windows open. My wife will only run the one in the basement if she is actively grooming dogs. In the wooded hills where we live, it can be almost 15 degrees cooler than in the Greater Hartford area. You can actually see the temperature drop on the vehicle outside thermometer as you head east to where we live.
