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Air conditioning condensate

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ChrisJ
ChrisJ Member Posts: 16,841
edited July 1 in A-C, Heat Pumps & Refrigeration

I'm curious,

Is there a general rule of thumb of how much condensate an air conditioner can produce per ton per hour?

I understand there's a huge amount of variables, I'm just curious if there's some formulas out there. I.E. if you've got 5 tons of cooling and 12,000 btu/h of that is for latent cooling, what amount of water can that produce?

I'm producing just over 3 gallons per hour of condensate with a 5 ton system and I'm running something like 420 cfm / ton, so sensible is higher than I'd like it.

Single pipe 392sqft system with an EG-40 rated for 325sqft and it's silent and balanced at all times.

Comments

  • ChrisJ
    ChrisJ Member Posts: 16,841

    I took a guess.

    25 pounds of water per hour = 24,250 btu/h?

    Single pipe 392sqft system with an EG-40 rated for 325sqft and it's silent and balanced at all times.

  • HydronicMike
    HydronicMike Member Posts: 77

    Really need to know:

    SA, DB & WB (or humidity)

    RA, DB & WB (or humidity)

    But your answer might (should) be in pints (pounds)

    ChrisJ
  • winnie
    winnie Member Posts: 44

    When water condenses, it gives up heat. This is just the latent heat of vaporization.

    As stated in the opening question, to figure out the water production in a particular situation requires knowing lots of details. But if you just want a ballpark limiting case, you can use the heat of vaporization to calculate the maximum amount of water it would be possible to condense with a given amount of heat pumping.

    https://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/water-properties-d_1573.html will give you the heat of vaporization of water at any selected temperature, say for example the evaporator coil temperature. Take the latent heat pumped / specific heat of vaporization to get water condensed.

    EG. the latent heat of vaporization of water at 55F is 1062 BTU/lb. If you are pumping 12000 BTU/hr of latent heat then you are condensing 11.3 pounds per hour of water.

    Note that I made the problem easy by assuming a fixed about of latent heat pumping. The actual amount of latent heat removed depends on all of the variables, so by fixing that number I am ignoring all of the complexity. This is foolish if you are trying to figure out how much water will actually condense given particular conditions, but perfect if you just want an idea of the maximum amount of water that could possibly condense if all the cooling went to condensing water.

    ChrisJ
  • EdTheHeaterMan
    EdTheHeaterMan Member Posts: 10,765
    edited July 1

    If you really need to know just pipe the condensate into a 5 gallon pail that is marked off in 1/4 pound increments or in 4 ounce increments. Then set the thermostat in an 80° home to 50° and watch for the water to start pouring out the pipe. Once you get a steady and consistent flow, place the bucket under the discharge pipe in order to collect all the water from the operating air conditioner. start a stop watch at the same time. In 15 minutes remove the 5 gallon pail and measure how much water you have. Now do the math for the number of pounds and ounces of water you have based on the 15 minutes, times 4 to get you the hourly number.

    Repeat this on several different days when the RH and Temperatures are different.

    Then Repeat with several different homes that have different size AC units.

    At the end of the summer, report back here with your findings.

    We all would like to know this important information in case we will be installing 20 or more units in the same building and need to know what size common drain pipe is needed for all that water if all units are operating at the same time.

    Edward Young Retired

    After you make that expensive repair and you still have the same problem, What will you check next?

  • EBEBRATT-Ed
    EBEBRATT-Ed Member Posts: 18,221
    edited July 2

    here is an online calculator

    https://hvac-eng.com/air-conditioning-condensate-calculator/

  • mattmia2
    mattmia2 Member Posts: 13,456

    the latent heat of vaporization of water will get you there. figure out how many gallons 12,000 btu will evaporate and you have the theoretical maximum. Or convert it to watts and it will al be a lot easier.

  • ChrisJ
    ChrisJ Member Posts: 16,841
    https://forum.heatinghelp.com/discussion/comment/1859222#Comment_1859222

    Something is seriously wrong with that calculator.

    Single pipe 392sqft system with an EG-40 rated for 325sqft and it's silent and balanced at all times.

  • EBEBRATT-Ed
    EBEBRATT-Ed Member Posts: 18,221

    @ChrisJ

    I didn't try it myself. Is it way off?

  • ChrisJ
    ChrisJ Member Posts: 16,841
    https://forum.heatinghelp.com/discussion/comment/1859234#Comment_1859234

    Yeah,

    I did something like 80f 70% rh and 2000 CFM and it came up with 3+ gpm.

    For 1200 CFM. 72f and 45% it still said something like 0.5gpm. I have no idea what it's using as the evap temp but it's cold.

    Single pipe 392sqft system with an EG-40 rated for 325sqft and it's silent and balanced at all times.

  • winnie
    winnie Member Posts: 44
    https://forum.heatinghelp.com/discussion/comment/1859235#Comment_1859235

    If you have 2000 CFM at 80F and 70% RH, and magically condense all the water out, you get something like 0.26gpm. I don't even think the numbers work if there results were in pints per minute rather than gpm.

    ChrisJ

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