Everything
You Wanted To Know About Dehumidifiers
by Bob Cobe
AllergyBuyersClub.com Staff
Q) What does a dehumidifier do?
A) It takes moisture out of the air by sucking in moist
air on one side, moving that air over some ice cold
tubes that causes the moisture to collect on these tubes
and then drip into a bucket or tube, and pushing the
dry air out the other. This dry air then mixes with
the moist air making it a little drier, which in turn
is pulled into the unit to become drier over and over
again.
 Q)
What size dehumidifier do I need?
A) Sizing Rule of Thumb for most areas except coastal
is:
Up to 400 square feet: 25 or 30 pint
Up to 800 square feet: 40 pint
Up to 1000 square feet: 50 pint
Up to 1300 square feet: 65 pint
- For coastal areas the square foot coverage will
be reduced as much as 50%.
- All of these figures are based on an 8’ high
ceiling. So if the height is 10’, then add 25%
more to the square footage and if 12’ high,
then add 50%, etc.
Q) How much will my dehumidifier
be able to lower the humidity?
A) That will depend on a lot of things. Most importantly,
the temperature in your room will determine the minimum
humidity level you will be able to achieve. With most
dehumidifiers the air comes out at around 30% humidity.
At 70 degrees and higher it is possible to reduce the
humidity to 35% to 40%. As the temperature goes below
70 degrees and down into the 50’s this will rise
to 60 %. If the humidity reached is not as low as you
want, you can heat the room or raise the dehumidifier off the floor where it is coldest. Since heat rises
the air temperature will be higher as you elevate it
towards the ceiling.
This will enable you to further lower
the humidity. There are other factors affecting how
low you can bring the humidity level, such as the size
of the area you are dehumidifying, construction of the
room, and the area of the country where you live.
Q) What do you mean by 30 pint,
50 pint, or 65 pint dehumidifiers?
A) That number tells you approximately how many pints
on water it can remove in 24 hours.
Q) What is a low temperature dehumidifier?
A) It is designed to operate at temperatures below 65
degrees. If the temperature drops to 65 degrees or below,
the water will freeze on the condenser coils in the
dehumidifier and either heat up and shorten it’s
life, or cause it to cycle on and off as the water melts
and quickly freezes without removing any moisture from
the air. (Note – the Comfort-Aire
low temp dehumidifiers are our category winners
for the best low end value machines).
Q) How do I know what the humidity
level is in the area I want to dehumidify?
A) You can use a hygrometer to measure the humidity.
It is like a thermometer, but reads humidity levels
and not temperature levels. We sell them and some units
have hygrometers built into them.
Q) At what humidity level should
I keep the room?
A) We recommend 50% or just below because mold will
not grow below 50%.
Q) What happens if I try to keep
the room at 40% or 35%?
A) You will be wasting money on electricity. And you
usually cannot dehumidify much below 40%.
Q) What is an adjustable humidistat?
A) A dial or digital input that allows you to set the
machine to dry the air to the level you choose.
Q) What happens if I buy too small
a unit?
A) The unit will operate continuously and probably not
dehumidify down to 50% to prevent mold.
Q) Won’t it still make the
room feel more comfortable?
A) Yes, but it won’t prevent mold from growing
because the humidity may stay above 50%?
Q) Will I be wasting money if
I buy too large a dehumidifier?
A) Not necessarily. The unit will shut off more quickly
and it gives you a margin of safety.
Q) How much will it cost to run?
A) We can’t tell you. It depends on how much moisture
you need to remove and how long it needs to run to achieve
your desired level?
Q) Should I turn off the dehumidifier
in the winter?
A) If you want, but if you do leave it on it will work
whenever the humidity rises should there be a leaky
pipe or a quick thaw of the snow outside.
Q) How large is the water collection
bucket?
A) Usually between 15 and 20 pints regardless of the
capability of the unit.
Q) How often will I have to empty
the bucket?
A) That depends on how much moisture you have in the
room and how low you want to dehumidify.
Q) Does that mean that if I have
a 65 pint unit with a 20 pint water bucket, that I will
have to empty it more than once a day?
A) Yes, if you have that much moisture in the room.
But you won’t have to empty at all if you set
up constant drainage using gravity or an auxiliary pump.
Q) Can the bucket overflow?
A) No. Almost every unit has a float switch to shut
off the unit when the water rises to a certain level.
Q) How will air conditioning affect
the dehumidifier?
