Shading your compressor might make you feel better, but it won't help much. 

As Texas swelters during this year's record heat, the noisy machine responsible for keeping your house comfortably cool bakes in a metal surround for months under the summer sun.

Your air conditioner carries a heavy burden. It withstands outdoor temperatures that feel like 110 degrees while moving the warm air from indoors to outdoors with the help of refrigerant, according to Carrier, one of the major manufacturers. The machine cycles on and off continuously for most of the year in Texas.

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Shading it with an awning or a nearby tree or installing it under a north- or east-facing eave of your home seems like a logical way to help increase the unit's efficiency. And the Energy Department, according to many sources, has said a shaded central air conditioner or heat pump uses about 10 percent less energy than one that isn't, according to the U.S. Energy Department. A/C units -- installed in about 75 percent of U.S. homes -- consume about 6 percent of all the power generated in the U.S., so any savings could have a significant effect on the bottom lines of consumers.

Or it might not. Like the HVAC system, itself, expert opinions run hot and cold on the benefits of shade for an air-conditioner.

The most-visible finding on the Web that dismisses the 10 percent efficiency theory is from a two-year study completed in 1996 by the Florida Solar Energy Center. The results found that shading an A/C unit from direct sunlight offers only "miniscule" savings, with efficiency increasing by less than a half-percent.

But if you gain peace of mind by making your air conditioner the coolest on the block, it's unlikely to do any harm as long vegetation isn't collecting inside. Experts simply warn homeowners to provide enough air flow.

Brian Rausch is the assistant business editor for the Houston Chronicle.