Café waters plants from AC condensate

A waterwise practice by the Wimberley Café was observed on the Square last week as air conditioning condensate was captured to water plants at the nearby Marco’s Italian restaurant. Jim Venable of Percheron Construction, with help from Roger Elsey, ran lines from four air conditioning units on top of the Café to a portable 250 gallon tank. From there, a hose from the tank ran across the construction of the Café’s kitchen expansion to plants at Marco’s Italian restaurant. Jay and Jen Bachman, owners of the Café, bought Marco’s Italian business in April.

“I thank Nathan Sloan, the owner of Percheron Construction, for giving us permission to capture the condensate,” said Venable, who showed an eight-foot nandina bush that was recovering from the area’s prolonged drought thanks to the harvested water.

“A residential air conditioning unit produces five gallons of distilled water every day with the kind of temperatures we’ve been experiencing lately,” said Venable, as he showed the PVC pipes and lines from the Café’s roof units. “In homes, that water usually runs in to a vanity drain or drips to the exterior of the house and is completely uncaptured.”

In Wimberley there is no building code for or against it and he gave examples of residents running lines from a condensate drip to a trough for deer and cattle.

“People are missing the boat by not capturing this water, especially during a drought like this,” he said.

A Wimberley resident since 1977, Venable has been in construction for 35 years. He is currently the project manager for the Café’s expansion and the row of retail shops being constructed on the lot between the café and Marco’s Italian restaurant.