Anyone use a dehumidifier?

[Modular]

I'm looking to pick one up, but the reviews that I see on Home Depot and Lowe's units all look pretty bad. I want a decent unit that isn't going to fry on me in a year.

What brands are you using and what comments can you make about the noise of the compressor/fan and the power usage?

 

[fleabag]

where do you live and why do you need one?

 

[classy]

I use an LG unit with no issues.

 

[AlienCraft]

I'm using a couple of Eva Dry EVD-2200s I bought on Amazon. Been running one for a year with no problems.
The power supplies run warm though.

 

[KK]

I got 2 70 pint frigidaire units downstairs in the basement. Only had them for about 2-3 monthes so I really can't tell you anything about durability. Operation seems to do alright. humidity in the basement was around 80%, I keep it around 50-55% now. Units are loud, if I am downstairs watching TV I turn the one off in the room, and turn the one on in the unfinished portion of the basement. I don't know what the 70 pints refers to as I never seen 70 pints in a day, most I've had to empty it was twice in one day. the container probably holds around 2 gallons, so whats that, 16 pints.

 

[Mr. Pedantic]

I use a DeLonghi, and it's fairly good. It's slow, but it works very well.

 

[Born2bwire]

I have a DeLonghi unit designed for a single room. It works via desiccant so you do not have the compressor noise. The only noise is from the fan which is nice for close quarters. However, it uses a heater to remove the water absorbed in the desiccant and thus uses a lot of energy. The heat is also a bit unwelcome in the summer (but it's my only heat source in the winter so I don't mind). I haven't compared it to the amount of heat that a traditional compressor type puts out but the power usage is much higher.

It does the job though. I run it at least 2 hours a day to keep my studio flat at a more or less decent humidity. The humidity in Hong Kong is horrendous. A humidifier of some sort is an absolute necessity if you want to save your clothes and paper.

 

[MJinZ]

What do you do with the water though? Connect to your drain?

I would love one for hot humid days.

 

[Modular]

where do you live and why do you need one?

Live in Illinois. I need one because...well, I don't need one per se. It's just that my house doesn't get very hot at all; the warmest it has been was 78 and that was when it was 95 degrees outside. I find that the only reason I'm running the AC is to pull some moisture out of the air, which seems like a huge waste of electricity to me.

So I've got this plan to substitute my AC with a dehumidifier. I know that they let off some heat, so I may have to run the AC from time to time, but I suspect my overall energy savings should negate that.

 

[fleabag]

Live in Illinois. I need one because...well, I don't need one per se. It's just that my house doesn't get very hot at all; the warmest it has been was 78 and that was when it was 95 degrees outside. I find that the only reason I'm running the AC is to pull some moisture out of the air, which seems like a huge waste of electricity to me.

So I've got this plan to substitute my AC with a dehumidifier. I know that they let off some heat, so I may have to run the AC from time to time, but I suspect my overall energy savings should negate that.

Um, I'm not sure if a de-humidifier uses less energy than an A/C, though I'm not sure how the de-humidifer you're buying works and other such factors. Maybe you should call your power company and ask their advice. Air conditioners work based upon pumping, a de-humidifer could work on resistive heating, using a "pump" is more efficient than taking that energy and making only heat instead of heat and work. This is why heat-pumps are one of the most efficient forms of heating outthere, they work on the principle of A/C but for heating in the winter time.

 

[Rubycon]

Um, I'm not sure if a de-humidifier uses less energy than an A/C, though I'm not sure how the de-humidifer you're buying works and other such factors. Maybe you should call your power company and ask their advice. Air conditioners work based upon pumping, a de-humidifer could work on resistive heating, using a "pump" is more efficient than taking that energy and making only heat instead of heat and work. This is why heat-pumps are one of the most efficient forms of heating outthere, they work on the principle of A/C but for heating in the winter time.

A dehumidifer uses a refrigeration cycle to cool its evaporator below the dewpoint to remove moisture. This cooler air is then discharged through the condenser raising its temperature again. It will actually add heat to the air due to heat of compression. This is why an air conditioner must be vented to the outside in order to reduce indoor air temperature.

Resistance heating is used to ADD humidity to the air in computer room a/c systems that require heating/cooling/dehumidification/humidification on demand.

 

[fleabag]

A dehumidifer uses a refrigeration cycle to cool its evaporator below the dewpoint to remove moisture. This cooler air is then discharged through the condenser raising its temperature again. It will actually add heat to the air due to heat of compression. This is why an air conditioner must be vented to the outside in order to reduce indoor air temperature.

Resistance heating is used to ADD humidity to the air in computer room a/c systems that require heating/cooling/dehumidification/humidification on demand.

WAT? Also the type of dehumidifier depends on whether or not the unit vents to the outside or is portable.

