Dehumidifier recommendations please

fewcloudy

Bendy_House said:

Probably the single biggest misconception regarding condensation - that opening a window will allow in cold and damp air. Cold, yes, damp, no.

If you were to leave your house for a month with no heating, but with all the windows partially open, it would be cold inside, but dry.

I never thought that opening a window allowed cold and damp air in. And as often as possible I have windows open.

We don't have a damp problem, but we do have a lot of (live) bodies in the house.
And another  biggie for causing condensation over the winter months is drying laundry inside.
The Meaco has a laundry drying setting on it, and this has also made a huge difference to the humidity in the house.

Basically it works for us, given our circumstances. 

Bendy_House

BUFF said:

Bendy_House said:

Probably the single biggest misconception regarding condensation - that opening a window will allow in cold and damp air. Cold, yes, damp, no.

If you were to leave your house for a month with no heating, but with all the windows partially open, it would be cold inside, but dry.

The humidity today in a dry & sunny Glasgow is ~83%. If I had left the windows partially open for a month with no heating the humidity inside my house would be ~83%.

But nothing inside would be damp.

dllive

Hmmm, Ive dissapeared down the rabbit hole of "dehumidifier vs open window" debate!

This is probably a balanced article that summarizes the arguments: https://indoorairsolutions.co.uk/dehumidifier-vs-open-window-which-is-best/

There are so many variables that come into play. Opening a window for one person works, whereas for another it wont.

I think - because the black mould is so localised to one wall in one room in my house, Im veering towards getting a dehumidifier.

scottishblondie

We have dehumidifiers because we can pop them on as needed and the condensation disappears without worrying about opening and closing windows.  We live on the ground floor so leaving our windows open isn't really ideal.  Plus if its windy and rainy (a frequent occurrence in Scotland) the rain always blows straight into our bedroom window, even if it's only open a crack.  Dehumidifiers work for us.

Effician

dllive said:

Hmmm, Ive dissapeared down the rabbit hole of "dehumidifier vs open window" debate!

This is probably a balanced article that summarizes the arguments: https://indoorairsolutions.co.uk/dehumidifier-vs-open-window-which-is-best/

There are so many variables that come into play. Opening a window for one person works, whereas for another it wont.

I think - because the black mould is so localised to one wall in one room in my house, Im veering towards getting a dehumidifier.

If you want to try another rabbit hole look into the relationship between relative humidity/ temperature & dewpoints, this will explain why your condensation is forming.  this handy little calulator is helpful  https://www.calculator.net/dew-point-calculator.html?airtemperature=20&airtemperatureunit=celsius&humidity=40&dewpoint=&dewpointunit=celsius&x=59&y=16 . 

Just as a for instance , you take a shower in the ensuite  & the rh goes to 80% at 20celsius , any surface  in the room below 16.4 ( the dew point) will allow droplets of water to form. Lets say you now finish the shower & open a window in winter ,a quick inrush of 5c air will cause a rapid cooling of the room before all that damp air can escape ,unless you turn up the heating for that room the condensate formed by the cold crashing will remain for sometime.

Personally i'm not keen on heating a room with an open window, in your case which is similar to the situation here, i'd rather use the energy on a dehumidifier .

P.s  We use a dessicant dehumidifier as they work better for us due to lower room temps.

jadey2024

I'm leaning towards meacodry ABC currently. I've been debating for days now and changing mind from one brand to the next. Have a headache now and need to decide pronto. I liked the idea of a dessicant as read they can heat up a little which would be a bonus for my cold massionate but more costly to run which puts me right off. 

I open windows a lot. I always have but this winter I have new heaters. The last 13 yrs I had storage heaters in 2 bedrooms and living room and the 3 was enough to heat whole flat and give us all day heat. Now LL has had panel heaters put in bedrooms on eco scheme and one smart storage heater in living room. Which despite set to 21 degree all day, struggles to get room to 18 degrees. I cannot afford to run panels on a lot during evenings when on E7 tariffs. My daughter room gets down to 14- 13  degree these past couple weeks. I use panel in her room a couple hrs in evening and a few more during night but it needs all day heat from storage really as her room cools down quickly once panel goes off  Anyway, means a much colder flat than before. Bathroom and kitchen window always on latch and open even at night, doors open to allow air to move, bedroom windows go on latch all day in mornings if a very bad morning of condensation. Just means opening windows more and for longer than previously and much colder flat in return when I'm struggling to heat like previously. To be fair condensation is only really bad when temp drops below 5 or 4 degrees so not every day we get wet windows but then I have them open much more now. Just colder inside now I read they great for drying clothes and I still prefer to dry outside even now but can't always be done so added bonus as don't want to add to condensation drying indoors . 

Effician

jadey2024 said:

I'm leaning towards meacodry ABC currently. I've been debating for days now and changing mind from one brand to the next. Have a headache now and need to decide pronto. I liked the idea of a dessicant as read they can heat up a little which would be a bonus for my cold massionate but more costly to run which puts me right off. 

