Would having an air convditioner built into the wall of one of the bedrooms in my house reduce the value of my
Question:house? our house is three bedrooms. i have an issue with a smallest bedroom, which is upstairs in our house.
there is only one window in the room ,and if i was to put an air conditioner in the window, it would block the only window as well as blow directly over the crib where my baby son sleeps (obviously that would be a big no-no)
we cannot have central air installed in the house due to a lack of closets on the first floor.
our house has very nice greyish- mud colored vinyl siding with a simulated wood-grain. one of the main selling points on the house is that it has an enormous amount of curb appeal (very charming 1920's colonial with exposed porch and very unique architecture)
the air conditioner that would punch through that would be on the side of the house (driveway side).
all of the other air conditioners in our house are window units.
would i be doing a great disservice to the value and curb appeal of the house by doing this?
Answers:
Look into the units installed in motels and hotels. There are units available that do not protrude far beyond the side of the house and that also solve the condensate problem that I don't believe you have anticipated.
One of the reasons why your upstairs bedrooms need cooling is because heat rises. A possible option to the air conditioner might be an attic fan. Or perhaps two. They come in two types, one vents out the hot air in your attic from vents in the eves, that should already be there by a temperature sensitive switch which turns the fan on when it gets hot enough. This helps a lot because heat travels in many ways and one of those is by radiation. This means your attic, which can easily reach temperatures of 150 F. in summer, radiates this heat in all directions, and if your attic is insulated, most of this heat goes back into the house. So by doing this you can reduce the amount of heat in your house considerably, lessening the load on the existing air conditioners, and maybe removing the need for one in this room at all. The down side is that in winter it is wise to turn this fan off, close the opening (usually louvered, but seal it) and insulate the area for the cold season. A twenty minute job, once you've done it once, and a definate bonus to your house value, especially once you show the drop in electric consumption because of it.
The second type of attic fan is one which forces the air in the house out through the attic. This air has to come from some where, so you need to shut down all the air conditioners when you use it and draw air from the cool side of the house, if you have one. If you are drawing in air warmer than that in the house, you shouldn't use it until the air outside is cooler than that inside. So many people who have this type of fan use it only at night. The other type automatically works appropriately, so I recomend it much more often, it should reduce the heat in your upper floor considerably, and could quite possibly remove the necessity of having AC in your baby's room at all, and will at least lessen your bills for AC reguardless.
As far as installing a through the wall AC, if possible go back to the same siding company you had do the house, and have them box in the unit, if they do a good job, this shouldn't effect your value negatively at all.
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