whole house dehumidifier

[Aaron Fude]

Hi,

I hate to run the cooling feature of my A/C when the problem is the humidity and not the temperature. Is there such a thing as a humidifier that gets hooked into your A/C system and removes the moisture from the circulating air? DAGS gave some positive results, but no clear cut answer.

Thanks

Aaron

[Winston]

Dehumidifiers work by chilling incoming air, routing the condensed water to a container (or drain) and then re-warming the air before exhausting it back into your house.

Since warmer air can contain more moisture than cooler air and with all else being equal, you are better off using conventional A/C to dry out your air.

--Winston

[ransley]

Thats what the AC does, just think of it as free cool air and turn it on, unless your system is oversized.

[Aaron Fude]

So, in my basement, where I'm running a dehumidifier in the summer, would it cost the same to run an air conditioner?

[Caesar Romano]

On Tue, 28 Jul 2009 03:53:03 -0400, Aaron Fude wrote Re whole house dehumidifier:

There is, but they are expensive. Depending on the location of your air-handler there is a cheaper solution that works for me. I bought a large room dehumidifier and placed it where the dehumidifier output was directed into the air-handler input. I ran a drain line from the dehumidifier to a convenient location.

Now when I want to dehumidify the house, I run the air-handler with no a/c or heat. Just the fan mode. With the dehumidifier on, it dries out the house on cool damp days.

[Stormin Mormon]

Pretty close. It takes a bunch of energy to condense water. There is a LOT of heat needed to boil water. And when you condense the water, it releases a lot of heat. Might be better off with a window AC, with the condensate draining into a drain.

Window AC are designed to run the condensate to the outdoor end of the unit, and splash the water onto the condensor (hot radiator). I've got mine modified, so it drips outdoors and keeps the condensor dry.

[ransley]

My basement is cold this summer, usualy it gets to 70 but not this year in my basement, I could use the heat of a dehumidifier since its

65 down there, but I dont know about cost comparisons, effeciency of units or what you have now. My dehumidifier warms it about 3f in the basement but only costs about 5$ a month, then I turn on the AC upstairs, it cools the basement, and the dehumidifier gets it back to

1. If you are not warm but want just humidity removed some new ACs have slow fan settings, but then as I understand it coil freezing has to be monitored, maybe a pro could help you out better to give you ideas on your set up.

[E Z Peaces]

I use my A/C primarily for humidity. It's a matter of how long I run it.

Air accounts for about 1% of a house's mass. If I blow a fan on a thermometer and run the A/C until the temperature drops 1 F, considerable humidity will have been removed, but if I shut off the A/C, the mass of the house will soon warm the air to its original temperature. So I haven't cooled the house enough to measure.

I use a fan and a wet-bulb/dry-bulb thermometer to tell me when to run the A/C. As much as possible, I cool the mass of the house by night ventilation.

[Van Chocstraw]

I run a fan go blow the hot air from the upstairs ceiling into the basement. This forces cool air from the basement up stairs and keeps the house cool. I don't mind humidity when it's cool and it helps dry the basement.

[Bob F]

Why would you do that? Doesn't it cut down the efficiency significantly? The whole point is to regain some of that energy used in condensation.