Saving Air Conditioner water ????

21 years ago

We are getting ready to move to a house that has a hose coming out of the AC unit, heading downhill (slightly)and water just running into the ground (pure sand). Any ideas of how to puddle or collect this water. Here we use our AC's at least 6 months out of the year. Alot of water wasted. Thanks for the help and ideas.

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Comments (7)

jenny_in_se_pa
21 years ago
I collected and used my AC drip water this summer. I had it run into buckets (either 2 gallon or 5 gallon as these were window ACs). You might want to consider a half-barrel or 55-gallon (eg., rain barrel) for storage and later re-use.
dawnstorm
21 years ago
My mom saves hers. I'm not sure how her unit's set up, but she gets a lot of water from the AC and uses it on the plants. I gather it from my dehumidifier and use grey water when needed.
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Crumpet
21 years ago
Probably OK, but desert dwellers with evaporative coolers should not use runoff...it's way too salty. More modern evporative coolers have a flush device to reduce salt on the cooling pads, but even that water is would need to be diluted.
Resident-Reviewer
11 years ago
Crumpet, just curious, why is runoff from evaporative coolers salty? Where does the salt come from?
nannerbelle
10 years ago
I use hoses attached to the drain to direct the water to my landscaping. This will provide much needed water for thirsty plants.
dmarin
10 years ago
A/C "water" is just condensate from the cooling coils of the unit. So it's just moisture from the air that collects and drips. It should be usable and even drinkable, in theory.

Evaporative coolers (swamp coolers) are different, and if that's what you have, do *not* consume the runoff. Ever hear of Legionairre's disease? Ya, that little bug was found in the reservoir of an evap cooler.

Here is a link that might be useful: Legionairre's Disease
lazy_gardens
9 years ago
The water in evaporative coolers is salty (to various degrees) because it's concentrated from the water running over the pads.

1 - If the evap cooler has a purge cycle, the salts in the water get more and more concentrated because the water is held in the cooler and pumped over the pads. Every few hours it purges brackish water and refills. Bad for most plants!

2 - A "flow through" cooler has a steady trickle of water flowing through it, over the pads, and out the overflow. These are rare because they waste so much water, but if you have one you can use the overflow to water plants with.

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AC units are producing what is basically distilled water. Collect it in whatever you want and water your plants with it.