|
Re: Drain line configuration
Jerry,
For the purpose of my attempted explanation, I will use the picture that Richard posted earlier. If you look at the modified picture below, you will see the result of the sink trap clogging and the A/C system continuing to generate a normal trickle flow of condensation.
The water level in the sink and the piping system will eventually rise to the level of the sink’s flood rim at which point the sink will overflow onto the floor. Because the Evaporator coil is in the attic in this case, the rising water in the drain piping system is never reach to the evaporator pan as it would in an otherwise closed drain piping system. The key here is that the piping system is ultimately open to the atmosphere at both the upper and lower ends of the A/C drain system. This serves to create a functionally effective air gap within the A/C drain piping.
Your stated interpretation of the code language (which I agree with entirely in principle by the way) is a bit too puritan in this particular case because it does not allow for the presence of an air gap that may not be readily visible in the traditional sense yet nonetheless exists from a functional standpoint.
I believe that recognition of this is why so many code authorities around the country do accept this configuration at bathroom lavatories and wash sinks in utility rooms. Even Code Check apparently saw fit to give us a diagram of this very configuration to illustrate how it is to be done.
Now I will go out on the limb here and presume that you will continue to disagree. If so, what you see as the negative functional or contaminatory consequences of having this type of A/C condensate drain configuration?
|