Now that we have high humidity in Phoenix AZ the A/C condensate is making a mess on the cement. I am considering diverting the condensate to the sewer stack vents. Is there a good reason not to do this? Thank you, Seamus J. Wilson
You might likely have have a code issue with dumping water into the sewer system. My condensate line dumps out into a garden area, which give it some much needed water here in "slower lower" Delaware during the summer. It is "free" water, so why not put it to use? We are in a pretty humid area (east of Washington DC, about 2 hours), so I bet we get more than a few gallons a day when the AC is running!
Yes, I seriously doubt code allows it to be plumbed into the vent pipe. What cement is the water making a mess on? Basement floor? Normally a condensate pump is used to get the water outside or sometimes they are routed to a sump pump pit.
You could get sewer gases into your home.
Just dump it on the ground. Run a hose elsewhere if particulates are staining the concrete. Moisture never remains in phoenix for more than a few days.
Hell, you could just run it into a bucket and it would never fill due to evaporation.
You can make a trap in the line. You'd have to be sure it is filled in the winter though.
That's what we do here. All this is in the attic.
Intercept the stack with a T. Off the T, run a p-trap. Drain the condensate into the open end of the P-trap.
If you could get the condensate to drip on the evaporator coils, so much the better.
He's in Phoenix. The cement IS the yard.
My condensate runs into an evaporation pan. Usually it all evaporates, when it doesnt it waters my fig tree.
You wouldnt want to run it into the sewer. Even if you installed a trap the trap could dry out as it often does during the winter and sewer gas would get into your house via the HVAC.
Jimmie
professorpaul wrote in news:9200403c-673c-40b9- snipped-for-privacy@56g2000hsm.googlegroups.com:
So I thought for a minute and came up with hair brained how about one of those clay/cement bird baths (just the top piece) on the ground with the drain keeping it trickle charged.
LOL. I woudn't have gotten it if you didn't explain.
I've been to Arizona, but only in the dark.
They even make window air conditioners that are supposed to do that. Win-Win.
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Yeah, I've got one. That's where the idea came from.
By-the-by, putting a window unit in the bedroom dropped my power bill from $240 to $60 in one month. Since the window unit only cost about $110, I'm WAY ahead.
I checked and my shop window unit is that way too. It seems to have some type of, I'm guessing, thermostatic controlled valve that controls the water level in the pan.
I may get a couple of window units too. Now that its just my wife and I at home most of the time its a waste to keep the whole house air conditioned. I have tried closing off registers into rooms we dont use and that kind of works but not really. We can have a bad humidity problem when I do that.
Jimmie
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