Managing Air Conditioning for Moldies

Condensation (and resulting mold growth on the inevitable dust on coils/drip pan etc.) is such a problem with most air conditioning units or systems that many of us moldies just go without. Especially when we are so sick that even “lesser molds” impact us negatively. (Stachybotrys is not usually going to grow on a/c window units, although *I cannot guarantee this.*) However, I’ve found a way to beat even the lesser molds on a/c window units!!!! (For the most part. I can’t guarantee this either.)

Also, if your window unit does go bad despite your efforts, it is easy to replace (and at a fairly reasonable cost depending on size).

Here are the tricks:

1. Never use “energy saver.” This stops air circulation, and therefore things stay wetter.

2. If you run the window unit on fan only for at least some hours after running the compressor (on “cool” vs. “fan,”) this running of the fan will dry out the coils and the drip pan. Please check your drip pan for your climate and how MANY hours it takes to dry it all out. Obviously this can vary depending on humidity levels outside, rain, etc.

If it takes too many hours for what you want, then you can use a shop vac set to blow, to get rid of the majority of the water in the pan. Your goal is to have the pan/coils dry for at least an hour out of every 24 hours.

In my climate it happens to be easy, because our temps drop 30 degrees at night usually even on the hottest days. So I run the air off and on during the day, then run on fan only for 8 hours at night.

We are also semi-arid, so 8 hours is usually enough and overkill sometimes.)

3. To help the dry pan dry quicker, either drill a drain hole in it WHICH WILL VOID THE WARRANTY on the a/c unit or use this cool (no pun intended) wicking method, but as a moldie, you will probably want to change this cloth more often than once a month, although we are not going to have to (because our unit is on the south side of the house, gets a lot of wind and sun, and we get only around 18 inches of rain a year). (We are using a small strip of washcloth instead of gauze, and it works great.)

Black Hills Picture Books Edgemont, SD 57735