Howdy all. Vacation trip to El Paso in a vrbo house. Not familiar with this part of the state, but lots of roof top units. Why aren’t the condensate lines not insulated and then if they should be insulated, how should it be done? Also, gas lines and condensate lines are elevated above the roof, or supposed to be, but why? Assist in not catching debris? Prevent damage?
Dumb questions, but not use to seeing this and don’t have any reference material with me. Thanks
Condensate lines are likely only for the AC evaporator, so only used in warm temps during the summer. Elevating the lines is unusual, most go straight down to a gutter. For some reason they wanted to go parallel to the ridge, so needed to elevate the lines to not accumulate debris, cause water dams and subsequent roof leaks.
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This is my opinion.
The gas lines are elevated on pitched roofs so they don’t catch debris. They are elevated on flat roofs so they don’t sit on/in water and deteriorate.
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Awesome, thanks for your input. By the way, it seems that all homes have the ac units on the roof here. Is that just to save yard space?
Maybe upgraded from swamp coolers/evaporative coolers originally used???
Yes lots of evap coolers but even on new builds they are on the roof
Steve Darden
Peacock Inspections
254-234-5772
713-854-7053
Please forgive tpyo’s!
El Paso is hot dry desert normally and rarely gets below 30 degrees F in winter. So, heat pumps work well. Putting a packaged AC/Heat Pump on the roof requires minimum ducting while providing efficient air circulation (emphasizing cooling) and is overall cheaper to install, even with the crane costs.
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Hat sounds reasonable. Thank you for your comment
Steve Darden
Peacock Inspections
254-234-5772
713-854-7053
Please forgive tpyo’s!