From: Neon John <no@never.com> Newsgroups: sci.engr.heat-vent-ac Subject: Re: Excessive water runoff Date: Thu, 16 Jun 2005 15:09:42 -0400 Message-ID: <p5c3b19n3n4rr7c3mdov370hrj8jutt9c8@4ax.com> On Thu, 16 Jun 2005 01:49:08 GMT, "JJ" <JJ@yahoo.com> wrote: >I live in Texas. My unit stays on most of the day. The problem I have >is that there is so much water being drained outside. Within a week >I can have a small pond. I have to relocated the drain pipe at least >twice a month. Is there something I could do to help this? Is this >normal? The unit is functioning properly but that is not particularly normal in that apparently excessive moisture is entering your house. To solve the condensate problem you need to address this problem. > >The unit is a 4 ton, A-frame. It is not mounted in the ceiling. >The house has poor insulation. >I change my filters at least once a month and clean my coils >every year. > >Electric bill runs about 200 a month, but I'm not complaining. > >I just don't want a mosquito farm in my yard. Poor insulation won't contribute to this problem per se but the lack of a vapor barrier will. some things to check: Does your wall insulation have a vapor barrier. Remove a wall outlet cover and look inside for foil or plastic. Does your floor have a vapor barrier and/or insulation? If you have a crawl space, is it moist? Do you have a vapor barrier (plastic) over the dirt? If you have a basement, is it moist/wet? Are there major air paths from outside and/or the crawl space into your house? Unsealed holes, perhaps where a pipe or wiring had been removed? Sloppy construction leaving gaps in the decking or siding? Is your house under negative pressure? A leak in the supply ducts to the attic or basement will cause outside air to be sucked into the house through infiltration routes. You can check this by cracking a window with the unit running. Apply smoke to the crack and see which way it moves. If there is significant incoming air then you need to look for a duct leak. Confirm that it's a duct leak and not normal convection by turning the AC off and comparing. To deal with the water if you can't run it to a drainage ditch or curb, the usual solution is to dig a little cesspool. A few feet across, a few feet deep and filled with coarse gravel and optionally capped with dirt. This will retain and spread out the water until the ground can absorb it. or You could collect it in a tank and pump it onto your roof through mist nozzles to help reduce the heat load. I installed such a system on my flat tar roof, poorly insulated building using city water. It made a remarkable difference in the AC load and cost, even factoring in the city water bill. John --- John De Armond See my website for my current email address http://www.johngsbbq.com Cleveland, Occupied TN |