You'll find that drying the home which has adapted to the humidity may present a few problems. Furniture and wooden floors will shrink some and may cause chairs to become loose and floors to gap. It's best to slowly drop the humidity and at constant levels. It's a good idea to keep the humidity at or near 45-55% for some time. Comfort zones are different as you dry the air. A home at 74 degrees with a humidity of 70% may feel muggy and warm, but at 45% feel very nice and cool. You may try a dehumidifier with the capacity for a room or two and see how that does first, but the house must be closed up and doing so may mean a warmer home. If it were me, I would try a window a/c combined with a dehumidifier and adjust the temperatures as needed. We are very humid here too and I seem to do well with 78 degrees with a humidity of 50% with the cieling fans operating. Reducing the amount of lights and appliances in the home will keep it cooler as well. Cieling fans will put out heat some, so they should run only when your in that room. Remember- an a/c must deal with removing the latent heat (humidity) before it will actually be able to cool the air in the home.

My son lives up in Simsbury, CT, and has a home there for his mother-in-law. I asked him to write up his experience with a portable room unit. He wrote, "Sure-- here's our info-- We went with a Whynter 12000 BTU dual hose model. We really had no option for a window unit in the room we were addressing. We do have small window units in other bedrooms. The noise is definitely significant, but at least the noise is a constant drone, without the vibrations of window frames. This unit was installed with two hoses (intake and output), so we put two holes in an external wall. We bought the unit back in 2011 and have no issues mechanically. There has never been anything to drain, and had no leaks. It's on wheels, so storage has been no problem. It's met all our needs. Here is a link that might be useful: My Son's 12,000 BTU Portable Room A/C

Hi @PRN, For heating, I have one of the slim wall mounted electric fire place that can heat the whole apartment. I also have heated flooring in the bathroom. For cooling, I'm hoping to find an option to cool the kitchen and living during the summer. My kitchen opens into my living room space which has windows. But unfortunately, those window are located on the front side of the building and the building is landmarked. Thus, I am not allowed to have window units out the windows or cut into the wall. I have a thru wall ac unit in my bedroom that I use for cooling during the summer with the aid of a fan to help push the air from the bedroom into the living space. Does a mini split ductless have a unit that hangs on the outside of the building?

@vgkgZ-7Va Portables sit on the floor with a window kit for the hose to exhaust the air. Window a/c's sit in the window. Mine is a portable and has a drain plug with a tray to collect any water. I've never ever had water come out of it. The only time is drains water is on the Dehumidify mode, when the hose will drain into a floor drain. Otherwise I leave the plug on the drain hole. I took it off yesterday to see if any water came out and none did. Marilyn, I'm glad yours is cooling. I don't care for mine, and I paid $500, a Danby. It runs all the time, on the lowest setting at 18C. (64F), and I can't get the living area where it's situated to cool under 27C (81F). I'm sitting in the livingroom now with the a/c running beside me and I'm hot. The bedrooms are all 30C+. I had the service guy come out last year and he said it's working fine, just that we've had a lot of hot days. Duh. Cost me $150 to tell me that my a/c doesn't do what an a/c should do?