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Gosh, I wonder where you guys live.. The AC unit pulls the humidity down as it cools (actually it _has_ to remove the moisture first). Which means that _all_ t
by StillBored 4y ago
Gosh, I wonder where you guys live..
The AC unit pulls the humidity down as it cools (actually it _has_ to remove the moisture first). Which means that _all_ the excess humidity/condensate goes down the AC drain from the evaporator which will be 20-40F (more or less, depending on system/etc, it might be more) cooler than the inlet. If you live say in the southern US and have ever had to use aux cooling in a datacenter you will be shocked at how much you have to empty the condensate collectors. Even on fairly small units you can fill up 55 gallon trash cans in a couple hours.
AKA even if its way overspeced you won't get a relative humidity > 100% which is what is required for everything in the room to start condensing.
So, if the outlet is really cold, and the humidity/room temp is high you can actually get a small amount of visible condensation as the cold air blows into a hot humid room, but I've never see that stuff manage to get more than a foot or two before it turns back into vapor. Basically a tiny cloud. Which would be how you _might_ get some condensate on something.. If your blowing the cold air against something (or its discharging up through a raised floor vent into a machine cabinet) and the humidity is high in the room it might be possible, but this is why you either mix the room/ac air first, or you seal the cold isle/machine cabinet/floor to avoid cold->hot leaks. If the AC is flowing from the cool/dry side through the machine the machine even if its not heating the air much will just raise the temp, not the humidity. Which lowers the RH in the room.
Also, the condensate on a machine room window, will be on the _outside_ where its warmer/wetter because the window is _cooler_ than the outside ambient.
Also, unless there is a huge air leak in the room, the machines will act like a heater, and the room will tend to have a fairly low relative humidity. AKA the AC will pull out the moisture for a given temp, and the machines/walls raise the temp of that air, so you have air with low relative humidity.
So, the only way the room starts to condense is if a bunch of external warm+humid air is added to a room, but that can happen independent of how much over/under cooling is happening. Running a perfectly setup room at say 70F, and throwing a the doors open to 100F 95% RH air and replacing the air faster than everything in the room can warm up will condense.
- toast0 4y ago> Gosh, I wonder where you guys live.. I'm on the west coast. Now in the Seattle area with A/C, and the air handler in the basement (which conditions the basement and the first floor) will form a fair amount of condensate where it's supposed to, but it can also form on the outside of the duct work too... Although the basement isn't super air sealed. So I'm just saying most of the condensation happens where it should, but not all of it. Of course, my basement isn't a machine room, either. I've only got a couple computers down there, and they're low power.
- StillBored 4y agoSo the basement is conditioned or not? Either way, residential AC duct looks like this: https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffsb&q=ac+duct+r8+&ia=web https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffsb&q=ac+duct+r8+&ia=web This stuff is run through attics and the like all over the southern US where the attics are at ambient humidity levels, and I can't remember the last time I saw condensate forming on one that was properly sealed with mastic. In fact it would probably be a problem if it was because it would be dripping through the attics into the drywall ceilings. R8 doesn't sound like much, but its apparently enough to keep the outside of the duct from feeling cool at all.
- toast0 4y agoBasement is conditioned, and the air handler and the duct with condensation are in the conditioned space. Most of the duct work is out of sight so I can't say if it's got insulation, but right by the air handler, it's just sheet metal, no insulation. It's not properly designed, or built... but it's there. Mostly it works ok, just gotta have a separate dehumidifier near the air handler to keep things under control... fixing the zoning helped a bit too.