Air Conditioning!

[88CRX]

Our a/c is working wonderfully and after we cool the house to 22-23c (which really doesn't take long at all) we usually just open the windows for free cooling once the sun goes down.... but isn't the point of a/c so we dont have to play the window game.

You a/c guys, are you still leaving windows open all night for free cooling?

[Mitsu3000gt]

Just from talking to the tint shop, and also in my case, cost savings doesn't seem to be the primary motivator for tint. I could run my A/C all day (it's strong enough to hit the 9' ceiling in the bedroom from the floor vents) and it isn't going to cool our bedroom down to a comfortable sleeping temperature with how much heat is coming off that window. The wife and I both like to sleep cool and she works shift work so when she's going to bed at 8pm or whatever in the summer and it's 27C in the bedroom, it sucks. If I can even get a ~5C reduction in summer temps that would make a big difference and I would happily pay a lot more than what the tint costs to sleep more comfortably. I was hoping A/C and a ceiling fan would do the trick but it made very little difference in that room. I'm not at all worried about heating it in the winter, it's going to be plenty warm even just from heat rising from the main level.

The A/C does it's job in every other room of the house though and that is easily one of the best home improvement investments I have ever made - it's just that one room that bakes in the evening sun that is the issue.

[killramos]

I don’t think I have ever get opened the windows in my house one time

[sabad66]

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Our a/c is working wonderfully and after we cool the house to 22-23c (which really doesn't take long at all) we usually just open the windows for free cooling once the sun goes down.... but isn't the point of a/c so we dont have to play the window game.

You a/c guys, are you still leaving windows open all night for free cooling?

Nope, never open the bedroom windows in the summer even at night. Noise and allergens for one, but also the a/c does it’s job nicely and don’t want that nice cool air to escape.

[suntan]

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Our a/c is working wonderfully and after we cool the house to 22-23c (which really doesn't take long at all) we usually just open the windows for free cooling once the sun goes down.... but isn't the point of a/c so we dont have to play the window game.

You a/c guys, are you still leaving windows open all night for free cooling?

I've welded my windows shut.

[killramos]

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I've welded my windows shut.

I literally siliconed a bunch shut this winter.

[ExtraSlow]

Window game, nah brah, homie don't play that.

On a serious level, we run 19.5C overnight, so the AC is running till midnight or later on warm evenings. And even in spring and fall, my house doesn't cool well with convection unless it's below freezing outside. At 10C, it will still be 23C at 10PM in my house even with every window open. That sounds like an exaggeration, but it's not, stupid duplex.

[88CRX]

Fuck it, I'm going 19.5c tonight and telling the wife no windows #yolo

[killramos]

Just make sure you start early

[88CRX]

The fuck, its not even warm out. What an idiot! I'll be back next week when its warm again. K, thanks, bye.

[Lex350]

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Just from talking to the tint shop, and also in my case, cost savings doesn't seem to be the primary motivator for tint. I could run my A/C all day (it's strong enough to hit the 9' ceiling in the bedroom from the floor vents) and it isn't going to cool our bedroom down to a comfortable sleeping temperature with how much heat is coming off that window. The wife and I both like to sleep cool and she works shift work so when she's going to bed at 8pm or whatever in the summer and it's 27C in the bedroom, it sucks. If I can even get a ~5C reduction in summer temps that would make a big difference and I would happily pay a lot more than what the tint costs to sleep more comfortably. I was hoping A/C and a ceiling fan would do the trick but it made very little difference in that room. I'm not at all worried about heating it in the winter, it's going to be plenty warm even just from heat rising from the main level.

The A/C does it's job in every other room of the house though and that is easily one of the best home improvement investments I have ever made - it's just that one room that bakes in the evening sun that is the issue.

What I did was get some high quality roller blinds with the blackout channels. The roller shades absorb a lot of the heat and no sunlight gets in the room when they are fully closed. No, I barely have to run my AC before bed to get it nice and cool.

[ThePenIsMightier]

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Heating 1 degree is cheaper than cooling 1 degree. But yeah, a thousand bucks of tint doesn't seem like it'd ever pay out.

I'll pick a window and do the Pepsi Taste Challenge. Measure temp before, put 300 cents of tint on la interior and measure again.
Then I'll correlate some horse shit, statistical R-value with the R-value of the insulation and arbitrarily declare that only one child can be in that room without a double-sided mask.
#Science

[killramos]

Solution is just have fewer windows

[pheoxs]

I'm in the market for a small portable one for my bedroom if anyone sees any deals. ~200 sq foot room. Fairly big window that slides to the side open. Seems there's some 1-2 year old ones on kijiji/fb market that seem in good shape, would those still last a few years? Not sure the life expectancy of these things.

[Tik-Tok]

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, would those still last a few years? Not sure the life expectancy of these things.

