Can I install a regular air conditioner on it's side?

Question

My window doesn't open up and down, it opens going right to left but not very much.....please help, I don't want to die from the heat this summer!!

Answer 1

Unfortunately, no...

The compressor in a typical window unit  is hermetically sealed. All the oil is supposed to stay at the bottom and all the refrigerant is supposed to stay in the top (Inside the compressor that is).

The refrigerant (Which tuns liquid at -22 deg F) is what is supposed to go through the evaporator, absorb the heat, carry it to the condensor and release it. That's why the outside blows hot and the inside blows cold.

If you turn it on it's side, the oil will mix with the refrigerant and you will lose the cooling. Not only that but the refrigerant will be contaminated and you will no longer have an A/C that blows cold air, ever again.

Answer 2

Can you find a very narrow air conditioner that will fit your window?

Can you remove a window from its track for the summer to install the air conditioner?  You'd have to block the open part with something.

Also, I saw an air conditioner that does not have to be installed in a window at Sam's Club recently.  I'm sure other places carry them, as well.

Be cool!

Answer 3

If you have the money, there's a new kind of air conditioner that sits on the floor and has a hose that leads out of the window. Here's one:

http://www.sears.ca/gp/product/B001AJ15P...

They can be used with side-sliding windows as well as with sash windows, and are energy-efficient.