A) If the area they want to dehumidify has air conditioning,
then it will almost double the coverage of the dehumidifier.
Q) Can I mount this in the wall
between 2 rooms?
A) Yes. It may not be as efficient as if it were in
the same room. If you mount the dehumidifier in a wall,
the moist air is pulled from one room and the dry air
is pushed into the other, so you will have to leave
the doors open between the rooms for air circulation
or have a large gap under the door.
Q) Can I place the dehumidifier
in a cabinet?
A) No. Some units produce a fair amount of heat that
could cause a problem, and they need maximum airflow
around them.
Q) How much heat do they produce?
A) It is partly a function of how long the unit needs
to run to achieve a humidity level you want to attain.
In a large room or basement might be
3 or 4 degrees, but in a small room or a closet it could
raise the temperature by 3-8 degrees.
Q) Won’t that heat make
my air conditioner work harder and longer?
A) No. It is easier to cool or heat dry air than air
with moisture and so the air conditioner will work less.
Q) Can I have windows open while
I dehumidify?
A) No, or you will be trying to dry the air outside
of your house.
Q) If I leave the cellar door
open will it dehumidify the upstairs?
A) Only an insignificant amount. Better to leave it
closed.
Also, if you have the windows open you will be trying
to dehumidify the outdoors in addition to the upstairs.
Therefore, it is recommended to keep the cellar door
closed.
Q) Can I use an air purifier
at the same time I’m using the dehumidifier in
the room?
A) Yes, neither will affect the other.
Q) Does a dehumidifier cool the
room?
A) No, it actually adds heat, but it will feel much
more pleasant because the air is drier.
 Q)
Which side is the bucket on? Or which side does the
air come out?
A) The bucket will be on the side where the air is pulled
in. Drawing from the front means front bucket.
(Note: Our Comfort-Aire
and Millennium
dehumidifiers have front buckets; the Delonghi
dehumidifiers have a rear bucket.)
Q) Do I need to place the dehumidifier
in the center of the room?
A) Placement does not have to be in the center of a
room, but placing it near the middle would be helpful.
Since humidity will equalize itself in an air space
it is not absolutely necessary for it to be located
in the middle of the room.
Q) Can I dehumidify more than
1 room?
A) No, if the connecting doors are shut.
Yes, but not as well as a unit in each room. The room
in which the unit is placed will become the driest.
The dehumidification process can be helped by using
a small fan ($7 -$10) to move the air out of the back
of these satellite rooms.
Q) Does the dehumidifier filter
help clean the air that I breathe?
A) Not really. The filter is used to prevent dust from
getting on the cold coils and reducing efficiency.
Q) How often should the filter
be cleaned?
A) Check it monthly in the beginning to find out how
often it needs to be cleaned and then clean accordingly.
Q) How do I clean the filter?
A) Remove it according to the instruction manual, and
then wash it under faucet using low pressure or rinse
it out in the sink. Try to wash the particles back out
instead of forcing them through the filter.
Q) What can happen if I don’t
wash the filter?
A) The clogged filter will restrict the airflow and
reduce the efficiency and could cause it to overheat
which will shorten the working life of the unit.
Q) What is your “whole house”
Santa Fe dehumidifier?
A) It is a commercial quality home unit that can remove
up to 86 pints of water/day and has a built in pump.
It is very quiet and uses only 5.3 amps of power. You
can place it in a central area of a home and use it
with either the doors between the rooms left open or
with a lot of space under the doors.
Q) How does your
Santa Fe basement dehumidifier work?
A) It is also industrial grade and can remove up to
106 pints/day with a drain tube to remove the water.
A pump is optional as is a duct kit to allow ducting
into multiple rooms. This ducting from room to room
can be as simple as dryer hose or PVC pipe. It can be
used freestanding, or add ducting to it to duct into
multiple rooms, or be tied into a central air/ heating
system’s ducting.
AllergyBuyersClub.com has an extensive range of
residential
and commercial dehumidifiers and a great deal of
information about each one which we invite you to explore
before calling our dehumidifier experts at 1-888-236-7231.
See our dehumidifier
selection guide for more useful buying information.
See all the dehumidifiers at Allergybuyersclub.com
Top
|
If
you live in the Northeast, you are wondering
if summer is ever going to arrive; not
that I am grumbling as I am not a hot
and humid weather fan. The summer is time
for travel. Therefore, in order to be
comfortable, allergy sufferers need to
take extra precautions; there is some
excellent advice in this month’s
featured articles. 
