Save Money With The Benefits Of Using Air Conditioning Condensate Water For Filling Up A House Water Tank

Save Money With The Benefits Of Using Air Conditioning Condensate Water For Filling Up A House Water Tank

Air conditioning units whether they are on heating or cooling mode produce water from the air as a byproduct. On the internal evaporator when on cooling or the condensing unit coil when on heating. With water costs and water conservation a priority for many governments as well as citizens why not use the water collected from air conditioning systems to fill up a buildings hot water tank?

With a standard 5kw / 18000 Btu having the capability of removing up to 80 liters of water a day from the air in a average RH%50, this actually equates to a lot of potential money. Here in the UK metered water costs somewhere in the region of £1.50 / 1 Meter cubed of clean water (Approx US$ 1.81), a standard air conditioning unit would be able to supplement this by making 1 meter cubed of water in 13 days as it could collect 80 liters a day. This could mean that a standard air conditioning unit could save somewhere in the region of UK£42.00 / year (US$67.00). Larger air conditioning systems can produce massive quantities of condensate water when used in certain regions of the world. In high humidity areas up to 10 liters per hour such as documented in the blog post.

How To Implement It Into The water System

The indoor unit will either use gravity or a condensate pump to remove the condensate from the system, the later is better as this can be pumped directly into the water storage tank. Water will only be collected when the internal water is on cooling so may only work in some regions of the world in winter. The outdoor unit collects water when it is on heating mode, the coil gets cold and condenses moister out of the ambient air this is then drained through the base into the plug. The only sensible way to harvest the water from this is to mount the condensing unit so it is higher than the water tank within the property and let the harvested water flow by gravity into the tank. It would always be advised to filter the water going into the tank even though it will not be consumed orally. 

Here are the figures based on 5kW wall mounted air conditioning in a ambient humidity :

1. A 5 kW / 18000 Btu air conditioning unit can collect in the region of 80 liters / day. 
2. 1 Meter cubed of water (1000 liters) cost £1.50
3. 365 days in the year

Sum:

1000 (2) / 80 (1) = 12.5 Days

365 (3) / 12.5 days = 29.2 (meters cubed of water collected per year)

29.2 x £1.50 = £43.80 / year

Therefore Total Money Saved Over 12 Months: £43.80 / US$70.00  

Benefits:

• Water collected per day could be as much as 70 liters per day for a 5kw system
• Water cost rising (UK £1.50 / Meter cubed)
• Benefit from water harvesting when the unit is cooling on the indoor and heating on the outdoor
• Get even more efficiency out of the air conditioning

Negatives:

• The condensate water will require basic filtration
• The water should not really be consumed as drinking water

Tel: +44(0)845 567 7080E-mail: info@orionair.co.uk

     

Any thoughts and comments gladly received, thank you for taking the time to read this article.