Dehumidifier - Keeping the house warm?

perribrook

I bought a challenge 14L Dehumidifier from Argos 3 years ago which we use to dry rooms out faster after decorating. We left it on when we went to bed friday night. Saturday morning the smoke alarm had us out of bed at 7.02am because the dehumidifier had set fire to our house. We are very lucky to be alive. I say, don't buy one - and check your smoke alarms TODAY.

scargutt

After reading some of the previous posts, I agree that a dehumidifier won't suit everybody.

I just wanted to add my views. We've been running an Ebac2650 for over a year now. We paid £180 for it from Ebac as they offered a longer warranty than Amazon.

It does take out moisture to an acceptable level and then automatically switches off - it won't just dry your air to the point of causing discomfort. If your air is dry (eg. in summer) it will just sit in idle.

Regarding the overall cost benefit, we have an extension which suffered from condensation as it was North facing and above the unheated garage and the original double skin wall of the house retained heat. Although the cost of having the dehumidifier is high, we previously used to have to open the windows for a few hours each day to get rid of condensation, and in winter, we had to leave the bathroom window constantly open a crack. I have read that the cost of reheating the room each day is far higher than the dehumidifier - and now we have it, we never need to open the windows in any rooms.

One downside is the filters cost around £18 for a pack of three which is supposed to last 9 months. However, I have found that by carefully hoovering the filter you can make it last much longer - more like 9-12 months each. Quite a bit of dust builds up which restricts the air intake and makes the fan run on a higher setting and more often, so it is worth doing.

Lastly, dust, as mentioned above. We've noticed our house is far less dusty - dust mites breed in damp conditions, but we're also not opening windows and letting dirt in, plus the filter attracts dust from the air and holds it in place.

All in all, we're very pleased.

dampdaveski

Hi All,
If you run a dehumidifier that costs 2-3 pence an hour to run (maybe more for bigger units) for 10 hours a day, 7 days a week that is around £2.10 a week, do you seriously think your heating bill will be reduced by the same amount or even £6.30 a week(assuming 300% efficiency) that is £25.20 a month.
I appreciate that I am making an unfair comparison compared to the 'Good Will hunting' style equations on this thread, but to my way of thinking if something is super efficient then it's either saving me hard cash or i'm getting fantastic benefits for very little outlay, and in my book any make of dehumidifier is most definately NOT super efficient.
Lets not forget how a dehumidifier works, a fan draws air from the home across a coil that it then freezes and after a set cycle warms up that coil to melt the ice that has formed onto it so the now liquid water collects into a bucket (some cheaper ones let the ice melt natuarally, these have 0 heat gain)

This is a link to a similar thread I answered on MSE forum in 2009
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/581442

sorry for waffling and hope this helps
DD