Why water comes out of the air conditioning and how we can reuse it

Frente a la ola de calor, seguramente tuviste que poder en práctica las recomendaciones para cuidar tu salud y la de tu familia para evitar el golpe de calor. Una de esas recomendaciones indica "permanecer en lugares ventilados o acondicionados", por eso el ventilador y el aire acondicionado tuvieron también récord de uso en el hogar por estos días.

You know how to handle the remote control of your air conditioning, schedule your ignition and off, change way for greater comfort, direct the air flow that comes from your split, but do you know why you eliminate water? Did you know that it can bereused but with certain care?All this we tell you now.

Why does water come out of the air conditioning?

The functioning of the air conditioning involves several physical and chemical processes.Basically, what your air conditioner does is extract the hot air from inside your room.The refrigerant it contains makes a change from state (from liquid to gaseous), when passing through the evaporator unit.While the refrigerant circulates inside the evaporator, the hot air of your atmosphere passes, thanks to the operation of the equipment of the team, through the evaporator.The refrigerant is the one that then absorbs the heat of the air, and causes it to leave from the inner unit at a lower temperature.

Thus the temperature inside descends but the value of the relative humidity increases to the point of dew, in which the water vapor becomes precisely liquid water.Water is accumulated at the base of the evaporator, inside your inner wall split.Those water droplets expels come from condensed water vapor that was in your environment.

Water is accumulated in your air conditioning

If your air conditioning is mobile they have an easy collection tray of condensation water or a connection so you can accumulate and/or release it to a drain.In fixed and modern facilities an evacuation system with pipes is provided inside the wall to drain the water from your split to a drainage.In the least modern houses you can place a drain hose to the interior unit where the water comes out allowing it to collect it.

The amount of water that expels your air conditioning apparatus will depend on the moisture present in the air of the room and is a totally normal process.

Yes and not to reuse air conditioning water

The water that comes out of your air conditioning is distilled but it is not drinking water!Therefore, you can't drink it and don't offer it to your pets.As water comes from the condensation of the air of your environment, the particles containing depend mainly on the air quality, it can have all kinds of harmful particles and be contaminated with bacteria, tobacco, pollen, etc.., even if the air filters are clean and in correct state.

Although water you can not drink it, neither do you use for personal hygiene or that of your pets, because you will only take away the bacteria but not all the harmful particles that can cause you diseases or allergies.Its use to wash clothes is not recommended, nor to clean the elements of the kitchen and bathroom.

You can give some uses such as: Recharge the backpack or tank of your toile.(as long as it is not cloudy and mix it with appropriate products).

The condensation water of your air has a very acidic pH, for that reason it is not recommended to water crop or garden plants, but it is applied with greater confidence for the irrigation of certain plants that require a lot of moisture during the summer and tolerate very wellThe level of acidity.

Investigations on air conditioning water

According to a recent study, published in 2019 by the Palestinian Institute for Standardization (PSI) for drinking water and irrigation water, the quality of the water condensed by air conditioning equipment for residential buildings, restaurants and different stores was analyzed, in order toevaluate its reuse in two cities of Palestine where water resources are scarce.

They performed: pH tests, electrical conductivity, oxygen and dissolved solids, turbidity measurements, biological demand and oxygen chemistry, levels of present elements and heavy metals.

The results showed that the quality of condensed water is good enough to reuse it in irrigation;But with respect to drinking water, measurements made on turbidity and biological and chemical demand of oxygen do not correspond to national recommendations.

In Oman, where fresh water is also a very scarce resource, they also made an interesting study in renewable.

They tested different methods of water disinfection: chlorination, ozonization, exposure to UV, heating at 63 ° C, and solar disinfection.Solar rays can contribute to the destruction of germs, viruses and bacteria due to the presence of infrared and UV rays, after a filtration process to remove suspended materials.

The results showed that the properties of the water collected from the condensation are close to those of distilled water, and that all coliform bacteria and e-coli are destroyed after 2 hours of irradiation at 43 ° C.

Then the solar disinfection method could be used to make condensed water suitable for drinking in certain conditions and places where other disinfection methods are not available.

Remember that these studies are for places where the need for drinking water is extreme and with different water quality standards.Doctors do not recommend their reuse to drink, clean or cook.

Bonus track

In the event that the interior unit of the air conditioning begins to expel the water drops on the front soaking your wall, it can be due to dirt, lack of maintenance, or some failure.The water drain mechanism could be obstructed, or it may happen that gas pressure has decreased and freezing.In these situations you should advise and call a repair professional, avoid manipulating the team.