Most (not all) outdoor condensers (air conditioners) have a compressor
crankcase heater that should be left on. It's job (keeping the compressor
warm) will prevent liquid refrigerant from 'migrating' to the compressor and
mixing with the compressor oil. The heater (residential) uses about 22
watts of power and has minimal cost. If you start the unit without the
heater have been on at least 24 hours MAY damage the compressor from
refrigerant migration.

--
Zyp
"royroy" wrote in message
...
On Tue, 26 Oct 2004 20:27:03 -0600, "Howie" wrote:
2) Should I shut the power off during the winter? It sounds like it is a
smart thing to do.

I was told years ago to never turn off the "warm-up" power to the
outside unit---that it would keep the seals, etc in good shape. I
can't say how well it worked, but I just replaced the 31 year old
system with a new 16 seer system. System never failed, and still
cooled when I had it carted off.
I will agree that the power use for that purpose is minimal
YMMV



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