Practicality question

[camwyn]

Those of you who're in the Boston area: I got an air conditioner this summer. Didn't much want to, but there was a heat wave and I have cats to think of. Back in NJ I left the air conditioner in place year-round because the guy who had the apartment before me had installed bracing of some kind that screwed it into the windowsill. Is it practical to leave the a/c unit in the window and cover it with some kind of insulating cover during a New England winter, or would it be wiser to just take the thing out and give it somewhere to sulk in the shadows until the weather gets warm again?

Comments

[thewickedlady]

It's better for your heat bill to put it away, but you can do either depending on what your house needs!

I would pull mine out and store it because my bedroom lost all the heat if I kept it in. But, Sandry always kept hers in year round because her bedroom was a hot box. We never noticed a real difference in our heat bill.

[camwyn]

I figured that would probably be the case. I'll have to see what I can do about it this weekend. There's closet space for it (another change from the New Jersey situation!), so it's mostly a matter of safely getting it out of the window and moving it.

[attractivegeekery]

I do both, but more out of necessity than anything else.
There's a beat up wall mounted unit under the sole window to my bedroom. It's covered in plastic and has a thermal polar fleece blanket around it year round because I don't trust it. When it gets routinely over 87 degrees in my room I put a smaller unit in my window, and pull it out when it fall hits.

I'd say it's probably best to remove yours just to be on the safe side. Though you could leave it in for SCIENCE!

[eor]

If you have modern double glazed windows, having the window shut and locked down can make a huge difference in air infiltration. If you have the old rattling wooden windows with broken rope counterweights, it won't make as much of a difference.

You're near the water, so snow load shouldn't be an issue.

I imagine the unit will serve you longer if you haul it in and keep it warm for the winter just to save the weather exposure and temp extremes.

[derien]

One of the Maine-centric FaceBook groups I'm on says that it's important to use black plastic to cover the outside of an air conditioner in the winter, and Christmas lights may be strung on it during the appropriate season.