It's hot.

And will only get hotter.

My whole house fan fried. Not sure where, just know that
it don't work no more, and I'm too dumb (and lazy) to do
anything about it. And that only helps when the outside air
is 80s or so. When you hit 90+, it becomes hot wind.

My 43 year old whole house AC is years past its prime.
It costs a mint to run, and the insulation on my house
(old single pane aluminum frame windows) is horrible, so
on the really hot days, it can get the downstairs to 80,
but the upstairs is still very hot. Running 100% of the
time.

Ok, time for window air conditioners. I have a decent
sized master bedroom, 1 large kid room (almost as large
as my bedroom), 1 small kid room, and 1 small upstairs
office.

How many BTUS do I need? Well, according to the charts
(ads, etc), 6K BTU does 215 sq feet (or 250, depends on
which brand / model / lying sales scum), and my bedroom
is in the 300 range, so I might as well get an 8K model.

Which one? Best (worst) Buy has a lovely bait and switch
where you go to the store and only see 2 models (rather
than a bunch on the web), and the ones in the store have
the in-store lying price ($40 more than on web).

[link|http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?_dyncharset=ISO-8859-1&id=pcat17071&type=page&ks=960&st=air+conditioner&sc=Global&cp=1&sp=&qp=crootcategoryid%23%23-1%23%23-1%7E%7Eq61697220636f6e646974696f6e6572%7E%7Eccat05000%23%231%23%23q%7E%7Ecpcmcat13300050005%23%231%23%23q%7E%7Encpcmcat72000050015%23%234%23%23q&list=n&usc=All+Categories&nrp=15&iht=n|http://www.bestbuy.c...ries&nrp=15&iht=n]


Lowe's has a nice range of Frigidaires and 1 low end Samsung in
the store, as opposed to this web selection:

[link|http://www.lowes.com/lowes/lkn?action=productList&Ntt=air%20conditioners&Ntk=i_products&category=Window%20Air%20Conditioners&N=0+5001885|http://www.lowes.com...oners&N=0+5001885]

So I go to Lowe's, get a Frigidair 8K for $160:

[link|http://www.lowes.com/lowes/lkn?action=productDetail&productId=205394-48789-FAA087P7A&lpage=none|http://www.lowes.com...087P7A&lpage=none]

along with a $30 mounting kit and an $11 AC power cord (just in case).

I take it home, and unpack. You are supposed to screw in a bracket on
the top that goes across the entire unit. That then screws into the window.

Except the 2 center screws are definately not long enough. Off to the
hardware store, get 6 longer ones (always get extras).

Come back home, continue installing the mount. This requires starter
holes drilled into the window frame.

Damn. Drill? Where'd I put that drill? 30 minutes of searching later,
I found a box of wood countersink bits (worthless here), a drill, a very
large bit (way too big) and a small bit - just right.

The small bit broke immediately.

At 5 of 5 on a Sunday night. And I'm due at the step-mother's for a
family dinner a 6.

Damn.

Grab my keys, rush to the hardware store, sweating bullets, no shirt,
wet on a leather car seat, hit the store door at 5 seconds of 5. They
lock it after me, and turn off 1/2 the lights.

Find the small bit I need. Get 2, just in case.

Come home, continue installing, the clock is ticking, I have
to leave.

Get to the 2nd set of screws. They are bigger. Need a bigger bit.

ARRGG!!

Take the too large bit, and tap it in enough to eat some metal, but
not enough to push though.

I clamp the screw driver with vice grips, and lean into it to turn
it. Ahh, I love vice grips. As BT used to say, they can do everything,
and they are always the wrong tool for the job.

Pop the AC in, put the single screw in at top to anchor it (scary,
I'm gonna add a lot more to secure it down), and turn it on.

HOLY SHIT! This is LOUD. Play with the controls, find that it
was on low, and it only gets louder.

Slap in some temporary weather stripping, let it cool off the room,
change, go out to dinner.

I wake up at 3AM to the sound of the AC roaring. Actually, that was
just the fan, the compressor was not on. So it was loud and hot.

Turn the temp down, go downstairs, web surf for a while, come back
up, and turn it off. Room is cool, go to sleep.

Wake up.

Now what?

Ok, get a 6K for the large kid room. If that is good enough (cool wise,
noise wise), get another for my room, and put the 8K somewhere else.

Also, I was wondering the differing cost to run of the varios BTUs
and efficiency levels. They claim a 6K 10.7 EER unit will cost
about $36 per year to run at $0.086 per kWh.

[link|http://images.lowes.com/product/012505/012505271366.pdf|http://images.lowes..../012505271366.pdf]

My electricity is about $0.100 per kWh right now, so based on their
run rate it'll cost $42 per year. But what region do they base that
out of? Obviously, someone in the mid-atlantic states is going to
use less than the south, and more than in the north-east.

If you want to be stupid about it, you can save $24 and get a less
efficient one.

[link|http://images.lowes.com/product/012505/012505271724.pdf|http://images.lowes..../012505271724.pdf]

Based on their run time estimate difference, it seems I'd' save $5
per year, which means 5 years of usage to make it back. So if you
wanna be picky and add in cost of money, etc, it'll probably be 7 years.
Assuming no energy price increase (hah!).

Go back to Lowe's, get this:

[link|http://www.lowes.com/lowes/lkn?action=productDetail&productId=205391-48789-FAA067P7A&lpage=none|http://www.lowes.com...067P7A&lpage=none]

Get another mounting kit, some foam insulation (ended up not used), some
incredibly thick clear insulation tape (great stuff), and a couple of
bigger drill bits. Also some very large circular eye hooks. I figure
I'll anchor in some wire to stabilize the unit.

Installation went much quicker this time.

The 6K AC is almost quiet (certainly fine for sleeping) and works well.

I'll get another next week and swap out my bedroom.

Based on the electric savings, they should pay for themselves
in 1 to 2 months (depending on usage).