Can't speak for the floor ones, but I've got a window unit that's 20 years old, still works fine.

[jwslam]

https://applianceanalysts.com/portab...oner-lifespan/

A portable air conditioner lasts about 10 years. If you treat it well, you can get another 5 years or so of service life. You can double the lifetime of the unit by using it infrequently or by making sure it has a low cooling load.

[Mitsu3000gt]

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What I did was get some high quality roller blinds with the blackout channels. The roller shades absorb a lot of the heat and no sunlight gets in the room when they are fully closed. No, I barely have to run my AC before bed to get it nice and cool.

That may have been a reasonable solution as well, and we do already have interior honeycomb blackout blinds on that window, but I don't think those do much insulating. I have seen those crazy shutter setups on the exterior of the window that are truly 100% blackout, and those might do a similar job to the tint. I guess if the tint doesn't do the job that's what we'll be looking at.

- - - Updated - - -

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I'll pick a window and do the Pepsi Taste Challenge. Measure temp before, put 300 cents of tint on la interior and measure again.
Then I'll correlate some horse shit, statistical R-value with the R-value of the insulation and arbitrarily declare that only one child can be in that room without a double-sided mask.
#Science

According to the tint shop anyway, you aren't supposed to use cheap or automotive tint on double/triple pane residential windows. From their website:

Certain types of films and substances should never be applied to your double- or triple-pane windows. These are:

Sub-standard window films.
Poor quality and inferior adhesives.
Films with solar heat absorption of 50% or higher.
Tints with natural 20% Variable Light Transmission.
Bronze tints with 20 % VLT.
Complete blackout films.
Another aspect of importance is that automotive tints should not be used in place of architectural films. Both look the same but are actually different, as we have discussed above.

It's pretty specific, but they don't really say why though. I'll ask them when I talk to them next week.

[benyl]

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I'm in the market for a small portable one for my bedroom if anyone sees any deals. ~200 sq foot room. Fairly big window that slides to the side open. Seems there's some 1-2 year old ones on kijiji/fb market that seem in good shape, would those still last a few years? Not sure the life expectancy of these things.

I have one with a renter in one of condo units that is from 2006. We are using another in our temp house from the same year. Both work fine.

[Mitsu3000gt]

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I'm in the market for a small portable one for my bedroom if anyone sees any deals. ~200 sq foot room. Fairly big window that slides to the side open. Seems there's some 1-2 year old ones on kijiji/fb market that seem in good shape, would those still last a few years? Not sure the life expectancy of these things.

I sold two high-end LG units for next to nothing last year, too bad I didn't still have them I would have just given you one. They both worked perfectly and were 4-5 years old. They were $500+ new though so I'm guessing they were better than the Danby/DeLonghi specials you see everywhere.

You also need to decide if you want a single or double hose design. I liked the single hose design because it was less of an eyesore and it evaporated all the condensation out of the exhaust hose rather than having a water tray that can leak into your house unless you also run a hose out your window. The downside is they negatively pressurize the room because it's pulling air from inside the room and pumping the exhaust out the window, so they are slightly less efficient as it will draw warm air from the rest of your house under your bedroom door. The dual-hose units have both intake and exhaust from the outside, so it doesn't change your room pressure, but it also means you won't want to use it if we have forest fire smoke as we sometimes do as it's just going to pump all that into your room, and often those are the hottest days. Any bad smell outside is going to get pumped into your room.

Also, buy one bigger than you think. For 200 SQ FT I would buy one rated for 400+ SQ FT so it can cool down quickly and doesn't have to run constantly just to keep up.

I had casement windows and it was extremely annoying, so if you haver sliding windows, venting is so much easier.

[ThePenIsMightier]

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According to the tint shop anyway, you aren't supposed to use cheap or automotive tint on double/triple pane residential windows. From their website:

Certain types of films and substances should never be applied to your double- or triple-pane windows. These are:

Sub-standard window films.
Poor quality and inferior adhesives.
Films with solar heat absorption of 50% or higher.
Tints with natural 20% Variable Light Transmission.
Bronze tints with 20 % VLT.
Complete blackout films.
Another aspect of importance is that automotive tints should not be used in place of architectural films. Both look the same but are actually different, as we have discussed above.

It's pretty specific, but they don't really say why though. I'll ask them when I talk to them next week.

While initially looking to prove you incorrect, I learned that auto films are designed to shrink in order to fit curved glass and that's why they potentially "may" damage residential glass.

The link I posted was from Home Depot and it's for residential glass, not auto.

Colour (or perhaps it's tint) me shocked that the company that makes the $$expensive$$ residential tint says to only use expensive tint.
Maybe there's a more expensive one you can find! Is there one distilled from small batch, single grain, 100% agave, fair trade, Eco Sustainable, certified professional broadcast quality with real flakes of diamonds? That's the one you want.