Wondering out loud

[One Smith]

Hello all,

We’re in north central Florida until May or June. We’re living in our camper until our house is finished being built. It has been quite cold here at night recently with a recent low of 23°. We generally run our furnace at night around 63°. But, only when it’s really cold. The daytime highs have been in the mid 50s, but we did have a few days with highs only in the upper 40s.

So here’s my question… We keep our upper air intake vent filters and screens clean. However, the last time we took them off to clean them we noticed that there was allot of condensation in the drip trays. Since hot air rises, and the temperature sensor is in this area, we would expect to see the condensation.

We have been wandering, studying manuals, and searching the forums, trying to find whether or not the condensation in the drip tray runs out the same tube as the air conditioner condensate near the wheel well? Or, does it just eventually evaporate? The reason we got wondering about this started with the fact that the screens themselves look like they had been wet from a drip of water. We have throw rugs on the floor so we didn’t see any water on the floor, or feel any dampness on the rugs themselves. Plus, we don’t see any dripping from the AC tube outside.

Looking forward to your replies.

[uncle_bob]

Hi

You *will* see a lot of condensation in an AS living in cold weather. That's just how it works. How much you see depends a lot on what you do in the trailer / how long you are in the trailer. We see "water" all over the windows each morning when camping in the cold. That's with the two of us, three dogs, and routine cooking / meals / wash up going on in the trailer.

The magic drip line may well freeze in cold weather ....

Bob

[Wazbro]

If "upper air intake vent" means fantastic fan no it is not going to go out the same tube as the air conditioner condensate, it should just eventually evaporate.

[Mollysdad]

Originally Posted by Wazbro

If "upper air intake vent" means fantastic fan no it is not going to go out the same tube as the air conditioner condensate, it should just eventually evaporate.

I took "upper air intake vent" to mean the air return to the air conditioner.
If it's from the A/C on heat pump, the condensate will tun off the roof since it's not captured in the drip tray and sent down the tubes.

[Fungus]

Buy a dehumidifier. Ours is a Colaze. Weighs 25#. There are others. Don’t go cheap.

Furnace adds moisture (or so I’m told). We run heat at 60F during the day and 55F to 50F at night. I thought we were running heat at 64F but the DW informed me otherwise. If 60F seems cold think about this: would you enjoy a 60F day outside or would you think it was cold?

[One Smith]

Hello all,
Thanks for the replies, however, no one really answered my question. But then, maybe no one really knows the answer.

When I referred to the air intake I was talking about the return air to the air conditioner. Not the fantastic fans.

So when it’s really cold and we have the furnace or any heat on, such as a space heater, the area under the actual air conditioner on the roof shows condensation which is normal. We don’t need a dehumidifier in our trailer at this time. We do have one but we don’t need it right now.

The question is about the drip tray that runs under the air conditioner on the roof. This is with ducted air. It can accessed from inside the trailer by taking off the vent covers and reaching your hand up in there or use a flashlight and look up in there and it’s very wet from the condensation. There are beads of moisture all over, but the drip channel, I suppose is a better term than drip tray, has about an inch of water lying in it. If you’ve ever had the “32 degree problem “ then you know what I’m talking about. This is where we found our temperature sensor, lying in the drip channel.

We are trying to find out if the drip channel drains out the same tube as it does when you run the air conditioner. It doesn’t appear to.

And we are not running the heat pump. We are running on furnace.

Any ideas related to this question… how does this water in the drip channel evacuate from it?

[uncle_bob]

Originally Posted by One Smith

Hello all,
Thanks for the replies, however, no one really answered my question. But then, maybe no one really knows the answer.

When I referred to the air intake I was talking about the return air to the air conditioner. Not the fantastic fans.

So when it’s really cold and we have the furnace or any heat on, such as a space heater, the area under the actual air conditioner on the roof shows condensation which is normal. We don’t need a dehumidifier in our trailer at this time. We do have one but we don’t need it right now.

The question is about the drip tray that runs under the air conditioner on the roof. This is with ducted air. It can accessed from inside the trailer by taking off the vent covers and reaching your hand up in there or use a flashlight and look up in there and it’s very wet from the condensation. There are beads of moisture all over, but the drip channel, I suppose is a better term than drip tray, has about an inch of water lying in it. If you’ve ever had the “32 degree problem “ then you know what I’m talking about. This is where we found our temperature sensor, lying in the drip channel.

We are trying to find out if the drip channel drains out the same tube as it does when you run the air conditioner. It doesn’t appear to.

And we are not running the heat pump. We are running on furnace.

Any ideas related to this question… how does this water in the drip channel evacuate from it?

Hi

Assuming your A/C is set up like a "typical" unit, there is a piece of plastic tube that connects to the pan and heads out through the bottom of the trailer.

Bob