Is something wrong with my air conditioner? Dripping Water (San Antonio: how much, house)

[Chaka]

I kind of asked this before, when wanting to know how others captured their a/c water... but the more I ask this question, the more incredulous people are that we get so much water every day.

I'm new to the whole a/c thing (never lived with one before). We installed this new (Energy Star and all that, can't remember the SEER, but it qualified with CPS's rebate program) in 2005.

The a/c is set at 80F at night, and usually around 84F during the day, lately it's been running more than usual. We always get at least 10 gals/day, and in the past couple of weeks more like 15 gals (I collect it in a 5 gal bucket).

People seem to think that's really odd, that a/c water is usually no more than a trickle.

I've been searching online about this (trying to verify that it's good for the plants I have), but finding very little. I really don't understand a/c systems. I thought this just pulled water out of the air. It doesn't have any water inlet, so it's not like it is pulling in water from anywhere else, right?

So is there something wrong with my a/c, or does everyone in San Antonio get 10-15 gals of water condensation from their a/c? I figure it'd be different in Phoenix, but here we all have the same humidity level.

On a different but related note - does anyone use bathwater to water their lawns or plants? Any plants I should be concerned about (we have mostly Texas native/xeriscape plants)?

[smitty12]

Originally Posted by Chaka

I kind of asked this before, when wanting to know how others captured their a/c water... but the more I ask this question, the more incredulous people are that we get so much water every day.

I'm new to the whole a/c thing (never lived with one before). We installed this new (Energy Star and all that, can't remember the SEER, but it qualified with CPS's rebate program) in 2005.

The a/c is set at 80F at night, and usually around 84F during the day, lately it's been running more than usual. We always get at least 10 gals/day, and in the past couple of weeks more like 15 gals (I collect it in a 5 gal bucket).

People seem to think that's really odd, that a/c water is usually no more than a trickle.

I've been searching online about this (trying to verify that it's good for the plants I have), but finding very little. I really don't understand a/c systems. I thought this just pulled water out of the air. It doesn't have any water inlet, so it's not like it is pulling in water from anywhere else, right?

So is there something wrong with my a/c, or does everyone in San Antonio get 10-15 gals of water condensation from their a/c? I figure it'd be different in Phoenix, but here we all have the same humidity level.

On a different but related note - does anyone use bathwater to water their lawns or plants? Any plants I should be concerned about (we have mostly Texas native/xeriscape plants)?

15 gallons per day is not much more than a really bad leaky faucet... People just don't realize how much a "trickle" can add up over the course of a day. I bet most of the disbelieving people have never actually measured the output of their AC.

This site ( Drip Accumulator: How much water does a leaking faucet waste? )shows that a single faucet leaking a 120 drops per minute will produce 11 gallons over the course of a day.

Also by keeping it pretty warm in your house there is consistently more moisture to squeeze out. If you kept consistent at 72 less water would run once the AC got the air that cool inside because colder air holds less moisture.

The water will not hurt your plants in the short term but it is essentially distilled water. It has no mineral content which some plants need. If you mix it up a little and spread the ac water around you shouldn't have a problem.

[Camper1]

I just went out and looked, mine is a steady slow drip. I have a family of frogs that live there!!

[Chaka]

Ok, that makes me feel better.

It is indeed a steady slow drip, like a leaky faucet. I was just wondering why everyone seemed so shocked. That's a lot of water. I do vary where I place it, so some days the plants get fresh water and sometimes a/c water. We're getting ready to put in some sod (maybe, the drought may change those plans), and I was hoping to rely a lot on the a/c water to help it get established if we go ahead and do it.

[smitty12]

Originally Posted by Chaka

Ok, that makes me feel better.

It is indeed a steady slow drip, like a leaky faucet. I was just wondering why everyone seemed so shocked. That's a lot of water. I do vary where I place it, so some days the plants get fresh water and sometimes a/c water. We're getting ready to put in some sod (maybe, the drought may change those plans), and I was hoping to rely a lot on the a/c water to help it get established if we go ahead and do it.

