Hi Scott, It is a lot of years since I owned a dehumidifier. There are though a few things to be considered.
While the air humidity in the vicinity of the humidifier can be drawn down thus tripping off the machine and remembering that even the increase in ambient temperature will lower the density of moisture in the air also tripping the humidistat off the temperature will then begin to fall raising the relative humidity in the vicinity of the sensor and tripping the machine back on. Remember too that as the fan comes on and off it will change the air currents as will the heat change convection currents and therefore the conditions in the immediate vicinity of the unit. Finally, As you draw down the relative humidity of the air, this will permit the air to absorb moisture from the surrounding environment. Put another way, things like the concrete walls and floors, the wall finish, the wood in the overhead joists, carpeting and other furnishings will be able to give up their moisture to the ambient air and this will again trip the dehumidifier on. You may well have a higher capacity unit than you need. A smaller machine would run more continuously but at that may well require more electricity in the long run. It will probably take a couple of weeks for the environment to stabilize. You might accelerate the process by adjusting the unit to full tilt, like blowing desert air through the basement for a week but there are disadvantages to drying out some things too quickly. Wood for example tend to shrink unevenly and check and crack if dried down too quickly. A smaller unit might be quieter of course but it is my experience that a compressor and fan are noisy what ever the size and that is about that. ----- Original Message ----- From: Scott Howell To: [email protected] Sent: Sunday, May 10, 2009 5:43 AM Subject: [BlindHandyMan] dehumidifiers Folks, I found that our basement was running anywhere from 60 to 70% humidity. I have a good deal of electronic and musical gear down here and have to assume that based on the hygrometer, those numbers are fairly accurate. Knowing that 60 to 70% humidity is not good for most wood and electronics, I purchased a dehumidifier. I generally take days if not weeks, but in this case there seemed to be few options, so I purchased a LG. It is a 45 pint unit with a five year warranty. This one cost $199.99 and a Kenmore at 35 pints cost $169.95. The question I have is first this LG seems to short-cycle, it's on for 30 minutes to 45 minutes it seems and then it shuts off for maybe 10 minutes or so. Now we have not had it quite 24 hours, but in less than 12 hours it has pulled the humidity level from 70% down to 51%. I don't know how accurate the humidistat is in the unit or how accurate the hygrometer is, but I guess an average will have to be figured. Now as I sit here the fan was on a while, shut itself off, and now the fan and compressor just came back on within five to eight minutes of it being off. I did adjust the humidistat to 60%, which is still within acceptable range. So, makes me wonder if the humidistat is to sensitive. I hate to think this thing will short-cycle so much as to really start costing me a lot of money in electrical use. Maybe the humidity down here isn't as bad as the cost of electricity. grin. Here are a few factors that might be a problem. I live in a split- level house. So, there is no basement door, I had the unit over by the outside door and I just moved it to the other side of the room closer to the stairwell. Now recall I just told you it was off five to eight minutes and came back on? It just turned itself off after five minutes. I'll have to track how long it stays off this time. In any event the question is what brands has folks had experience with, do you find any difference with a unit that has digital controls over the mechanical controls? ANy tips on the whole dehumidification process? I just can't believe these things can short-cycle so much. I have to say in just typing this message, it has cycled 3 times and I've been working on this message for probably 10 minutes with a spousal interruption. tnx, [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
