A frequent complaint that I receive is that “the ground between my house and the next door neighbor is always wet”.The observation is correct and this condition exists between most houses in our area.This is not a natural condition.It is caused. THE CAUSE Most homeowners run their air conditioners daily.Even in the winter homeowners run the AC to reduce humidity.The average AC condenser (the unit located inside the house) discharges distilled water at the average rate range of ½ -1 gallon per hour.Lets divide that range and use .75 gal/hr.Over a 24 hour period that amounts to 18 gal of water.So let’s say 18 gallons of discharged water are discharged out of that little ¾” PVC pipe that comes out of the side of your house somewhere – usually at the side of your house daily.That discharge water is the water that your AC has captured or condensed from your interior house atmosphere.The water is dumped or discharged onto your lawn which is turf on top of a usually non-porous clay sub-surface.18 gallons may not seem like much but when it is constant and you do the math, it comes out to 126 gallons per week and 530 gallons per month.Now I should have your attention because we are talking about a significant volume of water.Because of the lack of leaching characteristics of the clay, the water has no where to go and either usually stays near the discharge point and creates a marsh or runs downward toward the sidewalk and street. In the rainy season this marsh between houses can also be made even worse by gutters that empty the water from roofs to the area/s between houses.The marsh condition can also be exacerbated by the irrigation system dumping additional water in the areas between houses.
THE CURE Homeowners have to devise a way/s to use the AC discharge water and roof run-off rather than dumping it on their lawns.Several ways are:
Pump or drain it to a cistern that can be used for lawn irrigation or plant/shrubbery watering.Piping the gutter water to a cistern will result in having even more water available for irrigation/watering.The cistern can be as simple as a plastic storage barrel screened from view by landscaping.
Pipe it to the swimming pool so that the AC discharge fills the pool and maintains its level rather than using expensive tap water to fill and maintain the pool water level.
Install a decorative fountain in the backyard and pipe the “free water” to it.
We may be in a drought and have very little rainwater but your AC discharge and roof watershed is substantial and how it is used is a measure of the homeowner’s resourcefulness and creativity.
