Whats the word on Dehumdifiers?

I was reading Reggies post about the humidity on the East Coast and know from my own experiences it can be rather high in VA too. I saw an ad for one and was thinking. Would it help with cooling my apartment and or be economical. My ac takes twice what my winter usage is for the few warm months of the year. The rest I just use a fan or gas heat.

I find alot of times I consider it hot when I sweat from doing next to nothing, than the actual air temp. Kind of made me wonder if controlling the humidity would be more effictive and efficient.

Just wondering...

When these units remove humidity they put a LOT of heat back into the room. Finally, water vapor will infiltrate into the area so it's not like you can remove the humidity and it will stay gone.

A window (or portable) air conditioner is likely your best option here. It will remove humidity better than a central unit, but not put heat back into your living area.

A lot of window units have a "dry" setting to remove water vapor.
The lower the humidity, the better your body can get rid of heat by evaporation.
That means that a fan will be much more effective in low humidity than high.

Reminds me of a line by Steven Wright: "It was my birthday recently, and for it I got a humidifier and a de-humidifier. So I put them in the same room and let them fight it out. Then I filled the humidifier with wax, so now my room's all shiney."

an air conditioner is basically a dehumidifier that takes the hot dried air from the dehumifier and then chills it down (with additional motors, compressors, pumps, and gasses, before blowing it back into the room, using much more electricity thereby..and creating even more heat which is directed out of the room..

might try placing 'misting' stations around the room to wet yourself down, then turn a fan on yourself. that'll chill ya a bit, for cheap.

I was plannning something similar for my place, but it's a lot dryer here more of the time.. I'm putting up curtains with drip tubing along the top to keep the curtains moist, with a little breeze from a fan or two, it should be quite effective..(the floor is bare concrete which also helps cool -- but the builder wouldn't put the channels for water in the concrete under the curtains -- they wouldn't even tilt the slab a little for drainage -- I'm working a way around it..)

I once had a good reason to use a dehumidifier. I was living in a basement with no windows so had no option for using a window mount air conditioner.

The dehumidifier works on the same principle as the air conditioner but after cooling the air and draining off the water that is collected it runs the cooled air through the heated side. There is a net heating of the room but not much. If you have no option for an air conditioner a dehumidifier is much better than nothing.

In your case though I would stick with the air conditioner. The dehumidifier would probably use close to the same amount of electricity and not cool your air.

But, you are right to look at himidity levels. Most people want indoor summer humidity to be below 50%. I have a cheap temp/hygrometer (humidity meter) that I keep on my desk. I can notice a huge difference between 50-55% humidity and 45-50%. I feel a lot cooler and dry off sooner after a shower/bath in 45% humidity.

Just for the record. In a closed room, a dehumidifier will produce heat from 1) the electricity it uses and 2) the heat of vaporization of the water vapor it converts back to liquid water. All this, in effect, dehumidifies the the room AND raises the ambient temperature. And a higher air temp (without adding additional water vapor) LOWERS the relative humidity. And relative humidity is what we're really talking about anyway, not absolute.

But I agree that, a dehumidifer will be better than nothing. But BEFORE I bought one, I would go buy a cheap little humidity meter ($10) from radio shack or somewhere.

Also, be prepared to empty the drain pan 1-2 times a day depending on usage/humidity levels/etc.

turbodog said:

But BEFORE I bought one, I would go buy a cheap little humidity meter ($10) from radio shack or somewhere.

Click to expand...

That's called a hygrometer

I've had both and my gut (factless opinion) says a small window unit does a better job and is cheaper for keeping you cool not to mention there's no pan to empty.

Interesting side note. A mechanic at work has a very large fan that circulates water through coils (swamp cooler?) He says it works great at keeping him cool until the humidity gets above 60-70% and then it's just hot air blowing on him.

If you read my entire post, you will notice I alread said that.

DUQ said:

That's called a hygrometer

Click to expand...

Dang nabbit!

My ventral ac has a floor drain, so I was going to use a hose to use that same drain for it.

Interesting. That may not be a bad idea to get one of those meters and see for myself. Ive often adjusted the ac til I am comfortable and its been arange of temperature as if humidity plays more of a role than the actual air temp.

I do not think my apartment regulations allow window units.

The best dehumidifier is an AC unit. I can't breath without AC in Florida. I gave up of thinking I was a millionaire in my own steam bath and got a central unit and it runs 8 months of the year.

We have a lot of humidity here and I have considerable experience with window a/c, central a/c and dehumidifers, both for personal use and rental properties.

My gut says go with a window unit. You can get a decent 8500but unit here for a little over $100. I've put a couple in a rental as replacements and the renter says they are a lot less expensive to run than the 7 year old ones they replaced. That should work for you, assuming your highs are in the 90-s and your apt isn't too large. Pretty sure you could find a way around apt rules for health purposes.

Dehumidifiers work, but they really do put a lot of heat out. This isn't too great a problem if they're working in conjunction with a central unit if they're near the return air duct, but I would have some doubts about their practicality with window units.

Target has a small one for 99 bucks and a winder ac unit for 69 bucks.

Its tempting, when I can afford it. I judge warmth by the easy of me to sweat inside my apartment, so this may really save me than using ac. No winder ac units are allowed in my complex.