Dehumidifer update ...

After some research, plumped for the eBac 2650e

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Arrived on Friday. After careful reading of booklet and waiting 2 hours, plugged it in and set to "Auto/Normal" and put in the front room (where the cellar cup mushrooms were growing !). After about 8 hours it had pulled just under 1 litre of water.

Moving it into the back bedroom (sons - he never opens windows, it's plagued with damp) and again, over 8 hours it pulled about a litre.

Back into front room, and left all day yesterday. Cheap humidity meter went from 55% to 43%.

However the most striking change is the smell. Or rather lack thereof. Walking into the room, it smells "fresh", and SWMBO says she can "smell" the wood of the bookshelves now.

Be curious to see how much condensation we see on the bottom of windows as we go forwards.

Reply to
Jethro_uk
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Don't forget you can use also the condensate for steam irons and other steam appliances, car batteries, and plant watering.

Reply to
newshound

That looks to be a compregensive machine!

My personal preference would be for one where I can set the controls rather than have the machine work out what's best, but that's just my choice.

Not bad at all.

That's low....

So, a great start!

If your windows/frames drop below the 'dew point' you'll get condensation on them anyway, it doesn't mean that the room is damp.

'Dew point' is a function of relative humidity (RH) and temperature. Roughly speaking, 1 cubic metre of air can hold, when fullly saturated, the same number of grams of water vapour as the temperature in degC, so at 15 degC 1 cu m of air can hold a maximum of 15 grams of water. RH is an expression of the actual water-vapour content as a percentage of the saturated value; an RH of 67% at 15 degC means there is 2/3rds of 15 = 10 grams of water vapour per cu.m.

However, if your window glass drops below 10 degC, the air next to it inside the room will also be below 10 degC, and therefore can't hold any more water-vapour. The water vapour that the air now can't accommodate will condense out as water droplets on the window glass. This has nothing necessarily to do with the room being 'damp'.

Your first try pulled a litre of of water out of the air in 8 hours. If your room was say 10 cu.m in volume at 20 degC, the total maximum water-vapour content theoretically available for saturated air is 10 x

20 = 200 grams of water. But if the RH in your trial went from (say) 80 to 40%, you removed 40% at 20 degC, or 8 grams per cu. m or 8 x 10 = 80 grams of water. So where did all the rest come from?

Natural convection from other rooms would be one source, but if you kept the door shut that would be minimal. However, as the room was damp, everything in it will hold moisture to a level whereby the exchange between any one item and the atmosphere will balance (or equilibrate). Lowering the room RH to 40% upsets this balance, and damp items will now give up their excess moisture. Wood can hold up to

20% by weight of water before going mouldy, and fabrics are dry to the touch at 6% moisture content. I think you'll find that some of the excess water has now been taken out of the furniture and fittings.

This means if you're trying to dry out a bedroom. loaded with fabrics and wooden items, it could be some time before everything in the room equilibrates at the new lower level. What this means is that you could put the dehumidifier back into the bedroom a few days later, and get the another litre of water! My suggestion is to open all the wardrobe doors and slide the drawers open when running the unit, to give everything a chance to dry out, then move on to another room.

As you go round and round the rooms, you'll slowly but surely lower the average water content of everything, and with any luck you'll arrive at the point where you could put the dehumidifier somewhere central and it'll keep the overall humidity down.

You've made a great start, but don't be disappointed if there's condensation on the windows (as it doesn't necessarily mean the room is damp) or you have to keep going back to a room because of condensation or damp smells, it will take some time, especially in winter, to get everything down to the new level.

If you're looking for a suitable present for Christmas, have a look as this temperature/humidity logger:

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My son bought me one three years ago, and it's still on the original battery. I've used it for monitoring bathrooms, showers, the garage, crated-up stuff, the fridge and freezer, the loft, all sorts of places, sometimes with surprising results - our tiny ensuite humidity drops to normal after a shower in about 40 minutes, for example.

Reply to
Terry Fields

Can't recall when I last topped up a battery and used anything other than tap water for my iron or plants. ;-)

Tim

Reply to
Tim+

I use it in the iron, as tap water here kills them quite quickly. I have also used it for watering carniverous plants, which can't take tap water.

I would probably not use it in an iron whilst it's clearing up the musty smell. The dehumidifier is an excellent air filter, and you may well find your clothes smelling of what it's filtered out. Should be OK after while though.

Dehumidifiers can easily damage timber such as floor boards, because they very effectively dry one side and not the other, which can result in the boards cupping in a few weeks. It takes a couple of years to go back flat again if you manage to do this (done it myself), and you may find they need nailing fully down again afterwards.

Reply to
Andrew Gabriel

Maybe not where you live, but pitcher and fly traps live just fine on the tap water where I am...

Gordon

Reply to
Gordon Henderson

Yep but it is a temporary fix. The humidity needs dealing with at source or you will be running this thing forever.

Reply to
harryagain

I use it in the hygrometer! .-)

Reply to
Bob Eager

Mine - a £100 Lidl - was filling the 5L tank overnight. But that was after skim plastering, and >70% humidity.

55% is pretty dry in IMHO.

Agreed - good, innit :-) I'll be using mine again from time to time.

Wouldn't have thought you get much in any event at 55%. Still, best of luck with it.

Reply to
RJH

I wouldn't dare use it on mine. Besides being hard water, there's so much chlorine in it that it smells like walking into a swimming pool if I turn on the kitchen tap hard.

Normally my carniverous plants get rainwater, but in emergencies they get the condensate or water from a filter jug, which is also supposed to be OK.

Reply to
Andrew Gabriel

Certainly used to do that in Glasgow, with its very soft water. Everywhere since, the water has been as hard as nails. Nowadays I use dehumidifier condensate or the de-frost water from an old fridge for batteries/processing, etc. I have gallons of the stuff now.

Reply to
Grimly Curmudgeon

The meter could be wrong!

I'm recording at the moment - RH of 88 outdoors @ 5.0C and 45% indoors @ 21.9C. We have no damp issues at all.

Reply to
Harry Bloomfield

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