Hey Ed, does placing the outdoor unit for a HP or CAC under the house make sense if there is enough clearance above for airflow?

In this edition of “Hey Ed,” Ed discusses placing an outdoor unit under the house.

Hey Ed, does placing the outdoor unit for a HP or CAC under the house make sense if there is enough clearance above for airflow? That is something that I primarily see in coastal regions. Where I personally live is right along the Atlantic Ocean. So we see dwellings that are 10 feet in the air on pilings. There was a period of time where it seemed to be a good idea if we stuck those units under the house so they would stay protected. But what we learned was by protecting them, the rain didn’t wash them off and those outdoor units rotted from the salt air twice as fast as a machine that was out that got washed off with the rain. It’s a bad idea to stick those machines under the house. And that’s the way I see it.