Why You Need to Remove Your Window Air Conditioner for the Winter (Rather Than Just Cover It)
Air conditioners are life-saving equipment. If you live in an area where temperatures can reach 90 degrees or higher, you know how important it is to have some sort of climate control in your home. Window air conditioners are amazing because they are relatively affordable, easy to install, and cool small areas very well. Yes, you sacrifice light and fresh air, but being able to sleep at night without bathing in your own sweat is worth it. But when the cold weather sets in, we are faced with the age-old question: should window air conditioners be taken out and stored, or can they be left in place?
The answer is quite simple: if you have a way to store them, you should completely remove window air conditioners for the winter. That’s why.
AC window unit is poorly insulated
If you have installed the air conditioner yourself, you know how poorly they fit your windows. The “accordion” style wings on either side rarely lock into place tightly, and the installation process is often a race to secure them somehow before you lose grip and the whole thing flies out into the street . You may have gone to some effort to insulate the device, but the point is that you have a wide open window plugged with a device designed to let air through. If you leave your window air conditioner in place, it is pretty much guaranteed that cold air will enter your home and warm air will exit. This can make heating your home in the winter an additional challenge—and more expensive.
You can try isolating the device around it and covering the part that hangs outside the window, but this will only reduce rather than eliminate the energy inefficiency associated with having this device in your window. If you want to keep your home as warm as possible without spending a fortune, you should remove the AC unit.
Why winter weather is a problem for window air conditioners
While most modern air conditioners are designed to withstand inclement weather, leaving your air conditioner exposed to the weather all winter can damage it . Heavy snow can bend and warp parts of the device, and the freeze-thaw cycle can eventually disrupt the complex internal workings of the device.
You can try to prevent this kind of damage by covering the external exposed parts of your device, but this comes with certain risks. The lid can trap moisture inside the device and mold can start to grow inside the device. This can be quite dangerous – in addition to the bad smell in your home when you turn on the device, when the weather gets warm again, mold spores can cause a host of respiratory problems and other health problems. If you leave the AC window unit in place and smell moldy when you turn it on, you will either have to replace it or do a thorough cleaning , which is time and labor intensive (and possibly dangerous if your unit is under high pressure). off the ground). If you absolutely must close the window of the air conditioner because you cannot remove it or have nowhere to store it, you should make sure that any residual moisture is drained from the unit and that you run the unit in fan-only mode for a few hours to dry it out before cover it.
If you have no other choice but to leave the AC window unit in place over the winter, dry it, cover it, and insulate around it to minimize problems. But if you have any storage option and can safely remove it without any issues , you should definitely do so. This will make your home warmer and help your device last longer.