There are several different types of air conditioners, such as units that sit in your window or even portable air conditioners. If you live in a place with central air, though, your system will require you to place a unit outside of your home. This is a condenser unit, which is how the air conditioning system expels the hot air from inside your home so it can be replaced with cool air. Any air conditioner that uses some kind of refrigerant for cooling requires this kind of ventilation, even including portable air conditioner units. For a system as powerful as central air, the condenser unit needs to be situated a good deal away from your home; otherwise, that hot air is just going to get trapped and fail to properly circulate.
When you are installing a new HVAC system for your home, you need to carefully plan where your outdoor condenser units will be placed, and the first rule of thumb is that you don’t place it right up against the outdoor wall. At the bare minimum, there should be at least one foot of unobstructed space between the unit and the wall, and for some units, two feet is even better. It’s best to check with the particular manufacturer for its recommended distance, but regardless, it should never be less than 12 inches. That one-foot rule goes for all sides of the A/C unit, allowing for the best circulation possible. This is not the only placement rule you need to be aware of, though.
Your outdoor A/C unit needs all kinds of space
Along with the sides of the outdoor air conditioner unit, the top also acts as a vent to expel hot air, so if you were hoping to create some kind of enclosure to hide your unit, this is not going to work. It’s recommended to have at least 60 inches of free air above your outdoor air conditioner. Since hot air rises, this free air space lets it flow away from your unit.
If you want to put something around your outside unit, it needs to be a material that allows for a lot of airflow. Something like a chain-link fence is about as open as you can get, so that would be fine. On the flip side, if you want to surround it with bushes, that could restrict airflow. It’s best to have at least two feet of space between any landscaping and your unit, though you may be able to get away with vegetation that’s more loose and well-maintained closer to it.
Finally, there’s the scenario of having multiple outside units. You don’t want to have them too close together, and one foot isn’t enough. Taking the even more cautious two-foot recommendation into account, you shouldn’t have less than four feet between outdoor units, allowing for each one to properly expel its respective hot air. If your outside A/C units don’t abide by these rules, it could be why your home isn’t properly cooling. If they do follow them, though, there could be other reasons why your central air conditioning system isn’t working as it should.
