ac covers

No. There is no air exchange between the inside and outside on an A/C unit.

I'm thinking that there may be a tiny amount of cold/heat transfer thru the unit.
no direct flow of air however.
bumpy

Look again. When running warm air is brought in from the outside, the warm air passes across the coils and then passes into the interior. Yes, covering will help IMHO

donn0128 wrote:
Look again. When running warm air is brought in from the outside, the warm air passes across the coils and then passes into the interior. Yes, covering will help IMHO

That is 100% incorrect. All A/C units recycle inside air for cooling. No air is brought in from outside period. If it was the A/C unit would be terribly inefficient!

sch911 wrote:

donn0128 wrote:
Look again. When running warm air is brought in from the outside, the warm air passes across the coils and then passes into the interior. Yes, covering will help IMHO

That is 100% incorrect. All A/C units recycle inside air for cooling. No air is brought in from outside period. If it was the A/C unit would be terribly inefficient!

This is my understanding also - that the A/C recirculates or uses the inside air - no air is used from the outside. If the A/C used the hot outside air when it has cooler air inside to use, that would be very inefficient.

Bill

Yes, it only recircs the air and does not pull any fresh in. That would kill it's cooling ablilty.

thanks to all. Think ill save the money and trouble.

You're worrying about the wrong thing. There's no air exchange, but the birds love to build nests in the roof enclosure in the spring. Most of the time there is no damage to the unit, but it is a mess.

NJtony,

If you are not going to use the rooftop unit for heat, cover it. There is heat loss through it and then there are birds and such, so a tarp over it is not a bad idea.

Matt