If the landlord doesn't provide air conditioning, consider installing a window mount air conditioner. During hot summer days, cool air from an air conditioning unit may greatly improve the living conditions in a rental house or apartment. However, state laws do not require a landlord in California to supply air conditioning. While a landlord usually must provide a heating system, California state law usually considers air conditioning an amenity rather than a requirement of habitability. Providing an Air Conditioner Even though landlords don’t face a requirement to provide an air conditioner in a rental house or apartment, many landlords provide a cooling unit to increase the desirability of the property. In some areas of California with low humidity, landlords install an evaporative or swamp cooler to meet cooling needs. Tenants should ask about the availability of a working cooling system before they decide to rent the house or apartment. Factors Affecting Habitability Rental houses and apartments in California must comply with habitability requirements as described in California Civil Code 1941.

A cooling unit isn’t listed as a requirement of habitability. Some requirements of a habitable rental unit include plumbing, heating, electrical and gas systems in good working order. Windows and Ventilation Systems The rental unit must comply with city, county and state building codes, which affect how easy it is to cool a property. For example, rooms must receive adequate ventilation from a window or a mechanical ventilation system. Unless a fan or other type of ventilation system is installed in the rental unit, most rooms require a window. The minimum window size usually measures 20 inches by 24 inches and the window must open at least halfway. Broken Air Conditioners If the landlord provided an operable air conditioning system in the rental house or apartment when the tenants moved in, the tenants can expect the landlord to maintain the air conditioning system in good working order. If the system stops working through no fault of the tenants, the landlord is responsible for repairing or replacing the air conditioning system.

If the tenants caused the failure of the air conditioning system, they pay the cost of repair. what makes a window ac unit freeze upRequest Repairs A phone call followed by a written statement from the tenants notifies the landlord of a non-functioning air conditioning system. ac unit for rentThe tenants give the landlord a reasonable period of time to make the repairs. cost of replacing outdoor ac unitIf the landlord refuses to fix the broken air conditioning unit, the tenants may consider using the “repair and deduct” remedy. The tenants pay to fix the air conditioner and deduct the cost from the rent. However, the repair cost can’t exceed one month’s rent and the tenants can only use this remedy once a year. : /Getty Images Suggest a Correction

Last week, (EVER rater and Green Curmudgeon) Carl Seville and I took a trip up to Suwannee, Georgia to visit the Mitsubishi HVAC facility and learn more about their ductless heat pumps. I've mentioned here before that when I get a chance to build a house for myself again, I'd like to eliminate the ducts by using ductless mini-split heat pumps, and Mitsubishi is one of the top brands. Here's why I want to go ductless: Duct systems can be done right but almost never are, thus robbing the heating and cooling system of its effectiveness and efficiency. Duct systems take up a lot of space in attics, basements, and other parts of the house. HVAC technicians don't understand - and often don't care about - ducts. Mini-splits are some of the most efficient systems (up to 26 SEER). Mini-splits come in smaller sizes and can better match the heating and cooling loads in the house. Mitsubishi's line of residential ductless heat pumps is called the Mr. Slim. It's a split system heat pump, which means that the compressor and condensing coil are outdoors, and the evaporator coil and blower are indoors.

In that regard, it's like your typical 'central' air conditioner or heat pump. You can tell if a house has a mini-split by looking at the outdoor condensing unit (photo right). They're thinner and smaller than the typical ducted system condensing unit. The indoor unit can be mounted on a wall, set into the ceiling, or sit on the floor. At the Mitsubishi facility, we saw all three styles, and you can see photos of them below. Wall mount (set off from the wall here but mounted flush in a home) Floor mount (can be recessed into the wall) In addition to coming in smaller sizes (down to 6000 Btu/hour, half the minimum size of regular system), mini-split heat pumps can modulate the amount of heating or cooling through variable refrigerant flow (VRF) to match the actual loads in the house, not just the design loads. They're also ideal for zoning a house and limiting the amount of energy you use for heating and cooling. The knock against mini-splits is that some people find them unattractive.

They don't want to have that piece of equipment on their wall, even if it is quiet. Ceiling cassettes are a good alternative. Ducted mini-splits are another, and they allow you to hide the head above a dropped ceiling, for example, and run short ducts for the return and supply air. Another drawback is that even 6000 Btu/hour is too large for a high performance home that's going to have several heads (the indoor unit). The reason that Mitsubishi does this seems to be for ease of manufacturing. They make as few different evaporator coil sizes as possible. Even with these weaknesses, the ductless mini-split heat pump is a great idea and, I believe, will increase in popularity because of the many advantages. There's a ductless heat pump project in the Pacific Northwest that promotes and tracks the installation of these systems. I heard about this from Bruce Manclark at the recent ACI conference in San Francisco, and he said they've got a 98% customer satisfaction rate through about 10,000 installations.