Who here is gathering water from their air con?

[AchmatK]

12000 BTU newly installed York aircon gives us only a trickle and wife uses it from 08:00 - 17:30 each day set at 23C. Unit is too efficient

I think you're around the corner from me if i remember. Mine is on auto whole day also newly installed. Not sure why mine gets as much water as it does.

 

[Gordon_R]

12000 BTU newly installed York aircon gives us only a trickle and wife uses it from 08:00 - 17:30 each day set at 23C. Unit is too efficient

Its not the unit, the air probably has little moisture.

I think you're around the corner from me if i remember. Mine is on auto whole day also newly installed. Not sure why mine gets as much water as it does.

The aircon can only remove the moisture that is in the air inside the room. If you keep all the windows closed (as most people do), then once the initial humidity is removed, there is minimal moisture left to condense.

The only way to continously produce water is to leave the door and windows open, which kinda defeats the whole purpose of having an air-conditioner (and wastes electricity).

Edit: Note that moisture levels vary from day to day, and the critical factor is the dew-point of the air (related to temperature and relative humidty percent). If this is below the operating temperature of the coil element in the aircon (usually around 10C), then no water will ever condense, no matter how many hours you run the appliance.

Edit: FYI, water harvesting operates best in Durban (DP > 20C), and worst in the Kalahari (DP < 5C)!

 

[Other Pineapple Smurf]

What @Gordon_R says.

Also the efficiency of the unit and the temp set will determine how hard the unit will be working. We had ours installed by a reputable local company who worked out the best place to install the unit.

 

[Rocket-Boy]

I very much doubt that the materials used in an air conditioner are safe for humans. Now, this probably isn't a problem since the water isn't sitting inside the aircon for extended periods like with plastic bottles, but it is something to be aware of.

The toxic area of the aircon is the cocktail of gasses used, other than that its all pretty much harmless.
Those gasses can be so toxic that gas is supposed to be harvested and then taken to a disposal facility rather than released into the atmosphere.

 

[Other Pineapple Smurf]

I think you're around the corner from me if i remember. Mine is on auto whole day also newly installed. Not sure why mine gets as much water as it does.

I was surprised how little water comes out as well. I need to put a bucket down to actually measure it like I did with my geyser. Was surprised how little drips out of my solar geyser. Also this is influenced by the type of geyser (indirect in my case) and how long you you switch the element on (3 hours around sunset) and the element temp. I expected to capture 5-7L of water but taking 2 days to fill up a small 3L bucket.

 

[AchmatK]

It seems my unit has dried all the air as the amount of water collected in the last 24 hours has reduced to about 5l with no change in the operating mode.

 

[wingnut771]

12000 BTU newly installed York aircon gives us only a trickle and wife uses it from 08:00 - 17:30 each day set at 23C. Unit is too efficient

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