Omelet wrote:
> One week ago Friday, I installed a new AC unit on my back porch. I'm
> sick to death of screwing around with window units. They need proper
> support and insulation so that you don't lose room cooling around the
> sides of the unit. Plus they are hard to keep clean. The last one grew a
> lot of mold in the vents and foam insulation. Yuck!
>
> The large unit I had burned out last fall. I gave it to freecycle for
> someone to re-build or harvest the copper coils just to get it hauled
> away.
>
> My poor Hobart unit was up to 55 degrees last week as the porch was up
> to 90 degrees and refrigerators don't like that! So I finally bought a
> nice little indoor unit that is keeping the room at 70 to 75 degrees.
> The Hobart is staying back down to 38 to 40 degrees now. :-) Fortunately
> I did not have anything really perishable in it when the temps got too
> high...
>
> The AC unit sits on the floor and is vented to the outside. I'm going
> to add some extra foam insulation to the slider panels in the window but
> it's not nearly as inconvenient as a regular window unit. It's cooling
> a 12' x 23' area and the window is only open 8" with the plastic panels.
>
> Anyway, my question is about the water coming off the condenser. It has
> an internal tank with a small hose that I could try to run outside
> (which would require me to lose additional cooling to the outdoors by
> cutting an additional hole in the panels) or running the drain hose into
> an additional tank which is what I have chosen to do, even tho' I'm
> going to have to empty it about every 2 days.
>
> The tank holds 4 gallons and this unit, with the current humidity (which
> is sitting at 68% today in my bedroom according to my digital
> hygrometer) is collecting around 2 gallons per day.
>
> I've tasted the water and it does not taste the least bit bad or
> metallic. I'm currently just using it to water plants...
>
> Is this water potable? Could it be used for the pet waters or for
> cooking and drinking?

Yes, and yes. It's just condensed humidity OM. Use it for whatever you
want. Sort of like distilled water without the boiling and condensing,
just the condensing. Always leave a small amount in the bottom to avoid
picking up any air particulates that may have settled there and be
careful about mold spores, ie. keep the thing clean.