Hide & Seek: 3 Ways to Keep Your Central Air Conditioner Out of Sight
Posted on: 1 May 2017
Your air conditioner does a great job of keeping your home cool and comfortable. Unfortunately, it's not going to win any beauty contests anytime soon. When it comes to beautifying your front or back yard, that telltale gray box that comprises your air conditioner's outdoor condensing unit tends to stick out like a sore thumb.
As it turns out, it's not too difficult to keep your outdoor air conditioning unit out of sight. The following offers a few ways you can hide your air conditioner without negatively impacting its performance.
Using Landscaping to Your Advantage
A little creative landscaping can go a long way when it comes to keeping your air conditioner out of sight. The strategic planting of natural foliage around your A/C unit can help it blend in with the rest of the landscape. Your foliage may also provide some well-needed shade for your A/C unit, which could improve its overall efficiency and reduce running costs.
There are plenty of ways you can go about hiding your A/C unit via landscaping
- Shrubbery—Surrounding your A/C unit in small bushes can help keep it hidden without too much effort. It's best to choose shrubs that won't drop seeds or shed themselves onto your A/C unit.
- Flower boxes—Flower boxes offer a manageable way of surrounding your A/C with your favorite blooms. Best of all, you can make a flower box out of almost any material or suitable object.
- Potted grasses—Growing tall ornamental grasses in pots is yet another option for obscuring your A/C unit. This way, you won't have to worry about stray grass encroaching upon the A/C unit.
- Trellises—You can also build a trellis around your A/C unit and allow climbing vines to grow over it. The vines will help keep your metal box out of sight, but care should be taken to keep those vines from overrunning the air conditioner itself.
No matter which option you choose, it's important to leave at least 2 to 3 feet of open space between your landscaping and your A/C unit to maintain good airflow.
Fencing it in
If landscaping seems like too much work, you can also hide your air conditioner behind a decorative fence. With a wide range of styles and materials to choose from, you can choose fencing that best suits your home's unique décor. For instance, you can use wood fencing in a variety of shades and stains to blend your A/C unit in with the rest of your home. A vinyl picket fence offers the same benefit, but with less maintenance and greater durability.
Your new fencing can also serve as a safety feature of sorts, as it'll prevent wildlife and inattentive workers from getting too close to your A/C unit. Just be sure to leave a door or some other opening so that your HVAC technician can have easy access to your unit. You'll also want to leave 2 to 3 feet of space between your fence and your A/C unit for airflow reasons.
Getting Creative with Enclosures
Instead of merely surrounding your air conditioner with a fence, you can build a custom enclosure around it. Just like fencing, an enclosure can shield your A/C unit from harm while helping it blend in with your home's surroundings. In addition, an enclosure can make it more difficult for thieves to gain access to your A/C unit, especially if it's protected with an alarm system.
An ideal enclosure should be slotted to allow airflow into and out of the A/C unit. It should also allow for easy access to the A/C unit in case it needs to be serviced. To learn more, contact companies like Apollo Heating & Air Conditioning.
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