I can’t understand why I waited so long to do something that has bothered us for so many years.
Yesterday, I finally decided to do something about the tremendous noise from our air conditioner and heater blower in a cabinet adjacent to the TV room.
Whenever the air conditioner goes on, we grab for the remote to double the volume.
For the first time in 28 years, I went to Home Depot looking for a solution to the noise problem.
I was directed to the large 4’ x 8′ EPS foamed plastic panels. Much too big to fit in the car, I sawed a panel into four equal pieces.
This morning I put on my thinking cap. I tried to figure out where and how I wanted to attach the panels.
I activated my iPhone’s wonderful decibel meter and got the following readings:
80 decibels of noise at both the door to the blower cabinet and at the air intake openings near the floor.
When I placed panels inside the door, and in front of the intake openings, the decibel level dropped to 75 — not very much reduction in noise.
What to do next?
An estimate on moving the entire blower unit to the roof was $5,000.
If only there was an easy fix to have the air intake openings in another room, and to insulate the ductwork leading from that room to the blower in our cabinet. But, alas, that job is beyond my handyman qualifications.
Yes, we do have a ceiling fan above where we sit in the TV room.
It does help cool us a bit.
What I suppose we could use is a quiet portable air conditioner just for the TV room. Those devices sell for $300 to 500 on Amazon. There is even a sliding glass door kit, which enables you to vent the air conditioner without having to make a hole in the wall.
Now it is time to research and think about a quieter AC solution.
In the meantime, we can set our ceiling fan to high, and chill out.
Mr. Ebsen may be contacted at robertebsen51@gmail.com
