What is a dehumidifier?
Dehumidifiers are a machine that extracts excess humidity out of a room.
There are times of the year and certain climates all year that have overbearing humidity.
Using a dehumidifier in your house during those months can reduce the indoor humidity to a comfortable place.
There are many benefits to lowering the humidity in your house, for instance,
An air conditioner that is fighting high humidity has to work extra hard to function.
This causes strain on the AC and pushes your energy bill way up.
Also when the humidity is soaring, people tend to lower the thermostat on the air conditioner to the point that the unit freezes up.
Next thing you know you’re sitting in a humid, hot house with nothing other to do besides wait for the AC coils to unfreeze.Only to go back to an air conditioner that you can’t feel running… Sigh…
A dehumidifier could remedy this situation by simply reducing the moisture in the air to about 30 to 50%.
What are the side effects of a dehumidifier?
Positive
- Comfort ability
- Reduced strain on HVAC( air conditioning)
- Airborne allergen reduction
- Helps control mold production
Negative
- Regular maintenance
- Loud
- Increase in the energy bill
Comfort ability is one of the key reasons why a person would even think about buying a dehumidifier.
Though you probably have met someone who claims the opposite,
Most people do not like the way extreme humidity feels.
Not only is the temperature hot, it feels way hotter in humidity. Your hair plays havoc and your sweat glands go into overdrive.
And if you’re not careful to drink enough water, you can be in real danger of overheating during those periods.
Humidity can also cause a variety of damage inside your home.
It can facilitate the growth of
mold and damage the structure, cause adhesives to loosen, and cause fruits and vegetables to spoil much faster.
Reduces the strain on your air conditioning.
Condenser air conditioners have a real problem with humidity.
That is why they say that you should never use an evaporative cooler alongside or in the same room of your HVAC unit.
Evaporative coolers work by blowing air off of water soaked pads.
That’s exactly the kind of moisture that can cause the coils on an AC to freeze up.
Excessive moisture in the air can do the same thing.
When the summer humidity hits, the air conditioner works overtime.
And the harder it has to work to overcome the humidity the higher your electric bill becomes.
Plus the continued strain on your AC can only mean more repairs up the road and even an early death for your unit.
A dehumidifier can lesson the load on your HVAC and give your unit the capacity to cool the air down to a comfortable temperature without going into overdrive or freezing up.
They can also mean less calling in a specialist to resolve your AC cooling problem.
Not to mention having to hear that you your unit is out and they’re going to have to replace the whole shebang.
Quick tip:
Check your filter first. If you knew how many HVAC tech calls were handled by simply replacing the filter, you probably be sick.
A dirty filter can have a lot of the same symptoms as what has been described in this article.
No AC. No heat. Always check the filter first.
Airborne allergy reduction.
Dehumidifiers are a great way to reduce the airborne allergens that thrive in humidity.
Mold spores and dust mites are two are the most common household allergens that increase greatly when the humidity is higher.
By reducing the rate at which mold can grow, you also reduce the amount of mold spores and other bacteria swimming through your air.
Dirty and dusty ductwork with the addition of extra moisture can cause heavy production of dust mites.
When the AC kicks on, those dust mites are kicked around your house, ready for you to breathe, and ready to create havoc on your allergies.
As wonderful as it all seems there are some definite drawbacks to using a dehumidifier.
Regular maintenance.
1. The extraction tank has to be emptied regular. Dehumidifiers come with a safety mechanism to ensure that once the tank is full the unit will not run.
2. The water in the tank contains all the gunk, mold, and bacteria from your air.
3. If you not clean the dehumidifier on a regular basis, mold and bacteria can continue to grow in the machine.
Loud.
No getting around it, dehumidifiers are loud. you definitely don’t want to put it in a place where you need quiet.
Energy cost
Dehumidifiers work hard and require a lot of energy to do so. You can expect your energy bill to go up while you have the dehumidifier in use.
Though they can make your energy bill higher, it is much better than the AC making your energy bill higher.
If something goes wrong with the dehumidifier, it’s a relatively small cost to fix or replace it.
But on the other hand, if the AC goes out, you could be looking at a substantially higher price to repair or replace.
Other disadvantages of dehumidifiers:
1. They run hot.
The way a dehumidifier works can be compared to the way a window air conditioner works.
Essentially the condensation that would end up on the ground outside is extracted into a tank instead.
You probably know or have felt the heat coming off of a window air conditioner from the outside.
That is very similar to the type of heat that a dehumidifier manufacturers indoors.
Since the point of having the machine is usually to reduce the temperature,
It can be fairly counter intuitive to have to find a place to run it that’s not going to feel like you have a space heater going.
2. Can reduce the humidity too much.
This is an issue that shouldn’t really ever have to happen if the unit is used and right according to the instructions,
But there is the possibility if you run it when the humidity is already low you can create an excessive dry indoor climate.
So if you’re wondering if you should run it in the winter, the answer is no.
Winter months typically have the opposite problem where is the air can be extra dry especially when the furnace is running non-stop.
A humidifier is more than likely needed in the winter months than a dehumidifier.
The point of a dehumidifier is to reduce the humidity to a comfortable range usually about 30 to 50%.
Not to completely extract all the humidity from the air.
Extra dry air can cause a lot of health issues like dry throat, clogged nasal passages, headaches, and a bothersome cough.
That’s not the result you’re looking for.
3. Yucky water.
This may be a point that goes without saying to, but don’t let your animals drink the water out of the machine.
When the air has too much humidity, it becomes a type of germ farm that deposits bacteria as well as other airborne contaminants including heavy metals into the devices water tank.
The water is too contaminated to be consumed.
Summary
Dehumidifiers or an excellent tool for reducing the humidity in your house which can benefit you by making the temperature in your house comfortable during the high humidity season.
They are also excellent for reducing airborne allergens like mold spores and dust mites that thrive in humidity.
But like any other machine oh, they do have their drawbacks.
Mainly they do have to be maintained by keeping the water tank empty and regular cleaning to ensure mold and bacteria is not growing on the machine.
