Do they sell Window Air Conditioners less than 10amps?

15 years ago

We are moving a relative into an apartment. The (very young) girl at the management company told us that we must provide the window air conditioner and that it must be "no more than 10 amps, or else the fuses will blow".

We looked all weekend and could not find such an air conditioner. All of them had 15 amps.

Please help! Will a 15 amp be OK? We don't want our relative to be in trouble with the management during his first week there!

Many thanks

Millie

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Comments (5)

petey_racer
15 years ago
"All of them had 15 amps."

Not quite.
You were probably looking at the plugs. You need to look at the specs of the units.

Most new units are running just under one amp per thousand BTUs. So a 10,000 BTU unit will be around 8-9 amps.
terribletom
15 years ago
Virtually all of the smaller air conditioners will call for a 15-amp circuit because 15-amp circuits are the smallest circuits usually feeding ordinary receptacles in residential wiring. There is a such thing as a 10-amp circuit breaker (or fuse), but they are very seldom used.

That raises the question of whether the circuit in question is truly a 10-amp circuit or whether the building management simply has experience suggesting that AC cooling loads larger than 10 amps have caused problems in the past.

I picked up a rough rule of thumb a few years ago to the effect that window AC units draw roughly 1 "cooling amp" for each 1,000 BTU. Thus, a 6,000 BTU unit equates to about 6 "cooling amps", an 8,000 BTU units draws about 8 "cooling amps" and so forth. There are many 6K and 8K units on the market.

The problem is this: "Cooling amp" is a somewhat bogus unit of measure. It represents the purported 115V or 120V current needed to keep an AC running once it is started and doesn't address the starting surge as well as several real-life inefficiencies.

When the compressor first kicks on, the actual draw is quite a lot larger--sometimes two or three times the cooling amp rating. More often than not, that's tolerated for an instant due to the time-delay of the breaker or fuse.

Soooo....when all is said and done, it depends on what is meant by "no more than 10 amps". My guess is that a 6,000 unit probably won't "blow the fuse" (unless, of course, there are concurrent substantial loads on the circuit), but who knows?

Sorry my answer can't be more definite.
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pharkus
15 years ago
Yes. They do. In fact. Wal-Mart has them.

The Substance Abuse department at a (fairly-)local correctional facility just installed one whose ratings plate indicated 5.4 amps.
chris8796
15 years ago
To add some more information, I've never seen anything with a regular plug be more than 12 amps. Because a fixed load is limited to 80% load of the circuits capacity.

I would assume this 10 amp limit is just a trial and error observation by the landlord and there are other items on the circuit.
millie42
Original Author
15 years ago
Many thanks for all your suggestions.

My husband and I will go to an appliance store this evening. He believes that if we purchase a 5200 BTU "energy-efficient" model, it will be OK.

I'm thinking that the management may have had problems with folks who used a 10,000 BTU unit in a 10x15 room perhaps.

Rather than driving ourselves nuts over this, we will take the chance with 5200 and buy some fuses!

Wish me luck!
Thanks again
Millie

Do they sell Window Air Conditioners less than 10amps?

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petey_racer

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Do they sell Window Air Conditioners less than 10amps?

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petey_racer

terribletom

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pharkus

chris8796

millie42Original Author

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