Like a lot of homes in this region, our Heating & A/C air handler is situated inside the garage; Both of us live in a part of the country where the heat pump is pretty much the only option for central air conditioning.
That’s because we deal with heat more than anything else. And by a genuinely big measure. The heat pump just hardly has any work to do during the winter. the heat pump does all its work from March through about the first few weeks of July when it comes to Heating & A/C cooling. However, it is the 4 months of Summer that are the times when heat pump is running practically day & evening. That’s a lot of Heating & A/C cooling! Yet there is no way to manage those 4 months of high heat & humidity without the aid of central air conditioning. And when the air conditioner is running that much, there are things to pay attention to. In particular, it’s important to pay attention to the Heating & A/C condensate level. Condensate is liquid moisture produced by the process of Heating & A/C cooling. It is a perfectly natural result of air conditioning. However, a homeowner is wise to keep an eye on the condensate levels. The Heating & A/C unit has a condensate drain line that runs to the exterior of most homes. And that is what normally drains the condensate. It works just as designed & there is no problem most of the time. However, that condensate line to get backed up or obstructed which doesn’t allow the condensate to drain & can end up overflowing the drain pan under the Heating & A/C air handler. During our Spring house prep for the upcoming Summer heat, I take a shopvac & pull out all the debris from the condensate drain line outside. It’s just a nice method to keep an eye on this small however important central air conditioning detail.