I just rerouted the condensate from one of my two A/C evaporators (the other was too far) and an Aprilaire dehumidifier. PVC pipe painted to match a downspout brings the condensate from the 2nd floor attic to a rain barrel I've set up to catch it. Hose connected to the rain barrel faucet allows me to empty the condensate into the pool--and then hide the hose when I need to. My hope was to have enough to keep the pool topped off with 7.0 pH water (pure water is 7.0; our city water is 8.2; ideal pH for plaster pool is 7.2-7.8). Initially I collected the condensate in a 5 gallon pail for testing. Turns out the water has a pH of 5.8, which I learned is due to carbon dioxide dissolved in the water from the air. That's not a problem. In fact the small amount of 5.8 water will barely raise the pH of the 15,000 gallon pool. Right now, I'm getting only about 8-10 gallons a day, but this is fall, and the AC runs less than summer. I should get 12-15 gallons in the summer. I don't know if that will keep the pool topped off, but it will help with both quantity and pH. My other water tests showed, not surprisingly, -0- chlorine, -0- calcium hardness, -0-total alkalinity, -0- salt, and -0- cyanuric acid. CDC recommends treatment of AC condensate if used for other than watering plants and other applications that don't require potable water, as the AC evaporator can carry in-home viruses and bacteria. Well guess what? A swimming pool has built in water treatment: chlorine. I use a salt water chlorine generator and keep the pool at 4-6ppm chlorine level, which is well above CDC's recommended minimum of 2-3ppm (CDC is only concerned with health issues, while pool owners also want to prevent algae.) Reuse of AC condensate is likely to become more important in the future. Consider in Houston, there are about 2 million "housing units" and 110,000 business in Harris County according to the Census. Just consider how much water is created by AC units and then piped right into the sanitary sewer system every day at 10 gallons per household. 20 million gallons--and that's just Harris County Texas. I know a few people who capture the condensate and use if for gardens (5.8pH is perfect for most flowering plants.) There are 82 million single family homes in America. Do the water math and see how much we're throwing away every day. The cost of routing AC condensate out to a container instead of into the sanitary sewer would be almost zero for new construction. It cost me $150 for the AC guys to do it. I know I won't live long enough to get my money back in savings on my water bill and reduce use of muriatic acid for pool pH. I just wanted to know if it would work. I'm doing a tiny bit to save water.

It would probably be a good idea to call repair service and then have him explain it all to you, and watch carefully, so maybe it would be something you could do, if it happened again. Water running on to electric is not a good idea, so I would call repair service, sooner rather than later. It is unfortunate when things happen when you are all excited and just moving in, but, it does sometimes. First night in one of my homes, I woke up to go to the bathroom, and stepped in water. The hot water heater had sprung a leak. After turning off the water, my hubby and I spent the rest of the night with a wet vac, cleaning up the mess.

@Kyle McGilligan-Bentin, curious what part of wisconsin is home? I am in the NW near MN border and our low's have been single digits the past couple nights, so thinking you areeast side near the lake? Do you have blinds/shades/curtains that you are closing at night? If so then you need t leave them open at least a few inches to ensure air circulation over the glass. That should help cut down on condensation if that is the case. Previous posts have been dead on and offered great practical advice for getting rid of the condensation, but I am going to offer a bit on the physics side of things to maybe help explain why that was such good advice....other than it works, which is pretty much the whole point of course, but I am a geek, so here goes..... The only way to prevent window condensation is by either raising window glass temperature above the dew point or lowering the moisture level of your home to drop the dew point. That's it, the only two options. People love to talk about dew point, TV weather guessers love to mention dew point, but what exactly is it? Dew point is defined as saturation vapor density, or 100% relative humidity, or as the transition temperature between evaporation and condensation. The temperature of the dew point is based entirely on the moisture level of the air and is independent of the air or surface temperature. While dew point temperature can be calculated based air temperature and relative humidity, to reemphasize, dew point is based entirely on the amount of moisture in the air and is unaffected by air temperature. So why is this important? If your window glass is above the dew point temperature they are dry, if the glass temp is below dew point temperature, the glass is wet. You can only change the dew point by changing the moisture level. Thats why (from WoW) : Run bath fans for at least 10 minutes after you are done bathing Reduce indoor plants Run range fans while cooking Reduce humidistat settings if so equip on your HVAC equipment will actually work, because all of these suggestions will lower the moisture level in a space which will lower the dew point. Relative humidity on the other hand is dependent on both moisture level and temperature. Raising room temperature without changing the moisture level will lower RH but will not affect the dew point, while lowering room temperature will raise the RH level, but again does not affect the dew point. Raising and lowering the RH by changing room temperature will affect your comfort but will not affect whether or not you have wet windows. Actual example (well real calculations at least): Consider a home at 65°F with a relative humidity reading of 40%. In this scenario there are 6.25 grams of water in a cubic meter of air in the home which equates to a dew point temperature of 38°F. If the window glass is less than 38°F then condensation on the glass is likely to occur. What if rather than 40% RH we try 30% RH to see if that helps? Well we can lower the Rh by raising the air temp to 75°F which lowers the Rh to 29%. Did this fix the problem? Nope, you still have wet windows because warming the room to lower the RH still doesn't change the dew point so it doesn't affect the formation of condensation on the glass. Raising air temperature did nothing to lower the dew point which is still 38°. But lowering RH by lowering moisture in the air will also lower the dew point and that should help.

Hello! Went EZ on watering my new closed terrariums. Only half (~1.5 inch) of substrate is visibly wet (darker). The rest of substrate + charcoal + gravel is bone dry. 2 weeks later, no change. But there's constant condensation on glass, 24/7. Typically this means overwatering... But can it be over watered if the substrate isn't even fully wet? Which one should I be using as an indicator of watering level? Also concerned the water isn't draining down into charcoal if bottom half is bone dry. Thank you for any thoughts or ideas!