Whole-House Dehumidifier

[pb4uski]

Would it work better to put it on an elevated platform in the corner in the hallway just outside the door and then plumb it through the wall into the sink drain?

 

[TromboneAl]

Would it work better to put it on an elevated platform in the corner in the hallway just outside the door and then plumb it through the wall into the sink drain?

LOL, I think that would pass the line into kludgy, thereifixedit.com type repairs. Not that I haven't thought about it.

I'm quite sure the fan does a good job of distributing the air, but right now I'm trying the experiment of adding a big window fan on high. I'll see if that drops the RH more.

 

[meierlde]

Note that if you want to spend a lot of bucks you can upgrade to a high end hvac system that included dehumidification as part of the system. (here is a link to such a lennox system:http://www.lennox.com/products/indoor-air-quality/humidity-control/hd, note that this is on the highest end system). It takes a system with a variable speed blower etc and a top of the line thermostat from Lennox. I suspect other ac manufacturers also have similar systems.

 

[ERD50]

LOL, I think that would pass the line into kludgy, thereifixedit.com type repairs. ...

WADR, T-AL, a de-humidifier propped up on a bathroom counter, draining into the sink with woodworking clamps to "make sure it won't roll off the counter" has already crossed that line!

OK, you were missing a can of beer (hold this while I ...) and duct tape, but you are in that neighborhood.

Plumbing into the drain (under the sink, with the drain hose hidden) actually strikes me as bit more elegant, depending on if you can route/hide the drain line, and have a decent place to mount the de-humidifier that high on the hall. A shelf, and something decorative for it to hide behind (oriental screen?)?

-ERD50

 

[Nodak]

I could run it in the upstairs landing where humidity is high. That is right near the cold-air intake for the heating system.

Unless I misunderstood what you wrote it sounds like the cold return is not at the lowest point of the house. It seems that if it's not the cold air would not be properly circulated and would become stagnant.

 

[TromboneAl]

WADR, T-AL, a de-humidifier propped up on a bathroom counter, draining into the sink with woodworking clamps to "make sure it won't roll off the counter" has already crossed that line!
-ERD50

Nah, I think this looks fine:

and it's undoable at a moment's notice.

Unless I misunderstood what you wrote it sounds like the cold return is not at the lowest point of the house.

Correct, the cold air return is at precisely the highest point in the house. Which also means its sucking in the most-humid air.

I added the big window fan to the small oscillating fan and dropped the humidity in the bathroom some more, and now the RH in the landing is 60%.

 

[NW-Bound]

Living in the arid Southwest all my adult life, I used to have to run a mister to add humidity to the air, as the static drove me nuts. I would get a shock every time I touched a door knob, an appliance, or a computer. You could easily kill a device by poking your finger in the wrong place after shuffling across the carpet.

And in contrast with T-Al who struggles to drive down the humidity, the mister I used would put a gallon of water daily into the interior air, and it also did not have as much an effect as I would hope for. I wonder why it is so difficult to change the interior humidity from the exterior environment. Are our houses that leaky?

 

[Nodak]

It's hard for me to wrap my head around the cold air return being high up. Here we always want it as low as possible for the colder denser air.

 

[ERD50]

It's hard for me to wrap my head around the cold air return being high up. Here we always want it as low as possible for the colder denser air.

Right. What's up with that? AFAIK, T-Al doesn't need AC (it would make sense for the return to grab the warmest air tin that case).

I've seen installations with vents and returns top and bottom, and you would open/close them when the seasons changed. More efficient if you do it, but I guess they figure people just would not do it.


-ERD50