Actually, a question concerning condensation resulting from the air conditioning process. Our central airconditioning unit lives outside, in Florida, in temperatures that range from the high eighties to the low nineties and in humidity that ranges from 80% to 100%. My darling Marcie, whom I love to distraction, has concluded that the amount of condensation discharged by our air conditioner is much higher than normal and no amount of explanation from me will satisfy her that it isn’t.
Can any doper(s) provide me with an educated guess as to the volume of condensation discharged by a central air conditioner unit that is being run 24/7 under the conditions described above?
There is no place for the water to come from except condensation. I don’t understand how anything could be broken.
If the system is cooling properly, however much water comes out as condensation is the proper amount.
If you want to lower the amount of condensation, it is probably the house that needs to change, not the A/C. The A/C is just removing water from the air in your house. Every time the doors or windows open, water is added to the air inside your house. Keeping these closed and sealing cracks and air leaks aournd the house is probable the only thing you could do to reduce the amount of condensation besides running the A/C less (i.e. turning up the thermastat)
Do you do a lot of cooking, or take longer, hotter showers than most, or have a lot of houseplants? (compared to ‘average’) - all these things add moisture to the air.
A dehumidifier performs a similar function, and there is a lot of information on how much water a dehumidier discharges in a 24-hour period. In fact, that’s how they’re sold - 25 pints per day, 50 pints per day, etc.
If the temperature is lowered from 90[sup]o[/sup]F to 70[sup]o[/sup]F, for air at 100% relative humidity about 1 pint of water is removed from the air for each 1000 cu. ft. of air cooled.
Air at 90[sup]o[/sup]F contains about 15 grains of water/cu. ft. when saturated. Air at 70[sup]o[/sup]F has about 8 grains. The difference is 7 grains/cu. ft. Or 7000 grains, one pound, per 1000 cu. ft. One pound of water is about 1 pint.
I appreciate all the answers, as well as the link. I have printed the article on air conditioning from www.howstuffworks.com and hope to be able to get it across to Marcie. I have to say that Marcie’s grasp of things mechanical is not that thorough and I sometimes have difficulty in remembering that.
We do, in fact, take long, hot showers and since we enjoy walks on the beach, we often take as many as three a day each. We also do a fair amount of laundry and our washer and dryer are inside the house instead of being in the garage. I fear I became too impatient to grasp and explain the obvious.