Correction: Condensed water from A/C

[greenthinkglobal]

I'm new here so I also posted this on the new members "say HI" thread. However I feel it fits appropriately into this forum. If you use your air conditioner during the summer months save the water (perhaps in a 5 gallon bucket) that comes from the white tube located on your furnace. There is an expansion coil that sits inside the metal directly above your furnace and acts as a dehumidifer when cooling your house down. It collects and runs-off the water into a drain that it has taken from the saturated air. Thus producing the cooling effect of your air-conditioner. The water that comes from this tube is actually 100% distilled water without any impurities such as chlorine etc. It works wonders for plants and vegetables. It seems a waste for this clean water to go straight into the drain. One quick note, check the bucket so you don't overflow. I generally empty my bucket every two days. Yes, two days of air conditioning produces almost 5 gallons of water. Hope this helps. Great to be here

[webmaster]

Great tip! There's a whole Grey Water movement around conserving water. A great article about it in the NY Times.

[greenthinkglobal]

That's a great Article! I've read and studied designs about these systems. Good looking out. Thank you.

[!potatoes!]

technically, that water is condensed, not distilled, (condensation happens when airborne water contacts something colder than the air, distillation happens when a liquid is heated and the resulting vapor is collected, leaving impurities behind)...so it's not necessarily as clean as real distilled water (or i guess i should say, the cleanliness of condensed water is more dependent on how clean the surfaces that are condensing or collecting water are), but i agree that you should give it to your plants.

[Gary350]

The condensor of your air conditioner stays cold and wet all the time when the AC is on. The wet traps dust and dirt from the air. Technically that AC water is not much different than rain water. Last summer I dug a ditch around my house and connected all the roof gutter down spouts into 4" PVC pipe. I have my AC connected to the 4" PVC too. It runs to my garden. When I till down the center of the rows it is easy to hill the loose dirt up around the plants leaving a low place between the rows for my roof arrogation system. It works pretty well a small rain makes a lot of water and a big thunder storm makes more water than I can use. This year I am going to try and profect the system. I need to make all the rows have a dead end so they will hold water like a dam. The rows will fill 1 by 1 until that last row is full. I am not sure yet what to do about an over flow I dug a large hole last summer like a small pond to hold a good supply of water but a big thunderstorm will make enough water to fill that hole 40 times. The hole holds about 25 gallons of water so a big storm makes about 1000 gallons of water from my roof. It is too much water in the spring but late July and August when it is 100 degrees for 30 days and only 1 rain per month the water is much needed. I need a better water storage system. Last summer we had a whole month of 100 deg weather with no rain at all then we had a very hard 10 minute thunderstorm that provides arrigation for about 85% of my garden. Another 3 or 4 minutes of rain would have watered the whole garden. After being that hot and dry for a month the dirt soaked the water up like a sponge.

[rainbowgardener]

If you are going to run the A/C, that's a great idea. I collect rainwater in a barrel from my downspout and never turn the A/C on. My utility company just had to pay me back from even billing excess (yay ). We have a whole house attic fan that we run all night in hot weather. Sucks the heat out from the top of the house and pulls cool night air in. Works great as long as there is cool night air. When we get to the dog days in august when it never cools off, we just sleep in the basement. Stays tolerably cool.

[The Helpful Gardener]

We pitch the tent sometimes when it gets hot...

And sometimes we use the AC (just the bedroom mind you; it has a flower bed right under it

HG