We just replace a 25 year old Florida Heat Pump with a new identical unit. The co that installed it 3 months ago has gone out of business. I have noticed that my insulated vent pipes in the utility room where the FHP is located are condensating pretty bad. There seems to be no water going into the condensate pan itself. Is there something that could have been done during installation that could cause this. A friend suggested that I put a supply plenum into the utility room. I don't see how this could help, since nothing is going into the condensate pan.
That's always a bad sign... :( Any indication of why that occurred?
I don't know what a "vent pipe" could be venting??? The geothermal system I had (Water Furnace, _fabulous_ system, btw, shameless plug for them :) ) is completely closed loop, no venting.
Possibly, but indications would be you're in a humid climate and this utility room is in a basement and isn't air conditioned itself? I'm thinking you simply are seeing the result of high RH and cool pipes. Are these copper lines or plastic? The WF unit only had a very short run of copper from the recirc pump to the condenser unit and the field loop and the piping to/from the pump to the field was all plastic. No condensation problems there in our installation in E TN which was also pretty humid, but the basement was walk-out on the back side so wasn't _too_ terribly bad but was also all finished living space so was conditioned.
Is the condensate from the condenser unit running down the side of the unit and following these pipes out instead of falling into the catchpan, perchance? I had a unit which the WF replaced which for some reason did not run into the collection channels but dripped everywhere else. When the fan operated, the wind force kept the condensate from falling, but when the fan kicked off, it would then land in the bottom of the inlet plenum. Perhaps something similar is happening in your case except it's finding its way along the supply/return pipes.
Sounds like the friend is suggesting if pull conditioned air into the room it will lower the humidity there and reduce or eliminate the source of condensation. It would seem if there's condensation on the supply lines, there would have to be condensation occurring on the exchanger that would have to go somewhere. If it is a lot, it seems likely that at least some of it is what you're seeing.
You might test the idea by putting a dehumidifier in the utility room for a while and see if it eliminates the problem or at least reduces it significantly. Other thought is, is there any chance there's actually a pinhole leak and it's not actually condensate at all???
Actually I mistyped. The moisture is coming off the large thingy that feeds the ducts. There is so much water coming off, that I am catching about an inch in a 12 x 12 in container during a 24 hr period.
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