I was asked to run a condensation line for a new hvac that has a pump. work will be inspected so i can’t run into a vent stack in the attic. I will run the line outside next to the refrigerant lines and the hvac guy told me that it had to terminate into some gravel pit or something, that it couldn’t just run into the grass. hvac not being my area of expertece, I need some help on this one.
thanks
orbs
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Replies
dry well not a gravel pit...
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thanks IMERC, so now what's a dry well?
A dry well is an underground structure that disposes of unwanted water, most commonly stormwater runoff, by dissipating it into the ground, where it merges with the local groundwater.
A dry well is a passive structure. Water flows through it under the influence of gravity. A dry well receives water from one or more entry pipes or channels at its top. A dry well discharges the same water through a number of small exit openings distributed over a larger surface area, the side(s) and bottom of the dry well. When a dry well is above the water table, most of its internal volume will contain air. Such a dry well can accept an initial inrush of water very quickly, until the air is displaced. After that, the dry well can only accept water as fast as it can dissipate water. Some dry wells deliberately incorporate a large storage capacity, so that they can accept a large amount of water very quickly and then dissipate it gradually over time, a method that is compatible with the intermittent nature of rainfall. A dry well maintains the connection between its inflow and outflow openings by resisting collapse and resisting clogging.
Simple dry wells consist of a pit filled with gravel, riprap, rubble, or other debris. Such pits resist collapse, but do not have much storage capacity because their interior volume is mostly filled by stone. A more advanced dry well defines a large interior storage volume by a reinforced concrete cylinder with perforated sides and bottom. These dry wells are usually buried completely, so that they do not take up any land area. The dry wells for a parking lot's storm drains are usually buried below the same parking lot.
A French drain resembles a dry well that is not covered.
A covered dry well that disposes of sewage is called a cesspool.
An open pit that receives storm water and dissipates it into the ground is called a recharge basin. Sometimes called "sump".
Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming<!----><!----><!---->
WOW!!! What a Ride!<!----><!---->
Forget the primal scream, just ROAR!!!
they don't allow us to dump condensate into a gravel drain pit anymore... around here has to be into a trapped drain but this depends alot on the inspector and how he reads the rules...
with a pump it's worked for me in the past to use the P-trap fitting for a dishwasher set up and use the small drain hole for the pump drain line... IF you can get it there
p
In new jersey, I'm told you can no longer run condensate lines to daylight becasue they could freeze in the winter and I guess plug up not allowing the cndensate from the furnace to drain out. I've never seen one produce that much moisture, but thats just what i'm told. The last two houses I build the lines were run into the sump pit in the basement.
>>I've never seen one produce that much moistureFWIW, In very cold weather in NW Ohio, my 100,000 btu 90+ produces up to 5 gallons a day
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yes, we call them french drain, kinda like the frence drain for water too. also we got to have a p trap type device at the closet, just make it where you can pour some bleach in to kill the mold. ( overkill but free) what was left over from footer french drain
Edited 10/22/2006 12:46 pm by brownbagg
more, around here they don't like stand water due to mosquito
007 bleach port
008 gravel pit, that whole tube in other picture filled with gravel (Overkill but free)
009 inside pipe terminate in top of gravel pit
011 p trap under bleach port
012 p trap
Edited 10/22/2006 12:45 pm by brownbagg
The "pump" is a condensate pump? The best thing to do is to empty it into a standpipe, like for a washing machine. There has to be an air gap (ie, so you can see daylight between bottom of condensate hose and top of standpipe), but that's not hard to arrange.
Otherwise, with a pump you need a little more than a standard drip-drip condensate situation (where dripping it out on a 6x6x2" bed of pea gravel would suffice for a residential unit). Should be a gravel bed with enough volume to handle the capacity of the pump tank maybe 2-3 times over. And of course there must be absorbant soil around the area.
Condensation is produced when a surface is colder than its ambient air thus causing water to change states from gas to liquid. Whether the cold surface is inside the house or outside will change depending on which way the pump is running. In summer you'll get condensate on the interior coils and in the winter it will be th exterior coils.
I've got a condensate drain plumbed from the interior coil unit. As for the exterior one, I always thought it just drains out of the bottom of the pump onto the ground. Guess I'll have to have a look....
Scott.
Always remember those first immortal words that Adam said to Eve, “You’d better stand back, I don’t know how big this thing’s going to get.”
Edited 10/24/2006 1:56 pm by Scott