Frigidaire room air condtitoner

[eleny]

We got this air conditioner. It's 8000 btu and is a workhorse. It's pushing air from the front wall of the house in the dining room into the kitchen at the back. And it's not heavy like the old 10k btu one that it replaced.

It's the Frigidaire Model: FAA085P7A and is Energy Star rated. Consumer Reports rates it as the CR Best Buy in class for last year's model (August 2005). Looks exactly the same this year but with a bit of a different number.

Too bad that Lowe's stopped carrying Frigidaire room ac's. We had to get it at Best Buy.

[NMDemDist2]

1. thanks for the tip, we may need one in NM

remains to be seen what house we'll end up in, but two of them list that they are taking the room AC with them :(

[eleny]

3. We were ready to get central air

But our house has cinderblock exterior and interior walls. We're on a slab with no crawl space. I called Sears just to get an idea. The guy I spoke with talked us out of trying. He detailed out all the headaches involved in our application and suggested we just go with a few window ac units. It's worked out well. All we really needed to do over time was to separate out some wiring which we did when we remodeled.

Btw, this ac also has a trip button on the plug. Maybe they all do now. We got 3 ac's several years ago and none had them then. A nice safety feature.

[Dora]

4. Can you run a swamp/evap cooler where you're moving to?

I would think that NM is dry enough that swamp cooling would be effective. Is it an option for you?

[NMDemDist2]

5. yes, until monsoon hits. we get 70-80% of our precipitation in the summer

so when the t-storms come through the swamp coolers don't do so well. when I lived in central California we only had swamp coolers and they did great! here in PHX we can do swamp coolers for all but July and August (monsoon season hits here too)

[Dora]

6. I always liked the swamp cooler better than AC.

I grew up in Tempe, so I know what you're talking about when you mention the monsoons. (Though the monsoons sure aren't what they used to be.)

My mother says I'm crazy to enjoy the humidity here, but at least I don't feel like a walking piece of pemmican anymore.

I hope you can sell your home quickly and find a home in NM that you LOVE.

[eleny]

7. "walking piece of pemmican"

Isn't that the truth. I get really dry here in Colorado even though it's gotten more humid over the years. We were in Florida January and February. My skin relaxed and even my heels were soft. Oh joy! But it didn't take long to go alligator on me after we got back. I could feel myself drying up driving through east Texas on the way back.

[Stinky The Clown]

2. We bought two similar to that last year, and one the year before

For the rowhouses we own. The older rowhouse we have in downtown Baltimore is about 1100 SF and the two units, each in windows at the rear (north side) of the house keep the entire floor cool. They're both 10MBTU units and have energy star labels.

For our other rowhouse, which is about 1500 SF, we have two 15MBTU units in east facing windows. My son runs the upstairs unit all the time, but has the lower level unit set to a higher temp and it seems to run only at the hottest part of the day.

You're right. Its amazing how efficient (and quiet) they are.