Air Conditioner Noise

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travelin travis

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I have a window air conditioner in the wall of the room that I use as my recording space. I am thinking about building a baffled, insulated box to cover the front of the unit. If I do it, I won't be able to get to the controls on the front panel. I was thinking that I could hook up a thermostat to the air conditioner to turn it off and on. Does anyone know how to do this? Would putting a baffled box over the air conditioner lower the air flow too much? The box will be something like this:

http://www.customaudiodesigns.co.uk/articles/ventilation.htm
 
Simplest solution: Turn it down to get the room cold, then turn it off while you record and then turn it back on again when finished....

(That's what I do)
 
Thats what I do too. I have the window AC plugged into a switched outlet so the switch is closer to me than the AC... and I can wheel my chair to the left and kill the AC.

A friend of mine did something similar, but had a small closet with a window (figure that one out) off to the side of his studio. So he put the AC there, gasketed the closet door and such, then added noise-reducing baffled vents at the bottom for drawing air in, and ducted the face plate of the AC to the opposite wall with a big vent.

You can still hear it a little bit, but the noise has been reduced by 90%. You can record in his vocal booth and not pickup the AC at all, probably because the closet is in one corner, and the vocal booth is a good 20' away or thereabouts. And his vocal booth really is just a 4'x8' cove with a heavy curtain hanging across the front of it. Much like a big shower stall sized thing. Walls on three sides, and the curtain.

I made fun of all this "crap" too, but you know what? It works.
 
i have a wall AC unit too, but it has a remote control so i can switch it off from my desk when im about to record. :cool:
 
or just forget about AC...what is it with Americans and AC....all acting like they live in the jungle and what not....tssss.
AC House>AC car to AC work>shop at AC mall and then go back to AC house.

Over here practically nobody has AC at home...
*thinks back to sweating ass off and laptop overheating in attic-room last summer while recording*

:D ok so it might not be so bad...


still, AC, I'm told, is not that good for your health. I don't always feel to healthy in here (sitting in an office with AC) eiter...
 
well i dunno about you but when it's 105 degrees F outside my house in the summer, i like to have my AC on. how much worse for your health can it be than baking in 100+ degree summer heat?
 
I forgot to mention, this is an apartment and I'm renting. I really don't have the option or cash to change the air conditioner to a split unit.

Oh and this is Florida. It's not just hot, it's also very humid. Going without AC here is punishment. :D Also, this place is'nt insulated real well. The temperature rises quick in here with the AC off.

I asked about wiring up a thermostat to the unit because I once worked in a shop that had a thermostat wired up to a big fan. The shop had an old wood burning stove and the fan was used to disperse the heat throughout the room. It can't be that hard to do but I guess I'll have to do some reading up.

We just had a hurricane here a few weeks ago so there is lots of plywood around that was used for covering windows, which I can get for free or cheap. This will make building a baffled box alot cheaper. The only thing I have to lose is time and a few bucks for the rest of the supplies.
 
I agree its not do-able without AC everywhere....

btw does anyone know how to convert degrees F to degrees C?

I don't know how warm 100 F is!
 
that's very hot. throw a humidity level on top of it that's almost equal to the temperature and you will know the hell of Florida.
 
I've been to Hong-Kong... I think I can imagine what it's like :D
 
heck here in texas sometimes it gets as hot as

114 ° F is 45.56 ° C.

you dont have a choice about a/c when it is that hot. if you dont have ac in your car, you need stay home.

FW
 
The same thing just happened to me. I was recording a vocal track and I had to shut off the ac and the computer to record. Man it was hot! My ears were sweating under the headphones and all I could think about was getting the singing done well and quick to then go jump into a cold shower after turning the ac back on. And, after it was done the cold shower was my reward! I don't think I could handle it in florida, although it's been really hot and humid over here in ny the last week or so.
evt
 
I have a couple of different ideas for a ghetto style ac cover. I'll draw it up and post it.
 
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