Self Watering Garden - Using recycled water from an air conditioner

Step 2 Starting at the air conditioner...

The first step is to install what is called a condensate pump to get the water from where it is now to where we want it. The pump has a built-in tank and a float valve. When the tank is about 95% full the pump will come on and continue until the tank is empty. Depending on your pump this will usually be about a gallon (4 liters) at a time.

This really works out well because instead of your plants getting a great deal of water once in the day... they get a small watering several times all day long. Since the water is from an air conditioner it tends to be very cool... this helps keep the plants from overheating too. Before this project I could barely keep the plants alive... now... I have to cut them back all summer!

The pump is placed lower than the output of your air conditioner system and a flexible tubing is run from the pump to the wall where we drill a small hole for the connection to the outside.

Comments

[cwopdog]

I like your idea, I have a 4 ton unit here in S. Fl. and it puts out a lot of water. I plan to incorporate your ideas to water plants and I also have a float pump to spray fog misters on the outside of the condenser unit that draws in the cool air. I put an amprobe on one of the 120 volt phases and measured about 13 amps while the comprossor was running. After turning on the misters, I saw the current drop to 10 amps! This lowers the head pressure and allows your compressor to run a bit more efficient. The condensate is ideal as it is essentially distilled and doesn't tend to cause mineral scale to form on the coils. There are many qreat tricks out these to help save money and cut waste, Best of luck to you and your projects!