Whenever we have an area of carpet that gets wet, my brother thinks that the best way to dry it is to use a heat lamp. I think that unless the relative humidity is extremely high, a fan would work much better.
What do you think? Thank you in advance for all replies.
-- Whenever I hear or think of the song "Great green gobs of greasy grimey gopher guts" I imagine my cat saying; "That sounds REALLY, REALLY good. I'll have some of that!"
Daniel,
I think what is the best to pull the carpet away from the floor. The pad just soaks up a lot of the moisture and fosters fungus growth.
I would use a wet/dry vac to get as much water up and then perhaps run a dehumidifier.
There's got to be someone in your area that does this. Ask them what they do.
MJ
Try both ways, dump alot of gallons of water and see who is right, no point in guessing or argueing is there. Let us know what dries faster.
After an accident with a toilet that flooded a whole house I mixed up about 20 gal of OXY CLEAN and pour it out over the carpet then called the pros to have the water extracted. You would never know it ever happened.
Jimmie
Both will have some effect. With the heat lamp, you raise the capacity of the air to hold water. With the fan, you provide a supply of drier air, to carry away the water vapor. Fan is a lot cheaper. Heat lamp in a closed room just makes a sauna, so you need the fan in addition.
Take two gopher guts, and call me in the morning. Meow!
I would consider a heat lamp to be a fire hazard and to pose a danger of shrinking/warping/melting synthetic fiber carpet. Carpet backing is often, I believe, natural fiber and subject to shrinkage.
Are you addressing shampooed carpet or disaster? When carpet is wet, use a shop vac to remove as much water as possible.....for disaster, where the padding is saturated, rent a heavy duty vac with squeegee nozzle. Then run AC or heat to get air dry and run fans in room with wet carpet.
Using both fan and lamp will dry the carpet faster. But, the best way is the safer way minus the heat lamp.
When we had a flooded carpet area, we opened windows and put a couple of fans on. This was during the summer. Then we called a professional service in to take care of it. The service said we should close the windows and turn on the central air as low as it will go until they got there. After they arrived, they used a wet vac to remove as much water as possible. Then they set up high speed fans in the rooms, closed all the windows, and said to keep the AC on and set to as low as possible. They said that the AC dehumidifies the air and takes out moisture that the fans are creating while blowing over the wet surface. And, by keeping the room cool, there is less chance of mold growing
My thought would have been to turn up the heat to help th> Whenever we have an area of carpet that gets wet, my brother thinks
Turning the furnace heat up instead of turning the air conditioner to a low temperature would be wrong, but using a heat lamp is not wrong , wrong, wrong.
The reason the air conditioner trick works is not because of the temperature. It's because the side effect of an air conditioner is to dehumidify the air.
Besides the AC, you should use a regular dehumidifier. If you don't have one, borrow or rent one. That'll pull more moisture out than the AC. Using heat will cause the carpet to mildew.
I probably would have alternated the AC and the heat. I've done it already when the house was the right temp but very humid, it's drys out the air FAST! If you hadn't included the part about the cold slowing the mold I probably wouldn't have believed that to be the best way. Unfortunately I often need to know WHY not just HOW before I believe something.
replying to Sanity, Na thanks wrote: Actually, a whole house AC running on a normal dedicated 2 phase 220V line has a LOT more air drying capacity than a portable, "regular", 120V dehumidifier.
The house AC is around 4-10x more powerful and typically more efficient than a portable unit. It also dumps the collected water to drain, while the portable would have to be emptied or setup with a hose.
AC and dehumidifiers freeze up or lose efficiency when the house gets too cold so the owner may have to alternate some heat cycles with the furnace to keep the temperature above 65F in order for the AC to function well. That's why they rate AC at a really high temperature such as testing at 85F in 85% humidity. IF they tested those at 60F they'd barely work. .
I've seen single-phase and 3-phase but who makes a 2-phase central air unit?
Who has 2 phase?
What is 2 phase? I bet Na thanks doesn't know...
Yah, there are a whole bunch of clowns that think a center-tapped transformer automatically gives them 2-phase.
Two-phase electrical power was an early 20th-century polyphase alternating current electric power distribution system. Two circuits were used, with voltage phases differing by one-quarter of a cycle,
90?. Usually circuits used four wires, two for each phase. Less frequently, three wires were used, with a common wire with a larger- diameter conductor. Some early two-phase generators had two complete rotor and field assemblies, with windings physically offset to provide two-phase power. The generators at Niagara Falls installed in 1895 were the largest generators in the world at that time and were two-phase machines. As of 21st century, two-phase power was superseded with three phases and is not used in the industry. There remains, however, a two- phase commercial distribution system in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; many buildings in Center City are permanently wired for two-phase [citation needed] and PECO (the local electric utility company) has continued the service. This type of service happens to exist in Hartford, Connecticut. It does serve a few buildings in that city.HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.