dehumidifier question
10 years ago
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Yet another 'what size dehumidifier question
Comments (2)See Table One below. Typical home dehumidifiers have much larger capacity than the maximum you need, so will work very efficiently to remove sufficient moisture to bring relative humidity (rh) below 50%. Here is a link that might be useful: Choosing a Dehumidifier...See Moredehumidifier or air conditioner in damp, unfinished basement??
Comments (7)Get a dehumidifier. Here's the problem with what was said: Air that can hold more moisture is a good, not a bad, thing because you are talking about relative humidity -- the amount of moisture in the air relative to what it can hold at its temperature: So, by doing nothing other than warming air, you can lower its relative humidity. If you were to put a heater in your basement and warm it from, say, 65 degrees to 75 degrees, you would drop the relative humidity of the basement because, even though the air has the same absolute quantity of moisture in it, the 75 degree air could hold more than the 65 degree air, so the relative humidity is less. But a dehumidifier is even better than a heater because it removes moisture in two ways -- it drops the air to a temperature below its dewpoint, removing actual moisture, and then warms the air, lower the relative humidity further. An air conditioner is a problem for at least two reasons. First, because it cools as it dehumidifies, its ability to dehumidify is limited to situations where cooling is needed. If it's below 70 degrees or so outside, the a/c evaporator is liable to freeze, and at that point it'll keep running but do nothing as far as cooling or dehumidifying until it's shut off and the evaporator is allowed to thaw out. Second, because the a/c lowers the temperature of the air, it makes condensation on those walls and other surfaces more, not less, likely. Why? Because if the surface of a wall is, say 64 degrees, and the air is 65 degrees at a high humidity level, it doesn't take much heat transfer for the wall to pull the air near it down just one degree (and if the humidity approaches 100 percent, that might be enough to create condensation). On the other hand, if the air is 75 degrees with the same absolute quantity of moisture it had at 65 degrees, the wall has to drop the air 11 degrees to create the same condensation. Obviously that's much less likely. And that's the benefit you'd get from a heater alone. With the dehumidifier, the air won't have the same absolute quantity of moisture at 75 as it had at 65 -- it'll have less. Finally, the walls won't stay 64 degrees once you warm the room up. They'll gradually warm up too, further reducing the risk of condensation....See MoreHoneywell DR90 Dehumidifier installation
Comments (3)No, it does not have to be ducted to an hair handler. Geez, the guy ought to be willing to talk to you if he is taking your money. He should be able to install equipment in your attic so it does not transmit noise to your living space. The installation manual is readily available on the web. I see nothing that indicates that is must be ducted. It stands to reason that some ducting might increase its efficiency. First, you will have greater air flow from the remote areas of the basement. Second, it is designed to operate with some level of static pressure introduced with the ducts. Air flow decreases with additional duct length. The engineers designed the system to operate within a range of pressures, but there is an optimum. They don't say what that is in the manual. Can that be found out from Honeywell? I don't know, but I bet that is the figure that they used for their efficiency testing. My question to you about ducting is, can some ducting be introduced in the basement? Is the basement unfinished? Why not introduce some ducts to increase air circulation and slow the air flow closer to the optimal range? I am concerned that the D90 might be too big for your basement and will not run efficiently. What do you have down there now and how well does it keep the basement dry. We have to keep in mind that more efficient equipment will blow off less waste heat so the area will be cooler if everything works well. More questions: Attic DH is dehumidifying the attic only, or it is hooked to an air handler that is conditioning the house and not the attic? The third, and less likely situation is that the attic is sealed and conditioned....See MoreQuestion about crawlspace dehumidifiers.
Comments (0)We bought this house about a year and a half ago. At the time we bought it, we saw pictures from the home inspector that show that the crawlspace is encapsulated - so far so good. But we had a recent plumbing issue, and now I have become aware that we *also* have a dehumidifier and condensate pump down there. The problem is this - I see no evidence that the thing is actually running. I placed a beer cup beneath where the tube from the pump exits the foundation, and it isn't catching anything. And it is clear that typically one should have these things serviced from time to time (clean filter, etc, etc). Not unlike having HVAC serviced, I guess.. Pictures of the current install below. An unidentified dehumidifier with what looks like a Little Giant condensate pump. I haven't been able to ID the dehumidifier just from the pictures. The dehumidifier and pump are just sitting on the plastic - not elevated in any way. I called a crawlspace company to come out and check things out - they can't get here for a couple of weeks however, so none of my questions have been answered as of yet. It is the same company that did our neighbor's house - they were happy with the work. Anyways there are a couple of issues on my mind: Why is it that the dehumidifier and/or condensate pump isn't running. I am guessing GFI got tripped, but that's a guess at the moment. Is there a way to do this so that a GFI trip doesn't require someone to go into the crawlspace to reset the thing? Or to at least get a notification of *some* sort so you don't go for months and months with the thing not even running. How old is the current dehumidifier, and is it even the right tool for the job. It isn't one of those modern box-shaped ones that is typically hung from the floor joists - it looks like an upright model of some sort. So I am wondering if we should just be prepared to discard this one and replace it. It is sort of musty down there (with a sort of cat pee odor). And I see that modern encapsulations these days will tend to have one automated vent to help control this problem. But if we get the dehumidifier working again, does that go away, or do we need something else? Is there anything else I should be asking the crawlspace company? Does anyone have any idea what brand the dehumidifier is, and roughly how old it might be?...See More- 10 years ago
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