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General Science / Air conditioning condensate is thrown away?
« on: 24/02/2021 17:15:11 »
Anyone happen to know why air conditioning condensate is usually thrown away?
I would have expected it to be sprayed over the condensing coil, to cool that off, and to evaporate the water away. Surely the lower the delta-t between the condensing coil and the evaporator coil, the better? Even if the air entering the condenser coil is at 100% relative humidity, it wouldn't be after having been heated, so there's always capacity for evaporation.
The physics is that you're spending (quite a bit) energy to condense that water (dehumidifying the room air), but if you evaporate it on the condenser, you get a lot of that heat of vaporization back by reducing the work load on the compressor.
Is the problem rust, or legionnaires disease or what?
Does anyone know?
I would have expected it to be sprayed over the condensing coil, to cool that off, and to evaporate the water away. Surely the lower the delta-t between the condensing coil and the evaporator coil, the better? Even if the air entering the condenser coil is at 100% relative humidity, it wouldn't be after having been heated, so there's always capacity for evaporation.
The physics is that you're spending (quite a bit) energy to condense that water (dehumidifying the room air), but if you evaporate it on the condenser, you get a lot of that heat of vaporization back by reducing the work load on the compressor.
Is the problem rust, or legionnaires disease or what?
Does anyone know?