dehumidifier!!

[luckys]

Hi:

hav 2 questions regarding dehumidifier....1. boradly speaking is the dry function in air-con as effective as a stand alone dehumidifier?...
2. is the air-con usage (dry function for dehumidifying) costlier as compared to using special electric dehumidifier, i mean from electricity consumption point of view?

many thanks in advanace!!

regds,
lucky

[fth]

Get the chemical ones for your wardrobe as well. Even with air con or a separate system you need it, unless you want to have 24 hour air-con and an electricity bill to match it.

[luckys]

thanks fth...i have those for the wardrobe....

but am wondering whether using aircon to dehumidify is broadly as effective and cost efficient as a standalone dehumidifier?

[PDLM]

My gut feeling is that standalone dehumidifiers use a bit less energy. Remember though that they do pump hot dry air back into the room so they heat the place up as well. This may or may not be what you want.

[dropdedfwed]

the stand alone dehumidifiers run on anything b/w 100 and 300w on average. I have one that used to work just fine in a 400sqft serviced appartment and it now keeps my spare-room/study dry. this is where we keep albums, books, papers, computers, camera lenses, linen, etc.. it's actually an overkill for one room but it's not enough for the whole unit.

they work very well if you don't have too high expectations of them (ie one small unit will not keep an entire 1000sqft unit within the desired humidity range, but 2 or so placed correctly will).

As PDLM says, they are a closed unit, so they pump heat into the room... and due to the wonderful laws of conservation of energy, that means that they pump no more than 100-300w of heat into the room, ie about the same as a few incandescant bulbs, or a fraction of the heat generated by an LCD TV.

if you run a few of these units, they will cost less than A/C to run, and will have a small impact on temperature. You will also not need to bother with the in cupboard dehumifier things.

[Sunfire]

Dehumidifiers also tend to have hygrostats, so they're only using the maximum power stated when required by the setting you've chosen. I don't think air conditioners can do the same.

[luckys]

hey guys, thanks so much for the detailed replies... very helpful .... we hav decided we'll go for a seperate electric dehumidifier!!

[dropdedfwed]

i'm not sure what a hygrostat is, i guess it is to a hygrometer what a thermostat is to a thermometer?

I like the analog/dial type dehumifiers, where u stick a hygrometer in the room somewhere and adjust the dial on the unit until the room humidity is where u like it (between 50-65 for me) and leave it there. my unit kicks in when it needs to but seems to spend most it's time off.

the only thing i found to be a pain was when i was using the dehumifier in a whole studio unit it tended to fill up the tank and switch off within 8hrs, so i ended up sticking a tube from the dehumifier into a floor drain so it could run as it pleased. if you cant do that, get a unit with the biggest possible tank.