Air conditioner recommendation

[esmclain1]

We recently converted half of our garage (which is attached to the house) into a bird room. The room is well insulated, and has two windows facing the front of our home, and two large windows on the wall inside the garage. The winter was great, as I used a small heater and didn't have to run it much, but I need to install a room-sized air conditioner. Any tips on what to use, or any concerns I need to have? I just need to cool the room enough for them to be comfortable and to keep the moisture down to an acceptable level. The room is about 20 x 30 and houses Gouldians, society finches, star finches, owl finches, cordon bleus, zebras and one cockatiel. Thanks for any advice.

[Sally]

Are you in an area that gets so hot that air conditioning would be necessary? Birds can take quite high temps. I'm in Texas, gets pretty hot in the summer, and I've seen some people with garages turned into bird rooms just open up the garage doors for ventilation. Some people even leave the garage door open day and night in the summertime, they build a screen wall where the garage doors would be, so critters can't come in. You could also install a fan in one of the windows to pull the hot air out. If you decide to air condition, I would think you would have to be careful that the cold air didn't blow right at one of the cages.

[Nipper06]

I'd be real careful to make sure no cool air blows directly on your finches. That's a sure way to have sick or dead finches.

Also, finches can take quite a bit of heat - at least into the high 80s / low 90s, as long as they have water and shade. So I would leave the AC unit set for low 80s, both to save energy and to avoid excess cold drafts for your finches.