404. That’s an error. The requested URL /answers/threadview%3Fid%3D242795 was not found on this server. That’s all we know. Signs of a Drain Backup: Thinkstock Select ratingGive How to Keep Drains from Clogging 1/5Give How to Keep Drains from Clogging 2/5Give How to Keep Drains from Clogging 3/5Give How to Keep Drains from Clogging 4/5Give How to Keep Drains from Clogging 5/5Cancel rating More From The AlmanacFrozen Pipes: How to Prevent and...Tips for Common Household ProblemsHousehold Uses for Baking SodaHomemade Cleaners: For Carpet,...How to Survive a HurricaneBathroom Cleaning: Toilet Bowl,...Household Uses for VinegarEight to nine liters of water can be produced in only six hours. Is it possible to drink it too?The world water crises is a definite fact, and the availability of fresh water for drinking, cooking, bathing, and other uses is an issue that is constantly being brought before our attention. The crisis is especially evident in the Middle East.As natural sources of fresh water continue to dwindle, creative ways to derive water, including desalination in water starved countries like Saudi Arabia, waste water recycling, and even unusual methods like using drone aircraft to collect water from water vapor in the air for use in agriculture, are coming to the fore.

While these methods have merit, they often involve large capital outlays. Many of us, however, may be overlooking a way to acquire large quantities of fresh water as a by-product of those devices which we use during the hot summer months to keep us cool. ac unit keeps turning on and offAnd those devices are none other than our household and business air conditioners.cost of central air for mobile homeToo hot to go withoutThe use of air conditioning devices is becoming widespread; york ac unit modelwe are  reaching the point where people simply have to use them in order to live normally in countries where daily summertime temperatures often climb as high as 45 degrees Celsius. These high temperatures are sometimes coupled with high humidity, making the actual temperatures seem even higher.

Creating fresh water from the condensation created by air conditioners is nothing new. But until recently, the water made from this condensation has been simply allowed to run off, often to the ground, city storm drains and other places. The derivation of water from water vapor in the air came to many people’s attention recently when an American company, Air2Water LLC, patented a device that removes water from the very air we breathe.When humidity is a blessingThe system in this device is very similar to the cooling systems found in most private and commercial air conditioners, in that water condensation from the refrigeration coils is the end result. To give an indication of how much water can be created by even a small household air conditioner, try collecting this “run off” water in a bucket or large plastic bottle instead of  letting it run off onto the ground. The amount of water that can be collected in this manner will vary according to the size of the AC unit, the air temperatures when the unit is operating, and (very important) the amount of humidity present in the air.

Those “blessed” with living in an area with high humidity (65-70%) , such as a seaside location for example, will be able to “collect” more water than those living in dryer areas where the humidity is less than 45%. In a high humidity location, even a small AV unit of 1 horsepower (7,000 – 8,000 BTUs) can produce as much as 9 liters of water from about 6 hours of use.If a small unit can produce this much water (which is virtually distilled water, and free from chemicals and other contaminants), think about how much water a large commercial air conditioning unit can produce, such as those found in those United Arab Emirates’ mega building projects, including the recently completed Khalifa Dubi Tower, or Burj Dubai, being hailed as the tallest man-made structure on earth.While AC units in structures like Burj Dubai are capable of  producing thousands of gallons of fresh water through AC  condensation, your small household units can produce enough water to use in gardening, flushing toilets, cleaning, and with a small bit of filtration, even for cooking and drinking.

A small, 1 HP unit can create 8-9 liters of water in just 6 hours, while a  larger 3-5 HP unit can make 3-5 times as much.Best of all, this water comes directly from the air we breathe. What better way to put it to good use?More articles on sources for creating fresh water:Drone Aircraft Takes Water from Atmosphere for IrrigationAbu Dhabi’s Costly Desalination Plants Prompt Waste Water Treatment PlansHow to Make Water from Thin AirAmidst last week’s savage heat wave in much of North America, brownouts and even deaths were the norm. As temperatures rose–here in New York City, the heat index reached 112 degrees Fahrenheit on Friday; utter misery–people responded reasonably by any standard. They cranked up the AC. For most Americans, living in a hot place means having constant, almost uninterrupted access to air-conditioned spaces. Ever since Willis Haviland Carrier built the first AC unit in 1902, places long renowned for miserable summer conditions have become hospitable to more and more human beings year round as buildings and transportation were equipped with mechanical climate control.

