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Where can the outdoor unit actually go?
In an Albany building this decides whether a cooling job is straightforward, expensive or impossible — and it is almost never asked until somebody has already quoted. Pick where you were thinking, and who owns the building.
Anything mounted on a front façade, in a front areaway or on a front stoop is visible from the public way, and in Albany a good deal of the older housing stock sits inside a historic district or affects a landmarked building. That can mean a review before anything is installed, whoever owns the building. We do not know which properties are covered and we will not guess — the city’s planning and historic preservation staff will tell you, and asking is free.
The flat roof
Usually the best answer where it is available. It is out of sight, out of reach, away from bedroom windows, and it keeps the unit clear of snow — which in this climate matters more than people expect, because a unit sitting in drifted snow or in meltwater from a roof edge does not last.
What it depends on: whether the roof structure can carry it, whether there is a route for the line set and the condensate, whether there is safe access for service, and whether putting feet or a curb on the roof affects a roof warranty. That last one is a conversation with whoever looks after the roof, before rather than after.
The rear yard or courtyard
The most common answer and usually the simplest. Short line sets, easy service access, nothing visible from the street, and a straightforward condensate route.
What it depends on: how close the neighbours are. In a rowhouse yard the unit may be a few feet from somebody else’s window, and a compressor running at two in the morning in July is how disputes start. Raise it off the ground — a unit at grade spends part of every winter partly buried, and defrost water has to be able to leave the base rather than freeze under it.
A side alley or setback
Often possible and often tighter than it looks. The two questions are always the same: can air get away from it, and can somebody service it.
A condenser in a narrow alley recirculates its own hot air off the opposite wall, which quietly costs capacity every hour it runs, and manufacturers state minimum clearances for exactly that reason. An alley also funnels sound. And if a technician cannot get a gauge set onto it without moving the neighbour’s bins, the annual service becomes an annual argument.
The front of the building
Technically the easiest and usually the last resort, for reasons that have nothing to do with the equipment. It is visible, it is audible on the pavement, it is exposed to whatever happens on a public street, and it is the one location most likely to need somebody’s permission.
Before anybody prices it, this is worth settling. A front installation that has to come out again is the most expensive mistake on this page.
In a window, or through the wall
A different category, because there is no outdoor unit to place — the whole machine sits in the opening.
What it depends on: whether the window can carry it and close on it, whether a bracket is required, and whether a through-wall sleeve is allowed to be cut into the wall at all. The sleeve is the decision, not the unit — it outlasts several machines, and cutting one into an older wall is structural work and permanent. In a rental or a co-op it is rarely the resident’s decision.
You own the whole building
The simplest position: the decisions are yours, subject to the city and to your neighbours. What you still have to establish is whether the property is in a historic district or individually landmarked, what permits the work needs, and whether anything is recorded against the deed — an easement over an alley, a party-wall agreement, a covenant.
None of that is our work and none of it is expensive to find out. It is simply a great deal cheaper to find out first.
You own a unit — co-op or condo
Anything outside your own four walls is almost certainly common property, and that includes the façade, the roof, the yard, the alley and usually the window openings. The board decides, and boards decide on their own timetable.
What helps is arriving with specifics rather than a request: which unit, where, how large, how loud, how it is mounted, where the condensate goes, and what it looks like from the street. We will supply that in writing. We will not tell you what your board will decide, and we cannot interpret your proprietary lease — that is a question for you and your attorney.
You rent
Then this is the landlord’s decision before it is anybody else’s, and it is worth having in writing before any money is spent. Anything fixed to the building, cut into a wall, or standing in a shared yard is theirs.
Two things worth asking at the same time: who owns the equipment afterwards if you pay for it, and who maintains it. Both are ordinary questions and both are much harder to ask after installation than before.
Nothing here stops the job
You own the building and the location is out of public view, so the remaining questions are technical and they are ours to answer on a survey:
- The route for the line set and the condensate, and what it passes through.
- Clearances around the unit, so it is not recirculating its own hot air.
- Mounting — raised off the ground or off the roof deck, level, and able to shed water.
- Sound, relative to the nearest window, yours or a neighbour’s.
- Electrical supply, read off the plate of the proposed unit and compared with what is there.
- Permits, which the city will confirm, and whether the property is in a historic district even though this location is not street-facing.
The opening is the job
You own the building, so the decision is yours — but a window or through-wall installation is not a smaller version of a split system, it is a different thing with its own constraints.
- A through-wall sleeve is permanent structural work. It is worth doing properly once, because the sleeve will outlast several units.
- A window unit needs the window to carry it and to close on it, and older sashes are not always up to that.
- Both need a drainage path that takes water outside rather than into the wall.
- Both are visible, and if the opening faces the street that is worth checking before cutting anything.
- Capacity is matched to the room, not to the opening. An oversized unit cools fast, shuts off and never runs long enough to take moisture out.
Ask before you price
The location you have chosen is outside your own four walls, which in a co-op or condo means it is common property. However reasonable the request, it is the board’s to grant, and going ahead without that is the one version of this job that ends with the equipment coming out again.
- We will survey and write the specifics — size, sound rating, mounting, appearance, condensate, electrical — so you are asking with a proposal rather than an idea.
- Ask what has been approved before. Most boards have a precedent and it is the fastest route to a yes.
- We will not tell you what the board will decide, and we will not read your proprietary lease. That is a question for you and your attorney.
Get it in writing before anything is ordered
You rent, so anything fixed to the building, cut into a wall or standing in a shared space belongs to whoever owns it. That is true even where the work is obviously sensible and even where you are paying for all of it.
- Written permission, naming the location and what is being installed.
- Who owns it afterwards if you pay — and whether you may take it with you.
- Who maintains it, and who pays when it fails in year four.
- Whether it has to come out at the end of the tenancy, and who makes good.
- We will survey and put the technical specifics in writing so you can hand them over. What your lease requires is a question for you and your attorney, not for us.
Four things that are true in every location
Get it up off the ground
A unit at grade spends part of every winter partly buried, and a heat pump has to be able to shed defrost water rather than stand in it and freeze. Raised mounting is not an upgrade here, it is the correct installation.
It has to be able to breathe
Manufacturers publish minimum clearances because a unit that recirculates its own hot air loses capacity continuously. A tight alley, a fence built later or a hedge that grew all count.
Somebody has to reach it
If servicing it requires a ladder, a key to somebody else’s gate or moving a neighbour’s bins, the annual service becomes an annual negotiation and it tends to stop happening.
Somebody has to sleep near it
Sound ratings are published. Distance and what is opposite matter as much as the number. It is worth five minutes at the survey and it prevents a problem that cannot be fixed afterwards.