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uptowngirl
uptowngirl

Aircons

A friend who is visiting NYC from Australia and visited us this past weekend happens to own an air conditioning business back home. Noticing all the window air conditioners protruding out from NYC residential buildings , he was prompted to ask why there were no split air conditioning units installed and why were NYers continuing to use old-fashioned window air conditioners. I had no answer for him .. does anyone know?

I only have ever seen split units which are now popular in many parts of Asia installed in our buildings gym. My friend was even more amazed to hear that we tend to remove our air conditioning units and put back the windows during the frigid NYC winters. He hadn't ever heard of something like that before..a typical NYC idiosyncrasy I guess?
Question asked via StreetAdvisor The opinions expressed here are those of the individual and not those of Douglas Elliman.
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Uraniumfish
Uraniumfish 2yrs+
What's a split unit? I find the wall units primitive too, and wasteful, and also rather ugly. If you have only one window in a room, why block it with a big ole A/C?

My guess about the window units is that so many NYC living situations involve roommates, and everyone watches out only for his own individual cooling needs.
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hhusted
hhusted 2yrs+
I live in a studio with a large window with a gate connected to it. It is actually the fire escape. There is also a window next to it. This window has our air conditioner installed. At the far end of the apartment, just before the kitchen is a smaller window. Therefore, we have three windows in our studio. In the winter, I cover the air conditioner window with plastic. That traps the cold and keeps it out.
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uptowngirl
uptowngirl 2yrs+
@Uraniumfish split air conditioners consist of two units an outdoor and indoor unit , the outdoor unit houses the compressor, condenser etc while the indoor unit usually has two parts and can be used to cool more than one room,
http://www.brighthub.com/engineering/mechanical/articles/897.aspx
Apparently both Condo and Co-op boards in NYC dont allow such units because they alter the aesthetics of the buildings some of which are over 100 years old.. found a forum which discusses this problem at length..
http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/ny/air-water-quality/ny-good-questions-air-conditioner-solutions-051166
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uptowngirl
uptowngirl 2yrs+
@JenMac so other cities allow other kinds of units??
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Uraniumfish
Uraniumfish 2yrs+
@uptowngirl Yeah, sure. Those window A/C's I have only seen in NYC. Almost everybody in Florida has central A/C, for example.
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hhusted
hhusted 2yrs+
@Uraniumfish: There is no way to have a central air conditioner in an apartment building. The best choice is a window version. Actually, window air conditioners, if not mounted properly can pose great risks for people. I have a great story to tell about that, and my story is real not fiction. I have a friend who worked with the EMT for years. He would get called to the scene of near street corners. He told me of a number of people who had their skulls busted as a result of a falling AC. That is why AC should be installed in windows the correct way.
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Uraniumfish
Uraniumfish 2yrs+
@hhusted OMG!
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hhusted
hhusted 2yrs+
@Uraniumfish: Yup. You would not want to know the aftermath of what happens next. Too disgusting to talk about.
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ajadedidealist
ajadedidealist 2yrs+
Haha! Yes, the split air conditioners are dreadful - ours kept breaking down every few days. In August. And the guy we hired to fix it overcharged us, ran away with tons of our money, and was "too busy" to take our calls when the chewing gum he fixed the unit with failed a few days later...
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JenMac
JenMac 2yrs+
I always think about that when I walk next to a building. The ac's or the fire escape ladder falling and busting my head open, that is. And, yeah, there are some buildings that have window units in Los Angeles, but for the most part, everyone has central AC pretty much everywhere I've ever lived.
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Uraniumfish
Uraniumfish 2yrs+
An A/C falling on your head, what a nightmare! Does it happen often in the city? I can imagine there are a lot of fools and idiots in this city who don't properly install their units. Are there any checks in place to make sure the average person installs their unit responsibly?
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uptowngirl
uptowngirl 2yrs+
@Uraniumfish Our building requires that aircons are installed by a professional insatllation company before they can be used and we usually have to cough up $500 every summer to have our aircons installed but I guess its worth it considering the amount we would have to pay if that thing fell on someone's head! not to mention the lawsuit involved. Thankfully I have never heard of a incident of a falling aircon in NYC so I guess folks are careful with the installations.
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uptowngirl
uptowngirl 2yrs+
@Everyone I took me a while to track down this thread. A search on aircons yielded nothing anyway I tracked it down because I came across a report wherein a man was struck in the head in NYC recently by a falling window air conditioner. Coincidentally it happened in the building that hosts one of my favorite bars- Winebar in the East Village.
http://www.dnainfo.com/20100928/lower-east-side-east-village/man-hit-head-by-falling-airconditioning-unit
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Uraniumfish
Uraniumfish 2yrs+
Unbelievable! Not only that this worst nightmare would happen, but then that he survived.
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NeverSleeps
NeverSleeps 2yrs+
It is not impossible to have central air in an apartment in New York city. A lot of the new buildings are being built with central heat and air these days - and renters with such luxuries have to pay for their own heat, as it runs on electricity. I've looked at A LOT of such apartments, but only in new buildings or gut-renovated ones.

It's not COMMON, perhaps - but I have no idea why. I know buildings classified as historic are not allowed to install central air. The Flatiron building has a bunch of stupid looking window units in it every summer.

As for apartments buildings, maybe landlords just don't feel like investing in such things as central air, and the reason they don't have it in the first place is because the building was built before such a thing even existed.
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Uraniumfish
Uraniumfish 2yrs+
@NeverSleeps I think you're right: the reason these window units are so prevalent in NYC is that the buildings are old and weren't built to run air ducts for central air. I grew up in Florida, a place where you can't survive without central air, and every single house they build down there is conceived from the start to have central A/C vents. And so few of the houses down there are more than 25 years old.
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uptowngirl
uptowngirl 2yrs+
@NeverSleeps You're right I guess and split air conditioning units which have their main component installed outside a window sill would just not cut it in NYC - I can see the landmarks commission or whoever controls the aesthetics of the city would not allow them to be installed at all.
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