A question about air conditioners and power flickers....

[arf2184]

The chins will be moving to the garage soon (insulated and drywalled...yay!) which means I need to buy a new air conditioner with a higher BTU rating.

My main concern is finding one that will turn back on should the power flicker when I'm not home. I've been looking for one with mechanical (knob) controls. I did find one with the BTU rating I need, but only one. Its a Frigidaire. I had to buy it online as there were none in local stores, which is fine, BUT...

Mechanical controls are getting harder and harder to find. Everyone seems to be going digital, so my question is, are they designing the digital ones to come back on after electrical current is lost? If so, what is this feature called? Is there something on the box to indicate that they have this feature?

I haven't seen anything on the boxes advertising this so I'm not sure how one would know. I tried googling, but couldn't find an answer so I thought maybe someone here would know.

 

[threewingedfury]

I have 4 digital air conditioners - one of which will not turn back on after a power outage, and it's a Haier brand. The other three are LG, Frigidaire and Kenmore and I haven't had a problem with them, but I bought them all used off CL and asked the folks who owned them to turn them on and switch their breaker off and see if they cut back on automatically with the breaker cut back on. If it didn't work, I wouldn't buy it. I did a lot of searching for air conditioners beforehand and had went to a few stores, but I was honestly too afraid to pay $500 for an a/c that would die out on me and I'd lose so many chins just due to it being digital. I personally hate the knobs anyway since they seem to break off. I caught a 10,000 BTU Kenmore for $75 on there and it's been great in my chin barn, that's right at 400 sq ft. Maybe consider CL?

 

[Bam.Bam]

Just found out the other night that the fridgidaire in our bedroom does kick on after a power outage, etc. It's a digital one with a remote that we purchased at Best Buy.

 

[Mt. Zion Chins]

Most of the new digitals now come back on when power is interupted. I had one that didn't so I put it in my bed room and went looking for one that did. Last year they had several. That fact is usually advertised on the box.

 

[PetoftheDay]

You can always invest in a UPS - an uninterruptible power supply - it's basically a big battery that you plug into the wall, and then plug your device - in this case the AC unit - into that. That way the power never goes out to the AC unit at all. We have one for our computers, and it has been wonderful during storms.

 

[Spoof]

The UPS it would take to Power an a/c for 20 minutes would probably run you 2K or more and weigh several hundred pounds.

Most digital ones come back on after a power outage, they should say on the manufacturer's web site. All three of mine do and they are more accurate than my one dial guy. Where you are power outages won't be that big of a deal, a well insulated building will take hours to heat and you could just open the door at night because it always cools. I envy your climate (but don't miss the ice!)

I have a few recommendations for you;

-Put the a/c somewhere you can reach with a hose. You will have to wash it out yearly, if not more often. No matter what you do the coils get clogged with dust and fur. They drain out the back, so I throw a few towels down and go to town. I also get XXXXL nylons and cover the intake for a little extra protection. Extends my coil washes by about a month.

-Look into one of these a/c thermostats, it was worth every penny. It has settings just like your house a/c - I set it to lower at night and higher during the day to keep up with humidity. It is far more accurate than the one on the a/c. The catch is that you do need an a/c that comes back on with power outages as this little guy works by cutting the power to the unit.

Since you've newly insulated the garage and are on a slab you will probably need less cooling power - the trick is to keep the air moving everywhere, it makes a big difference.

Awesome that you get the garage now!

 

[AZChins]

I have one that comes right back on with the digital control, but it was a more expensive unit. I believe it's 8000 btus. The rest of mine have the dial control.

You could start looking into buying used window units. Most of mine are used...except for the larger 8000 btu one.

 

[arf2184]

So far in looking at manufacturer websites this morning, the only one I've found that lists whether or not the unit will come back on after an outage is Frigidaire. They have them in stock at Lowe's for a decent price so that's what I'll get and I'll return the knob one when it gets here (Walmart).

I've checked craigslist...there are a few the size I need, but people are asking nearly the same as it costs for a new one.

Awesome that you get the garage now!

I'm excited! Right now the chins are upstairs and its a pain hauling things up and down the stairs. A couple time I've lost my grip on the can of dirty shavings on my way down the stairs....what a mess!

In the garage we've installed two windows, extra outlets, an in-wall heater, and a door to the outside so I don't have to haul things through the house and a quick way out for emergencies. All that's left to do is mudding the drywall, painting (after I choose colors), and installing my laminate flooring....and of course the air conditioner. We're going to add a wall later this summer splitting it into too rooms (a smaller room at the front for tools and auto stuff).

I'm debating whether or not to put a vent fan in the ceiling. It'd be easy to do, but I've got two windows for ventilation and will have the ceiling fan in soon to move air. Probably don't need the vent fan but it might be nice to have. Then again, it's another thing I'll have to clean the dust off of.

 

[AZChins]

Mine is a Frigidaire...and it comes back on to 67, where I keep it set, every time. I got it at Lowes.

Alison - you must post pictures when you are done. Congrats on this! This is like a normal person getting a brand new car or house, chin people get excited for the strangest things. I know that there wasn't a vote, but I vote for a nice apricot color for the paint color - it doesn't show anything.

 

[arf2184]

Lol...I will definitely post pics when its all done.

For colors...I'm thinking orange on two walls and blue on the other two (like the colors in the pic, except maybe tone down the orange a bit) with maybe a warm pale yellow for the ceiling...I don't know though. Might be too much.

 

[threewingedfury]

Go with white, you won't regret it.

I painted my chin room lime green and it was just horrid after a while. The new chin barn is white and it's much much better to the eye ;-)

 

[AZChins]

I like the orange...

Tiff...I liked your green color. It couldn't have been THAT bad.

 

[Spoof]

The cages will be blocking most of the color anyhow - it's fun to experiment!

I do agree that a waterproof white is my preference though.

I'm debating whether or not to put a vent fan in the ceiling.

This would be an awesomely fast way to vent the smelly air/heat out of your building at night. I wish I had one. Heat rises, so if you opened the door and popped on a decent ceiling exhaust vent it would drop the entire room in minutes vs. hours for windows plus you need a cross breeze or fan blowing out to pull in air.

Use the environment to your benefit. Because it almost always drops below 60 at night you should be able to exhaust it at the coldest part of the morning (3-5AM) and keep it cool until well after noon. They have timers for those too. If you put one low in the wall towards a part that was not over concrete, you could have that and the ceiling one come on automatically. That's what the Colbys had setup in those massive barns.

I will be doing that if I build a barn, exhaust fans are your best friend. As far as cleaning them, canned air or an air compressor works.

 

[Bam.Bam]

I like the orange.. we're doing our living room a deep orange