window a/c ducting help

[spiralsmurf]

does anyone have pics of a window air conditioner they successfully use outside a room with ducting?

My space is an upstairs room of a big open warehouse and i want to stick a 18,000 window a/c in the wall that opens to the big open warehouse. The warehouse has a huge vent fan at the top to remove heat so i was thinking to duct the hot air up near that vent so it doesn't heat up the whole space.

also any suggestions for controlling where the condensation drip goes?

here's the wall i want to install it on and i would use the black 2x4 railing to help mount it.

 

[hazeywonder]

Well in that space a split unit might be the best fit. You could put the larger condenser half on the roof. And just have to run the 2 lines through it. But if you wanted to use the window unit I would build a open bottom box for the back allowing air to rush past the back and out the top. While still letting the water drip from the bottom into a bucket. After you turn it on the water normal pools and drips from one spot.

 

[spiralsmurf]

yeah i was looking at a split, but that will cost at least 3x what the window unit will, not to mention i probably need to bring out an A/C guy to hookup the refrigerant lines and i still need to run the drain line somewhere, but thats not the biggest problem. there's an 18k split unit on eBay from a reputable company for $1050 with precharged lines, but i dont know if that means i can install it myself. It is quite a bit more efficient at 13.8 eer than the 10.7 eer window unit, but thats a diff of only 300w and $700 so right now the window ac is really winning...at least i pull a crop from the space then i can upgrade to a split.

 

[MTF-Sandman]

You can install a precharged mini-split fairly easily...it only requires a couple small holes to be cut in the wall.

If you wanna go with the window unit, basically all you need to do is seal off the back side of the unit and put a fan sucking the air out of it. Leave the side vents open to draw in fresh cool air that'll pass over the coils.

 

[spiralsmurf]

here's the split i was looking at:

split

and this window unit:

window

the window unit has the autorestart feature which is a plus. do you know if split units will auto-restart?

 

[hazeywonder]

Thats a nice split unit with the pre-charged you should be able to swing it yourself. Just don't forget the Henry roof sealer when you drill through the structure. last thing you need is a rain leak.. If you have the coin go with the split. In your case it is perfect cause you can mount it up out of the way from anything or anyone, and in general they are more efficient and better use of your electricity.

 

[Guest]

dude i got a fujitsu unit 24,000 btu for less than that.
if you go with the window unit, listen to mtf, you need to make sure you can get fresh air on the back of that a/c or it will die on you fast

 

[spiralsmurf]

where did you find a 24000 btu fujitsu split for less than $1050?

I'm really inclined to spend the $350 on the whirlpool unit and another maybe $100 getting the ventilation for the back all setup.

I will just have some local a/c shop make a piece that fits over the back and connects to a duct. given its going to take more work to install a split, the window unit is really winning out right now unless you can point me to where you got your split thorodee.

 

[Guest]

it fell off the back of a truck, i got it at cost.
try a local hvac suplly company, you could get a better price at one.