Home Improvement

Siliconemelons · 2026-08-10T11:37:28-0400

The thing is a heat exchange unit at its core.

Ambient temp matter, as if the coil is naturally 90 degrees, the decompressed heated fluid is 100, thats only 10 degrees of change able to be had. You reduce via shade that 90 to 80, its now 20.

To me, the common sense argument for shade works.

Yes, make sure not to restrict airflow in and out.

Siliconemelons · 2026-08-10T11:39:35-0400

Haus said:
That reminds me..... I need to acquire me a couple of those nicer sized ProPain tanks myself. One for generator standby, and one for my metal casting area for furnace.

And yeah, there's a ton of conflicting opinion. So I just decided it wasn't THAT complicated and ran my own testing. In my testing , which i admit is my specific scenario and YMMV, the shading caused a reduction in the output temp of the system. Which logic says means they system wouldn't need to run as long to cool a space, which should mean less strain, and lower cost in the long run.

Gatta do math but ace has 100lb refil for 99… seeing if U-Haul via per gal is cheaper or the quicki mart

Haus · 2026-08-10T14:54:30-0400

fris said:
do these really do anything? i've heard that airflow is more important than the actual temp of the machine. the temp differential of the coolant when it evaporates and condenses is so high, that shading your coils really isn't doing much.

I mentioned up earlier the testing I originally did with the "big umbrella" approach. It notably reduced the temp of air coming out on the inside. From an engineering standpoint it would probably be explained by reducing the ambient outdoor coil temp means the compressor gets more compression out of the same amount of work as it's not working against as much heat generated pressure resistance. So I have means tested positive results from just using an umbrella (which wasn't optimal). As for airflow, neither of these solutionss inhibit airflow into the outside coils at all.

I look at it this way, if the AC is putting out colder air then it has to run less to cool the house. If it runs less, that means lower electricity usage. If I can as much as reduce my AC electrical cost by 5% a year, I estimate that saves me around the cost of this shade. (Looking at electrical bills over my year I estimated I spend somewhere in the neighborhood of $2500 a year on AC power) And if the shade lasts multiple years that's pure savings. And I did those financial estimates operating on the pessimistic side.

Haus · 2026-08-10T15:00:21-0400

Siliconemelons said:
Gatta do math but ace has 100lb refil for 99… seeing if U-Haul via per gal is cheaper or the quicki mart

Yeah, there are a few services around that can handle it and deliver refill service for me in Dallas. But I also need to acquire the tanks themselves. My little metalcasting hobby can run through a lot of gas when I really get into things.

Siliconemelons · 2026-08-10T15:24:56-0400

Haus said:
Yeah, there are a few services around that can handle it and deliver refill service for me in Dallas. But I also need to acquire the tanks themselves. My little metalcasting hobby can run through a lot of gas when I really get into things.

Got mine from Amazon - but make sure it comes with the top/adapter/thread/reg-hp-lp that you want - mine had some "not BBQ Grill" thread, and I just had to get a 10$ adapter, still was quite cheaper than other locations to purchase a 100lb.

I need to find a filler that comes to me... I called one during hurricane and they were like "only a 20lb minimum" and I was like "I have 1x 100lb and 4 30lb" and they were like "We cant do that," and I was like "Oh I get it, we just had a hurricane, but like in a month or so" - "Nah, bye" I was very confused.

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