 

[Born2bwire]

um, i'm not sure if a de-humidifier uses less energy than an a/c, though i'm not sure how the de-humidifer you're buying works and other such factors. Maybe you should call your power company and ask their advice. Air conditioners work based upon pumping, a de-humidifer could work on resistive heating, using a "pump" is more efficient than taking that energy and making only heat instead of heat and work. This is why heat-pumps are one of the most efficient forms of heating outthere, they work on the principle of a/c but for heating in the winter time.

.....


Sigh.......

 

[fleabag]

.....


Sigh.......

Singh




:awe:

 

[postmortemIA]

I'd need defartfier

 

[Aquaman]

google "Humidex"

Cheers,
Aquaman

 

[Sea Moose]

Um, I'm not sure if a de-humidifier uses less energy than an A/C, though I'm not sure how the de-humidifer you're buying works and other such factors. Maybe you should call your power company and ask their advice. Air conditioners work based upon pumping, a de-humidifer could work on resistive heating, using a "pump" is more efficient than taking that energy and making only heat instead of heat and work. This is why heat-pumps are one of the most efficient forms of heating outthere, they work on the principle of A/C but for heating in the winter time.

.....


Sigh.......

Actually Fleabag is right.

 

[geno]

Actually Fleabag is right.

I've never seen a dehumidifier that didn't run off of a pump / compressor What types use a heating element?

 

[Sea Moose]

I've never seen a dehumidifier that didn't run off of a pump / compressor What types use a heating element?

ok, some of what he said was right.

 

[fleabag]

I've never seen a dehumidifier that didn't run off of a pump / compressor What types use a heating element?

I remember reading or hearing about ones that use an A/C then use a resistive heating element to re-heat the air back to the temperature it started with.. this whole process would be less efficient overall than just using the A/C with nothing else.

 

[Rubycon]

I remember reading or hearing about ones that use an A/C then use a resistive heating element to re-heat the air back to the temperature it started with.. this whole process would be less efficient overall than just using the A/C with nothing else.

Reheat coils are used in computer room systems where a compressor is used to dehumidify the air and the return air temp may be too low causing the conditioned space to fall below the setpoint temperature. This rarely happens with most installations as there is a call for cooling most of the time. Matter of fact the air often gets too dry from running the compressor all the time for cooling and humidity has to be added to the air. This is achieved by energizing quartz-halogen lamps above a stainless steel pan filled with water.

 

[Vette73]

Costco has some that look good.

 

[Born2bwire]

Actually Fleabag is right.

A dehumidifier is the same thing as an air conditioner or refrigerator. It uses the same mechanism to cool down the air. The cooler air has a lower dew point which causes the water to condense out. You could have a resistive heating element if you are interested in heating the air up but it is not necessary. One reason for this is that the cool air can be passed over the heat exchanger, thus warming it back up (and it cools the exchanger so that it will operate more efficiently). They aren't less efficient as they are the same thing but the dehumidifier has the advantage of not being used to cool down the entire dwelling and of being able to use the cooled air to cool the heat exchanger to help efficiency. I can tell you that an air conditioner (and some do come with dehumidifier settings) is generally not as effective as purposely designed dehumidifiers. You can get a dehumidifier installed in your central air so that you can dehumidify the whole house using your current HVAC system. I know my family back in Illinois had dehumidifiers tied into their forced air (even my mother had it in her house as a child). So these are not uncommon for where the OP is living and it can greatly improve your comfort at a given temperature so that you do not have to run the air conditioning as much.

The only caveat are the ones that use a desiccant, as I described above, which uses a heater to remove the water from the desiccant. However, these are not the most common types that you come across for the average consumer. In addition, the heater does not need to remain operating the entire time that the dehumidifier is in operation. The main advantage of this setup is that you do not have a condensor that makes noise. The performance is also largely unaffected by temperature, unlike a traditional condensor driven version, which is another reason why I have one.

 

[BoomerD]

I bought a Whirlpool 44 pint dehumidifier a few years back for my fish room. I was evaporating off an average of 5 gallons of water every day from my saltwater reef tanks and wanted to pull as much of the moisture from the air as possible.

The unit used about 700 watts of electricity on high and was noisy as hell. After a few months, I took it back to Costco. I ended up taking down my tanks...not because of the moisture issues, but because of my deteriorating back condition. I just couldn't properly maintain the tanks any longer.

 

[krylon]

I bought a Whirlpool 44 pint dehumidifier a few years back for my fish room. I was evaporating off an average of 5 gallons of water every day from my saltwater reef tanks and wanted to pull as much of the moisture from the air as possible.

The unit used about 700 watts of electricity on high and was noisy as hell. After a few months, I took it back to Costco. I ended up taking down my tanks...not because of the moisture issues, but because of my deteriorating back condition. I just couldn't properly maintain the tanks any longer.

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