Virginia Creeper is self clinging so it will leave little sucker pads all over your walls if you let it climb the house. And it will not stop at the eaves. My home is stone, so no siding to worry about, and I have a similar vine, Parthenocissus henryana, climbing right up its 4 storeys. But every year, twice a year, we have to trim it to keep it off the eaves and prevent it from going under the roof tiles. In between we have to clip around the windows or it will cover them. Not only might it pull your gutters down, it will fill them with leaves in the autumn. All in all not a good idea. It is also quite likely imo to send tendrils into any vents the a/c unit might have. In summer when it's growing fast and we leave upstairs windows open ours will often come into the house and even hang on to the curtains if we don't keep a close eye on it.

Hello,

The vines would be about 1 metre in front of the A/C unit. What you are saying though is that you don't think it's a good idea to attach to the eavestrough? I don't want it on the actual house though. Perhaps if I drilled a metal/wooden pole or a piece of rebar deep into the ground that would do the trick. That way it wouldn't be on the house, attached to the eaves, and could grow up the pole. THoughts? ANy other strategies?

I think you are vastly underestimating the size and vigour of Virginia Creeper. Your use of the plural shows that you don't quite appreciate how big this can get. One can cover a house. This our P henryana which is very similar to P quinquifolia. This plant reaches the roof every year and is severely cut back 2 x per year. It has already been clipped once this year and you can see how it is already growing over the windows. VC can cover huge areas and there is no way it would stay sedately on a pole. It would jump that metre to the a/c unit in a couple of days when in full growth. It sounds to me as if something tamer like a Clematis would be far more suitable in your situation..... unless you are prepared to clip your vine every week in summer.

Maybe an annual vine growing on a trellis would hide the AC without the other concerns. Couple posts, one section of lattice, package of morning glory or moonflower seeds...

Whatever you do, make sure it isn't something that's going to block airflow around the AC. Shading the AC is good, smothering BAD