Dehumidifier - Keeping the house warm?

penrhyn

A dry atmosphere is very bad for you.

In fact the higher the humidity the warmer the apparant temperature of a room will be.

Take for example a room temperature of 68F, if the RH is 40% it will feel like 65degrees, whereas if the RH is 90% it will feel like 70 degrees.

Central heating drys the atmosphere, some people may benefit from using a humidifier.

A relative humidity of between 40 and 70 % is regarded as comfortable.

dixie_dean_2

Do they costa a lot to run? We have very bad humidity, condensation, mould etc but Hugh, as we call him, has really helped with that. We have it on more or less 24 hours (only exception when he's full and we cant be !!!!d to empty it) and I'm now wondering how much this might be costing us in electricity? Any ideas? Cheers.

Mr_Meanie

alanobriens is 325 watts
Mine is 230 watts.

So if you assume that 1 unit of electricity costs 10p that’s between about 2.35 and 3.25 pence per hour.

That doesn't sound a lot but if it's going 24 hours a day that all adds up to about 56 to 78 pence a day give or take a bit.

alanobrien

dixie_dean wrote:

Do they costa a lot to run? We have very bad humidity, condensation, mould etc but Hugh, as we call him, has really helped with that. We have it on more or less 24 hours (only exception when he's full and we cant be !!!!d to empty it) and I'm now wondering how much this might be costing us in electricity? Any ideas? Cheers.

It also depends how you use it, for instance we only use it to keep the humidity within "normal" limits then turn it off.

Normal being 40 to 70 RH.
A meter such as this placed some distance from the humidifier will give you some idea when the humidity is around normal.

http://www.tlc-direct.co.uk/Products/BGHM.html

Wickedkitten

I find it a lot easier as we have high ceilings to have a ceiling fan as you can put it on the winter setting and pull the warm air back down.

OddjobKIA

ias76 wrote:

Since I moved into my house 2 years ago I have been on a mission to make it warmer. Since then I have draughtproofed, put in loft insulation and I am currently insulationing under the floorboards, carpeted the hall where draughty floorboards once were.

Operation heat is going well. However someone was telling me I should buy a dehumidifier and use it during the winter as it dries the air making it quicker to heat the house using central heating plus the house retain the heat for longer.

I should say my house is a old tradiotional one- high ceilings etc.

So dehumidifier huh? Do they work ? Where can I get one cheap?

Firstly well done on operation heat

I am glad to see you are taking steps to increase the effecinecy on your home, ( i suggest those foil reflective sheets that go behind rads)

Can I also suggest you harness that big heater in the sky (the sun) yes i know we here in blighty don't see it that often but it is here and it is giving of more energy than anything in about 20,000m light years. Instead of buying a de-humidifer which is basically a fridge with keeping any thing cool. Get some solar pannels ( yes some will say that you only get back what you spent on them in about 15 years) But that is not always the point you can when you are producing more than you are using ship it back to the national grid ( you get some money for this).



What i am taking a long time to say is a de-humidifyer does just that I personally dont think that you will get any noticable benifit from having slightly drier air in your heating bills. As soon as you have a hot shower and open the bathroom door any benifit you might have got will be overly displaced by that one act.

Consider other options that are available to you.




on another subject have you considered a water butt to collect rain water to flush you toilet with. Think about it you pay for aguments sake .075p per litre . Now i am sure you wouldnt use evian to flush your toilet with but you are paying for the same water to flush your toilet away as you do to drink, cook and wash with??

dash08

kaya wrote: »

deumidifiers raise the air temp going through them by about 1deg C, my one consumes about 1kw per hour, thet are not economicly viable as a heating aid, plus Central heating is bad enough already, it strips the moisture from the air(ask an asthmatic),its not healthy to breathe dry air in an enclosed space either

As a mother of an asthmatic I have found using a dehumidifier very useful as it reduces mould formation and therefore reduces house dust mite levels (as they feed on the mould.) This has led to an improvent of her symptoms as they were brought on (like a lot of asthmatics) by allergy to house dust mite.

richardc1983

Please note that although dehumidifiers output a little bit of heat, the drier the air is the cooler it will feel. THe more humidity in the air the warmer it will feel for instance a 22c day outside with high humidity feels hotter than it is due to the moisture in the air as it slows down the rate at which it evaporates from your skin. Another example is when you walk into an air conditioned room where the air will be dry it feels very cool. In the summer if you use a dehumidifier in your house it will help to take the humidity out of the air making you feel cooler without actually lowering the temperature, its all about the moisture content in the air.

ONly use a dehumidifier in the winter if you have problem with damp otherwise you will require higher temperature to feel comfort.

richardc1983

alanobrien wrote: »

Sorry but i don't think so, your implying that the machine is 100% efficient and i do not know of any machine or device on the planet that currently is.

Although i do agree dehumidifiers are superb bits of kit for homes with humidity problems.

Your wrong alan.

Heat pumps are in the range of 300% efficient for every 1kw put in its possible to get 3 possibly 4 kw back out in heat.

I work in air conditioning and can back this up. Look it up on wikipedia.

Dehumidifiers use the same technology as heat pumps, you put in about 300watts of energy and you will get back out approx 900watts - 1000watts of heat back out of it! FaB!"

Volcano

richardc1983 wrote: »

Your wrong alan.

Heat pumps are in the range of 300% efficient for every 1kw put in its possible to get 3 possibly 4 kw back out in heat.

I work in air conditioning and can back this up. Look it up on wikipedia.

You're confusing terminology. If you want to use Wikipedia as your yardstick it says:

When comparing the performance of heat pumps, it is best to avoid the word "efficiency" which has a very specific thermodynamic definition.

and...

Sometimes this is inappropriately expressed as an efficiency value greater than 100%, as in the statement, "XYZ brand heat pumps operate at up to 400% efficiency!" This is inaccurate, since the work does not make heat, but instead moves existing heat "upstream"; otherwise, this would be a perpetual-motion machine.

which Alan was referring to. Actually there's lots of good science on this wikipedia page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heat_pump

300% efficiency sounds far better than say, 35% efficiency and especially to the general public who don't have the inclination to learn about the second law of thermodynamics....