Condensation forms when warm humid air comes into contact with a colder surface like your air conditioner s ductwork.
Supply air grille sweating.
While sweating may be a simple annoyance it may also be potentially dangerous.
How to prevent condensation in ceiling vents.
Sweating occurs when the warm moist room air contacts the chilled diffuser face while the supply air temperature is below the dew point temperature.
And a quantity of.
If air is able to escape around the ac vents rather than flow through the grates as it should it can cause condensation to build up and drip from the ac vents.
Are the grilles that are sweating close to an unconditioned room or a door to outside.
Apparatus for preventing the accumulation of moisture condensation on an air conditioning supply grill of a concentric diffuser in an air conditioning system having a return air duct said apparatus comprising at least one anti sweat heater attached to said air conditioning supply grill.
Are they close to any sources of water vapor like a kitchen.
It chills the metal diffuser and tries to maintain a comfortable inside temperature.
Below is a dew point calculator that may help you see the correlation of the three values.
This colder surface then chills the surrounding air to a temperature below it s dew point which causes the water vapor to condense into a liquid just like on the outside of a glass of iced teas sitting outside on a hot day.
Dew point is the temperature where water vapors in the air start going into a liquid phase.
Either way it is a symptom of a larger problem.
In those situations the air conditioning system runs for longer periods of time.
The air temperature your conditioner is blowing out is below the dew point which causes the metal grill to sweat or condensate.
Click to view dew point calculator.
The easiest thing you can do to fix water leaking from your ac vent is to reach up and feel for any air escaping from around the sides of the air vent.
At least one humidistat positioned within said return air duct.
Any time that the dewpoint in the room is greater than the supply air temperature and therefore the supply grille temperature you can have condensation on the grilles.
Your ac duct connects to the vent grille via a metal tube called a boot if there is insufficient insulation around the boot or if there is a leak where the boot connects to the duct warm air can get in and cause condensation inside the boot that drips down to the ac vent grille.
Sweating presents itself in an air distribution system as moisture that forms on the faces of lay in diffusers and t bar grids adjacent to those diffusers where this moisture collects and drips into the areas below.