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Energy Saver: Air Conditioning

(continued ...) Now some thoughts about that pipe insulation. Choices are many as usual: flexible-elastomeric, mineral fiber, polyolefin and many others. Commonly used and widely available at home-centers but last on my list is polyolefin. Polyolefin is cheap and water resistant. However, polyolefin is a comparatively poor insulator, it degrades in sunlight, it cracks over time anywhere it is stressed and has high thermal expansion. Mineral fiber is a good insulator; it resists UV and comes with integral jacketing that makes installation easy. However, mineral fiber soaks up water like a sponge and when it does it is nearly a worthless insulator. My preferred insulation for refrigerant piping is flexible-elastomeric-rubber. It resists water, it's a good insulator, it's easy to install and easy to get a good vapor barrier with adhesive at the joints. It does have one problem in that it degrades in sunlight like polyolefin. With these and many other options considered, I recommend flexible-elastomeric-rubber with a PVC jacketing to shield it from UV exposure. A less desirable alternative to PVC jacketing is several coats of white exterior latex paint.


Now, let's talk about the outdoor equipment. I know you want to hide the outdoor unit behind a fence, some bushes or tuck it into a nook. And you can still do that while allowing the unit to operate at its maximum performance if you follow some rules. Whether it is operating or not, since the unit is outside, it is routinely exposed to all sorts of dust, debris and dirt.


If the condenser coil is exposed to direct sunlight it will pick up some heat from the short wave radiation coming from the sun. This is bad since the idea is that the condenser needs to be losing heat not gaining heat. But if the ...


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