"Conspicuous location" for drain OK in garage?

[mark johnson]

Just wondering if there would be any code violations with having the auxiliary pan drain pipe terminate inside the garage, just inside the entry door from the house. The idea would be that if there was any failure in the HVAC system, the condensate would flow from the auxiliary pan or secondary drain into the garage, and would drip from the ceiling right where the residents would see it as soon as they walked into the garage. This would be much more conspicuous than an outdoor drain, where it would need to be a matter of coincidence to see water dripping out from a soffit area drain.

The auxiliary pan will have a wet switch as the primary safety, so two failures would need to occur for this drain to ever see any water (failure in the HVAC itself to generate the water, and failure of the wet switch). The pipe inside the garage and a couple of feet inside the house would be copper (for fire rating). There is no floor drain in the garage, so the water would pool on the floor (which is the whole idea, to be noticed).

Any concerns with this?

[Brandon Chew]

I don't know about the California codes but the 2006 IRC in Section M1411.3 says only that it needs to "discharge to a conspicuous point of disposal to alert occupants." It does not say that it has to be to the exterior of the building. The only restrictions are that it must be "an approved place of disposal" and that it "shall not discharge into a street, alley or other areas where it would cause a nuisance."

"Approved place" means the AHJ has to say it is ok.

Dumping it on a garage floor that has no drain might not be considered "disposal" and could be considered by some to be a nuisance.

[mark johnson]

Yeah, I can see some eyebrows being raised at a drain being terminated over a garage floor, even though it is an "emergency" drain.

I'll go with the outdoor termination - it is more conventional and won't raise the questions of "what happens if the garage starts flooding".

Thanks.