A/C under the deck!!!

[41gasman]

I just got back from a bid.The guy really wants to put the condenser under his deck.First I got to say it really is the only place that it could resonably go.Very pricey homes built right on top of each other on a hill side.Any other choice of locations puts the damm thing in someones bedroom window or on the front porch.NOT so good.It looks like there is enough room to put a say a 16 to 20 inch dia. duct with a elbow and maybe a bell shaped hood.I was thinking(ohch) that I might be able to "vent" the output of the condenser about fifteen feet out from under the deck.So..... is this a functional idea or are the meds running away with me and I am just enjoying the ride!

41GASMAN

[dash]

It's the meds,the outdoor fan was not designed with ducting in mind.

[johnsp]

Aren't there horizontal fan condensors you could get like the ones the Mini-splits use? I put my ductless condensers under my open deck, no problem.

[BaldLoonie]

Bard makes a front discharge 10 SEER and Bryant/Carrier has their front discharge commercial unit in 12 SEER.

[Irishmist]

something else to keep in mind is when your pricey homeowner is enjoying grilling on the deck with a hot blast of air shooting up his shorts. I agree with others that the units are not designed to have any restriction (duct or otherwise) at the discharge side of the condenser. Side discharge would obviously work, and I have placed them under a deck that had a full 8+ feet of clear span above them. Otherwise, I wouldn't try to do something with the equipment it wasn't designed to do.

[marylandtech]

we have done this before (elbow). I would not reccommend doing this though. Not only are there performance issues, no matter how hard we tried we could not stop the vibration of the duct. It made an ungodly noise but its what the customer wanted. Advised him not to do it but you know how that goes.

[billva]

how much clearance between the bottom of the deck and the top of the cond you plan to install?

you'll find the minimum allowable clearances in the install manual.

[tinknocker service tech]

41gasman
here at the jersey shore it has to be gone sometimes even though it is not sopposeto be done. with food and property clearance there is no choice welcome to the real world is what i told a york rep once and he laughed
we had 5 york units under a house with a closed in deck
had to duct then to the edge of the deck. the rep gave me to total cfms of the units fans and we ran ducts with canvis connectors on the units to stop the vibration
find out the cfm on the fan size the duct a little bigger then you need so no back pressure and give it your best shot. those units are 12 years old and not one problem as of yet except contactors and coil cleaning. worked like a charm. sometimes we have to ajust the rules to do our job.
as long as we do it right the first time we do have to keep going back

[docholiday]

I installed one of Carriers 38HDA's (I think thats the nomenclature) under my mom's deck. If they still make that I would see about one of those. I tell you it is a quiet little bugger, Ive never been on her deck and even noticed it running. (Of course it was properly installed otherwise This had to be 8-9 years ago.