An air conditioner can help your Wichita home stay cool in the summer, but let’s face it: air conditioners are not the most attractive appliances. The outdoor unit (compressor/condenser) of your A/C can detract from window treatments and can generally make the exterior of your home less appealing. It’s bad enough that some Kansas homeowners’ associations mandate that air conditioners not be visible from the exterior of a home.

There’s another reason to make your air conditioner less visible: theft. Kansas cities such as Wichita have been hit hard by copper and scrap metal thefts, and unfortunately air conditioners are a common target. In fact, copper theft has gotten so bad in the city that the Wichita Police Department and city officials have considered laws that would regulate selling scrap metals.

You can make your home more appealing and your air conditioner less noticeable to thieves if you landscape the big, unsightly A/C away. Here’s how:

  1. Use fences or other year-round structures to hide the unit. A tall fence, arbor or other structure can hide an A/C unit and can provide some privacy as well. Just be sure to leave 3 feet of clearance around the unit for repairs and good airflow.
  2. Try tall hedges. Evergreen hedges or shrubs still provide a year-round disguise and can look softer than a tall fence. Unlike a tall fence, they also provide a little more air movement. As with fences, you will need to leave clearance between the A/C unit and the hedge and you will need to trim the plants. When watering your hedges, you will also need to take extra care not to get the A/C unit wet. A drip irrigation system can keep your hedges watered without corroding your air conditioner.
  3. Plant ornamental grasses. A great way to landscape the big, unsightly A/C away is to use tall, ornamental grasses. These require less maintenance than hedges and grow to about 4 feet.

If you have questions about cooling systems for your Wichita area home, contact us at Comfort Systems. We have been helping Kansas customers since 1996.

Our goal is to help educate our customers in Wichita, Kansas about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems).

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