How much does you AC actually run? At your temperature settings I imagine it only runs less than half the time. AC are usually sized to run near continuous with the thermostat at 72 on the hottest day of the year.
I'm only asking because at that setting you might have a hard time realizing that the AC isn't as effective as is should be (low freon, etc). If your used to the house at 72 and the AC can only get the house to 78 then it is pretty obvious there is a problem.

[Chaka]

We never run it that low! We'd have to put on sweaters.

We are out during the day so I'm not sure how much it runs. We used to turn it off, but later realized that it worked harder to cool down in the evenings when the house got so hot during the day, so by leaving it at 84 it doesn't get too bad.

In the evenings I'd say it probably kicks in and runs maybe half the time. I've never paid close attention. We have 12 ft ceilings and a not air-tight house (working on that slowly), which make it work a bit harder.

[jules07]

Ya know, I'm totally looking in to using the "grey water" from our washing machine, and also the a/c condensation water to water our yard. I don't know if the grey water thing is legal and also how much of an impact different detergents would have, but my grandma always did this and had the greenest lawn around! With the a/c water ~ Sea World reclaims their a/c condensation water and uses it for the fountains. And I'm pretty sure I read somewhere that they use it for plants as well. Gotta check in to this more....

And I'll bet that smitty is right ~ most people probably have NO idea how much water their a/c puts out! Especially since most people's a/c water is plumbed to the sewer. Never see it.

[hadleyzoo]

We have a water softener and soft water will kill plants (not sure about yards, but I made the mistake of using the house water to water my houseplants and I killed many of them). So I have to go outside to fill up my water can from the faucet that is not on the line with the water softener (which is no big deal). I have thought about saving the dirty water from the sink, washer, etc but am afraid the softener will kill the yard.

[Chaka]

We don't have a softner now, so that's not an issue. Although I had a softner in Indiana and one growing up in CA, and we always watered our plants with that and it was fine. But some plants can't handle it.

jules - I've been doing a lot of research on the use of grey water. As far as I can tell, the are restrictions against using kitchen sink water and toilet water, and against laundry water if you're washing soiled cloth diapers (ie if fecal matter will be in the water). Otherwise, bath water and bathroom sink water are legal in Bexar County. Detergents can be an issue if they're particularly harsh, but there are a lot of 'safe' eco-friendly detergents out there. That said, I was told by some xeriscape folks that detergent actually helps, so am not sure about that.

I've started collecting water in a bucket when I shower (just let the bucket catch whatever it does). Though I could use that outdoors, I usually use it to flush the toilet (we have a low-flow toilet, but it's a lot less water used this way. We don't flush every time either, just when needed ). I was feeling guilty about my daughter's baths (every 2 days) seeing how much water we used...Mr Chaka was giving me a hard time saying I was putting less and less water in the tub. So I decided to start collecting that as well. However I only use a few buckets full (so a few gallons), because there's a limit to how much we'll carry.

Lots of little things, but it helps relieve my guilt of using so much water trying to get my landscaping initiated. This was a bad year to start it, but it needs to be done sooner rather than later (may be selling in a year's time). Everything is drought tolerant, but not til it gets established.

I'm not even sure a/c water is considered grey water. Do people really send it to the sewer?

About kitchen water - I'd read it's considered 'blackwater' due to the potential bacteria content. However, except for meat, I'm not sure how this differs any from composting all your kitchen scraps (which we do, we don't put much down the kitchen sink). However, we won't bother collecting that anyway, since the way the cabinet's set up, it's not practical to put a bucket there.

[smitty12]

Originally Posted by hadleyzoo

We have a water softener and soft water will kill plants (not sure about yards, but I made the mistake of using the house water to water my houseplants and I killed many of them). So I have to go outside to fill up my water can from the faucet that is not on the line with the water softener (which is no big deal). I have thought about saving the dirty water from the sink, washer, etc but am afraid the softener will kill the yard.

Yep it is a problem, because water softeners leave trace amounts of sodium or potassium in the water. When you water plants with softened water the water is absorbed leaving the sodium or potassium in the soil, where over time it will build up and become toxic to plants.