But even though air conditioning made comfortable living possible in even the hottest climates, it comes at a cost. AC units have become more efficient over the years, but energy consumption during hot summer months can increase significantly, boosting both the amount of money spent on electricity and the volume of greenhouse gasses emitted in the energy production process. Sometimes, as happened in New York last week, energy consumption outstrips supply. That’s when power failures begin. Air conditioning efficiency improvements are always possible, but in the dry American West, scientists and engineers have a wider range of technology available. Researchers at the University of California Davis Western Cooling Efficiency Center used evaporative cooling to make drastic reductions in cooling energy consumption. Unlike standard vapor compression cooling, a process which uses a high load motor-driven compressor to compress gaseous refrigerants, evaporative cooling uses evaporating water and a fan to cool air.

The Center enlisted the help of a number of AC unit manufacturers for an ongoing commercial cooling project called the Western Cooling Challenge, with each company approaching efficiency upgrades in a different way. Field tests are performed on campus at UC Davis, and at Target and Walmart stores in Davis. Program director Jonathan Woolley said that the challenge has brought forth a few drastically more efficient designs, but it also encourages commercialization of technologies to stimulate large scale manufacturing and lower production costs. “In many respects, the Western Cooling Challenge doesn’t go far enough and call for better building design,” said Woolley, pointing out that because it uses water in the cooling process, evaporative cooling is dependent upon a reliable water supply in order to work. According to U.S. Department of Energy statistics, 40 percent of U.S. energy is used for buildings. In both commercial and residential buildings, 11 percent of that energy goes toward cooling.

Nearly 80 percent of the country’s commercial buildings are cooled by self-contained rooftop cooling units, known in HVAC circles as RTUs. Unlike the super efficient building design-incorporated air conditioning systems often used in very large structures, RTUs are the industrial equivalent of a window-mounted air conditioner–which is to say, not terribly efficient in most cases. The Western Cooling Efficiency Center partnered with Walmart and Target to test a few of the new designs, which include a number of hybrid vapor compression/evaporative RTUs. While the specific approach differs from manufacturer to manufacturer, the basic idea is that the evaporative part reduces the load placed on the vapor compression part’s motor, increasing its coefficient of performance, or COP. One design uses a nozzle to spray mist on the compression system’s hot condenser coils. Another uses a more conventional setup–a fan draws air through a pad continuously bathed in water–to lower the temperature of the air used to cool the compression cooler’s condenser.

Innovations made by Western Cooling Challenge participants have resulted in drastic efficiency increases. The Center reported a 38 percent COP increase at a Davis Target store participating in the study. Woolley said that the challenge’s goal is to encourage boosts in efficiency similar to or greater than that, rather than the incremental increases required by federal regulation. But although the new technology is a vast improvement over existing RTUs, it’s not without its faults. For starters, evaporative coolers don’t work in hot, humid climates (because the air is already saturated and water can’t evaporate), and their COP decreases with each degree the temperature goes up. Also, because they’re not widely produced, the most efficient efficient designs can be expensive to build. Evaporative coolers also use water, and in the West, where large scale water supply faces an uncertain future, water use is definitely an issue. Currently, water costs 60 cents per cubic meter in Davis, so water consumption eats into less than ten percent of the energy savings brought on by new hybrid RTUs.

The price of Davis’ water is scheduled to increase fourfold sometime next year (to accommodate expensive infrastructure upgrades), but the new technology’s economic benefit will still be high enough to justify its use. In Los Angeles, water delivery is energy intensive. Roughly a third of the city’s water comes from the State Water Project, a massive water delivery system that accounts for about 20 percent of the water consumed in California (that’s what happens when you pump millions of gallons of water over mountain range every day). Changing water allocation agreements means that L.A. may have to rely more upon desalination for drinking water in the future, further increasing its cost. Woolley said it might just be cheaper to use standard, albeit less efficient, vapor compression systems in Los Angeles, or to place more emphasis on better building design. But he also pointed out that water is consumed during electric power production as well–water evaporates from hydroelectric reservoirs and escapes as steam from the cooling units of coal, natural gas, nuclear, and other heat-based plants.