x
Breaking News
More () »

A North Texas A/C tech fills us in: Does an umbrella actually work??

This brutally hot summer has us looking for any idea that might save a little money and keep us cool.

DALLAS — It has been a brutal summer in Texas! We all know it: Day after day of scorching-hot temperatures and barely any rainfall.

This has brought in a lot of creative ideas for keeping cool and saving money. 

Some of the ideas seem…a little shady. We are talking to the experts to set things straight.

Our expert is John, an HVAC Tech with Milestone.

First things first, how does an A/C unit work?

The air conditioner is just taking heat from inside and moving it outside. Instead of your house being warm, it moves the warm air out.

Do the units have trouble when it gets very hot out?

Sure, the pressures are going to increase when your unit is running based on how hot it is outside. That is because it needs to increase pressure when it is hot outside to move warm air out.

So lets talk about some shady ideas I’ve seen on social media. People have taken to the internet to share that putting a umbrella over the A/C unit will help shade it and keep it cool long term. Good idea, or no?

The short answer is not really. As air is supposed to be coming into the coil and out of the top where the fan is pushing thousands of feet of air per hour through. If that air being pushed out is hitting anything overhead, it is going to push that heat back down and your unit will suffocate. It can cause some serious issues to the fan motor and to the compressor.

Okay, so definitely don’t put an umbrella over you’re a/c unit. What about window units, do those benefit from shade?

Yes, they operate a bit differently than central air. It can be beneficial to shade window units.

Before You Leave, Check This Out