Yes the dessicants have a higher running cost but that's not the full story, a lot depends on what temperature the dehumidifer is going to operate at, take a look how fast the performance drops on a compressor unit. look at the extraction rate tab here  https://www.meaco.com/products/meaco-meacodry-dehumidifier-abc-range-10l  , no point it being cheap to run if it's pulling out little water due to cold temps as in your cold maisonette.

Compressor dehumidifiers are rated 30c at 80% humidity , almost rainforest whereas dessicant dehumidifiers are rated at closer to a uk climate of 20c at 60% humidity, so extraction rates quoted by sellers for comparison are not straight forward.

fewcloudy

dllive said:

Hmmm, Ive dissapeared down the rabbit hole of "dehumidifier vs open window" debate!

This is probably a balanced article that summarizes the arguments: https://indoorairsolutions.co.uk/dehumidifier-vs-open-window-which-is-best/

There are so many variables that come into play. Opening a window for one person works, whereas for another it wont.

I think - because the black mould is so localised to one wall in one room in my house, Im veering towards getting a dehumidifier.

I'm not sure it's a case of one or the other tbh but i can see why you would think it is. I do both, just not at the same time.

As often as possible I have windows open. Only time bedroom window gets closed at night is if the wind would damage it if left open.

I also had small amounts of black mould, only where you might expect i.e. corner of cupboard/wardrobe against a north facing wall with no ventilation. Manageable but undesirable.

So, as already mentioned up thread, I try to remove causes i.e leave wardrobe door open, try not to have wardrobe so densely packed, try to improve ventilation, clean area more frequently etc etc.  Difficult to change orientation of wall of house from a cold north facing wall though...

I buy Meaco 20 Dehumidifier for approx £230 - mould has not returned, windows in all bedrooms have zero condensation. Air feels drier and aids sleep, huge improvement in allergy symptoms of stuffy nose and dry mouth. When it runs, the air coming out of it is a bit warmer than the room temp as well, bonus.

But to reiterate, for many months of year I have windows open and do not need the dehumidifier for condensation (during summer I close the window and door when running dehumidifier, room by room, at very low humidity to kill bed bugs!)

jadey2024

Effician said:

jadey2024 said:

I'm leaning towards meacodry ABC currently. I've been debating for days now and changing mind from one brand to the next. Have a headache now and need to decide pronto. I liked the idea of a dessicant as read they can heat up a little which would be a bonus for my cold massionate but more costly to run which puts me right off. 

Yes the dessicants have a higher running cost but that's not the full story, a lot depends on what temperature the dehumidifer is going to operate at, take a look how fast the performance drops on a compressor unit. look at the extraction rate tab here  https://www.meaco.com/products/meaco-meacodry-dehumidifier-abc-range-10l  , no point it being cheap to run if it's pulling out little water due to cold temps as in your cold maisonette.

Compressor dehumidifiers are rated 30c at 80% humidity , almost rainforest whereas dessicant dehumidifiers are rated at closer to a uk climate of 20c at 60% humidity, so extraction rates quoted by sellers for comparison are not straight forward.

So maybe a dessicant would be better for me? Because my condensation is generally only occurring at low temp drops, I could get away with not having it on all the time so just on the very cold nights/mornings and when drying laundry so probably in the long run won't be too costly to run. 

Effician

jadey2024 said:

Effician said:

jadey2024 said:

I'm leaning towards meacodry ABC currently. I've been debating for days now and changing mind from one brand to the next. Have a headache now and need to decide pronto. I liked the idea of a dessicant as read they can heat up a little which would be a bonus for my cold massionate but more costly to run which puts me right off. 

Yes the dessicants have a higher running cost but that's not the full story, a lot depends on what temperature the dehumidifer is going to operate at, take a look how fast the performance drops on a compressor unit. look at the extraction rate tab here  https://www.meaco.com/products/meaco-meacodry-dehumidifier-abc-range-10l  , no point it being cheap to run if it's pulling out little water due to cold temps as in your cold maisonette.

Compressor dehumidifiers are rated 30c at 80% humidity , almost rainforest whereas dessicant dehumidifiers are rated at closer to a uk climate of 20c at 60% humidity, so extraction rates quoted by sellers for comparison are not straight forward.

So maybe a dessicant would be better for me? Because my condensation is generally only occurring at low temp drops, I could get away with not having it on all the time so just on the very cold nights/mornings and when drying laundry so probably in the long run won't be too costly to run. 

As you rely on electic heating anyway just think of the heat generated by the dessicants element a substitute for your panel heaters, the dehumidifying effect then becomes a bonus.

Take a look at the ecoair dd1 mini, not too bad energy usage on low & lightweight as well.

I was fortunate as when i was deciding on what to buy a dd1 simple came up local for a fiver & just needed a simple fix,  really pleased with the results & only gets used about 6 hours a week on low so under 40p/week at svr