Using an Air-Conditioner and a Humidifier at the same time?

[spartacus321]

Here's the situation...

My parents have an AC unit in their room, mostly was used to night while sleeping... my dad has no problem with it, but my mom cant sleep with it at all. The air in the room gets so dry it burns her nasal passage and throat...

Does it make sense to use a humidifier in the same room while the AC unit is on to help add moisture to the air? Or will this just make the AC unit work harder to remove that extra moisture?

We've tried leaving a dish of water in the room, as well as openning a window slightly to let in some fresh air, but nothing really helps to a point where it's comfortable...

Any ideas? suggestions?

 

[dman]

Try it and see. Certainly the electric bill will go up, but, it's probably worth it for a nights sleep.

Maybe a way to adjust a/c so it's not dehumidifying as much... not sure how but I believe fan speeds and such can be set.

 

[Epoman]

Pillow over your moms head?

 

[OMG1Penguin]

I am pretty sure AC dehumidifies just the way it works. I know the big AC unit we have at work has a humidifier built in because of this (to keep RH at 25-75% or something in that range).

 

[AgaBoogaBoo]

Give it a shot

 

[Howard]

Yes, AC-cooled air is drier when it comes out than when it goes in.

 

[apoppin]

Something that might make sense is to use a watercooler (swamp cooler) to "pre cool" AND humidify the air BEFORE being cooled by your AC.

edit: (we actually do this in the desert where the humidity is extremely low)

 

[AaronB]

Very few air conditioning units used in residential applications have the ability to detect humidity. Dehumidification is simply a byproduct of their cooling function.

This means you can humidify the room all you want and the a/c won't compensate a bit. No more power will be consumed.

From your post it sounds like they may have a window unit. In that case the above would apply. The same goes for central a/c, but all bets are off if this is some type of portable unit (unlikely)

 

[dman]

Originally posted by: AaronB
Very few air conditioning units used in residential applications have the ability to detect humidity. Dehumidification is simply a byproduct of their cooling function.

This means you can humidify the room all you want and the a/c won't compensate a bit. No more power will be consumed.

Not true, the humidifier will use power in it' soperation. (That's what I meant by electric bill will go up... sorry I wasn't clear). But, yeah, I agree w/ others. We used humidifier for our daughter a few times when she's been sick and it helps the air w/o making A/C probs for us. I don't see why you couldn't use it regularly.

 

[spartacus321]

Thanks for all the suggestions.

The unit is a split system i think, the compressor is on the outside and the system on the inside, that sort of thing.

I guess i'll start looking around for humidifiers... i know there's a few different types of those too... any suggestions on which might be best?