Just curious...
How clean is the condensate water that my 90% furnace produces?
Is there anything in it that would make it unsafe for plants? vegetables? pets? kids?
I've got no plans for it...just curious about what's in it.
This is more of a guess than a scientifically accurate answer:
Condensate is a result of the combustion of natural gas which should be a pretty clean process, but NG isn't perfect, so there are bound to be some impurities in it, but it should be generally clean. As a furnace gets older and the heat exchanger corrodes, there should be more metallic impurities.
JK
I would bet there is lead in it and other metal impurities.
I seem to remember that the PH of that is rather acid. I don't think you want to use it for anything.
On my 90% unit the manual warned about the condensate being acidic. They also warned about dumping into a sump where the contents are pumped out onto the ground.
as Big Jake points out the water you're talking about is condensed combustion products...if the NG was 100% pure then so would the water but NG has other stuff in it plus metals picked up from the furnace.
from
A 60,000-Btu furnace operating 50 percent of the time will produce about seven gallons of condensate a day. The condensate has a pH level of about four, which is about the same as a carbonated soft drink. However, furnace condensate is not safe to drink because of trace toxic chemicals it contains.
If it's not safe to drink...it's probably not safe for watering food plants
I wouldn't use it to water veggies or fruit but acid loving ornamentals "might" be ok. Depending on your soil it "might" help reduce alkalinity
depending on your situation....can the area you're talking about handle the water load?
Why not just dump it down the the drain?
cheers Bob
Yeah just dump it down the drain. It'll only end up in the ocean and/ or the Great Lakes, or local waterways etc. Just like much of the stuff/pollution we humans excrete! Since acid rain, caused by the smoke etc. from internal combustion engines, coal, oil and gas fired electric power plants and so forth, pollutes the atmosphere, a few gallons of acidic water, including any trace metals it contains, is probably not very significant? BTW meet anybody these days who doesn't believe in the effects of 'Global Warming'? Just thought I'd ask!
Why lead? Just curious where the lead would come from?
JK
Looking out my window at the snow howling by at 30 MPH and a predicted low tonight of less than zero, I'm wavering...
Joe
Distilled water (which is basically what condensate is) has an amazing ability to leach lead from solder joints. I haven't done an analysis of furnace condensate, but I did one for a coolant system, and the amount of lead was truly amazing...
If you have a system with lead solder, your condensate could contain high levels of lead.
Definitely a no no for drinking; for industrial users (i.e. those with their own discharge permits) may even be a no no for direct discharge.
--Yan
As you say, it's probably insignificant, however, if every house had one of these, it might add up. BTW, I just remembered another thing in the manual ..... it said something about a "special filter", whatever that is, is required in some areas.
may be warming but caused by the sun not my lawnmower
Around here waste water is treated. Presumably that would include pH balancing.
Chris
If you burn Hydrogen in an Oxygen environment, you can manufacture water.
All other water is USED water, having passed through uncountably many digestive canals. Yum.
It is.
Art, c'mon... Have you ever been to a wastewater treatment plant?
If EVERY, STEENKIN' house in the ENTIRE city had such a furnace, the combined acidic condensate from them, compared to the total volume of wastewater, would be equal to a flea's fart in a tornado.
I guess it's true: We have become so fat, dumb, lazy and affluent that we actually consider such things.
...and I'll bet every one of those areas is in California.
Now just wait ONE MINUTE!
I thought we were forced to convert to water-saving toilets and urinals because, as we ALL know, the water flushed down those older fixtures just DISAPPEARED off the face of the Earth!
Whatever happened to acid rain? I guess that farce didn't get enough traction so "they" moved on to more dire things, like furnace condensate.
That is correct.
The effects? Nope.
Is the globe warming? That's debatable.
If it *IS* warming, is the cause manmade?
No way.
...and I'm SO glad you did! Have a nice day - hiding under the covers.
re; "a flea's fart in a tornado"
If a flea farts in a tornado, and there's nobody there to smell it, does it still have an odor?
Only if it's an "F3" or better.
Then there's the rating of the tornado to consider...
I agree fully, however, treatment plants primarily remove solids. I wonder what they do about acids? I have seen the local treatment plant put out a clear liquid into the muddy river. It looks good, but I really can't tell what's in that real clear output.
When I had a 97% furnace installed a few years ago, the installed simply drilled a hole through the floor and inserted the drain tube into it.
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