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Posted by BobK207 on February 13, 2007, 12:02 pm
>
> > Just curious...
>
> > How clean is the condensate water that my 90% furnace produces?
>
> > Is there anything in it that would make it unsafe for plants?
> > vegetables? pets? kids?
>
> > I've got no plans for it...just curious about what's in it.
>
> This is more of a guess than a scientifically accurate answer:
>
> Condensate is a result of the combustion of natural gas which should
> be a pretty clean process, but NG isn't perfect, so there are bound to
> be some impurities in it, but it should be generally clean. As a
> furnace gets older and the heat exchanger corrodes, there should be
> more metallic impurities.
>
> JK
as Big Jake points out the water you're talking about is condensed
combustion products...if the NG was 100% pure then so would the water
but NG has other stuff in it plus metals picked up from the furnace.
from http://www.engext.ksu.edu/ees/henergy/space/furnaces.html#septic
Is the condensate from a high-efficiency furnace harmful to a septic
system?
It's unlikely that a healthy septic system will be affected by the
water condensed from the flue gases of a high-efficiency furnace.
A 60,000-Btu furnace operating 50 percent of the time will produce
about seven gallons of condensate a day. The condensate has a pH level
of about four, which is about the same as a carbonated soft drink.
However, furnace condensate is not safe to drink because of trace
toxic chemicals it contains.
If it's not safe to drink...it's probably not safe for watering food
plants
I wouldn't use it to water veggies or fruit but acid loving
ornamentals "might" be ok. Depending on your soil it "might" help
reduce alkalinity
depending on your situation....can the area you're talking about
handle the water load?
Why not just dump it down the the drain?
cheers
Bob
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