Do outdoor AC units work better in the shade? Maybe not

Hunter Tarver, left, and Collin Guerin with Capital City Comfort Heating and Air work on an air-conditioning unit at a Baton Rouge home earlier this summer.

A local air-conditioning company is throwing shade at a picture circulating on social media that shows an awning carefully set up over an outside air-conditioning unit.

The photo had some people wondering: If pets and humans need to be shaded from the sun in this extreme heat, shouldn't the compressor unit?

Nope, says Dream Team Heating and Air of Denham Springs.

“This keeps popping up all over Facebook," Dream Team posted on the social media app. "No, this is NOT a good idea. The heat gets extracted from the refrigerant, blowing hot air up out the unit, then it comes back down into the sides making it harder to cool the refrigerant down. This will only make it worse.”

The advice by Dream Team, posted Monday, had received 641 comments by Thursday morning.

The supposed cooling tactic did cause some debate.

One comment said the awning idea works, it just needs to be tweaked.

"No it's way too low, ours had a lean-to about 10ft over the unit that kept it shaded, worked perfectly," one person wrote.

Another comment stated a simple truth.

“These units are designed to run in heat/hot weather.”

Will Templet, a technician with Glaze Heating and Air in Gonzales, said makeshift shading over a compressor "hurts more than helps."

"If condensed air is moving up into the canvas, it'll just come right back down into the unit," said Templet, who has worked in the AC repair business for almost 60 years.

"It could put a strain on it and burn out the motor," he said.

Other makeshift AC fixes have had much more disastrous results.

An air conditioner powered by extension cords caused a fire Wednesday morning that destroyed a house in Baton Rouge, the Baton Rouge Fire Department said. The two people inside the home were able to escape safely.

Investigators found that the air conditioner was plugged into an ungrounded, multi-socket plug that was plugged into an extension cord, the fire department said.

The National Fire Protection Association says that extension cords should never be used with major appliances, including air conditioners.

Email Ellyn Couvillion at [email protected].