Choose the right dehumidifier for home and bedroom
Dehumidifiers are used to control moisture. Moisture comes to your home from your toilet, swimming pool and if your house is near a lake, then high moisture issues can happen to you. There are few things you must follow before you buy any dehumidifier for your home/bedroom.
- How capable the dehumidifier is to operate in low temperatures, as per your home/bedroom requirement.
- When you should go for a desiccant dehumidifier and if your home has an HVAC system, then how to use it with the ducted Indoor unit.
- Best location and position for your dehumidifier.
- In which capacity you need to operate the dehumidifier.
- When and why the filter of the dehumidifier needs to be changed.
- Water drainage options for the dehumidifier.
- How to choose the right size dehumidifier for Home.
- What kind of features does the dehumidifier provide to operate it smoothly. Like, Auto – compressor off, Auto restart, CO mode, timer option etc.
Dehumidifier Issues in Low Temperatures:
There are two kinds of dehumidifiers, compressor/refrigerant type and desiccant type. For the House and bedroom areas, we use a compressor/refrigerant-type dehumidifier. In low temperatures, this kind of dehumidifier doesn’t work well.
Why compressor or refrigerant-type dehumidifier doesn’t work well in cold places:
Imagine you have two bedrooms with similar moisture/humidity levels, Bedroom A and Bedroom B. The temperature of Bedroom A is 30 degrees Celsius & Temperature of Bedroom B is 17 degrees Celsius. And you are using a 50 Pints/day capacity dehumidifier in those two bedrooms. You will notice that in Bedroom A the dehumidifier is working well, Because it has a higher temperature. In the meantime, the dehumidifier in Bedroom B is not working well, because it’s working in very low capacity. Also if you run it for a day, you will notice that the Bedroom B dehumidifier is freezing up & stops working. Because its temperature is very low.
It’s happening because the refrigerant dehumidifier works with the refrigeration cycle, the chilled liquid refrigerant gas flows through the evaporator. During this process, the evaporator gets colder than the Bedroom temperature. When bedroom moisture air comes to the evaporator, a heat exchange happens between them due to the temperature difference. Here the evaporator absorbs the heat from room air and the moisture in the air gets cold and heavier by losing heat. Because of that, the cold heavy moisture is stuck to the evaporator and then it collects in the water pot of the dehumidifier.
But in cold weather, the moisture in the air is already cold. When this cold moisture comes to the evaporator, heat exchange happens much less compared to a high-temperature area. Because of that in cold areas, refrigerant dehumidifiers work in very low capacity.
And if the temperature of your area is very cold, then cold moisture can freeze up over the evaporator.
In that condition, you should go for a desiccant dehumidifier.
Nowadays every dehumidifier company tests their dehumidifier in low temperatures
(18 degrees Celsius/65°F). So that the maximum ability of a dehumidifier can be tested. Before that, they tested the dehumidifier at 26°C/80°F. By doing this companies can find out that, in low temperature what kind of issues can happen. And they add a lot of different modes for batter control even if the dehumidifier gets frizz-up. In the end, we will explain how different modes work in a dehumidifier.
Desiccant Dehumidifier:
The desiccant dehumidifier is completely different from the refrigerant dehumidifier. Basically, a desiccant dehumidifier uses silicon gel to absorb moisture from the air. Silicon gel can absorb water up to 40% of its weight. The main component of a desiccant dehumidifier is the desiccant rotor. The desiccant rotor in the dehumidifier rotates slowly. When the process air/room air goes through the desiccant rotor, the silicon gel in the desiccant rotor absorbs the moisture from the air. This stuck water goes out by a different process.
If the house is too big and it has existing HVAC and ductwork, then you can run it with the HVAC system.
First, install the dehumidifier, then connect the return duct line with it and then another duct line from the dehumidifier needs to connect with the indoor unit. So that the dehumidified air can go to the indoor unit and after getting cold it can go back to the room.
It can operate in areas where the temperature is less than 10°C. It’s a simple, practical, and easy-to-use device to control humidity in the home. It provides more efficiency, control and reliability compared to the refrigerant-type dehumidifier.
There are some disadvantages also like it is hard to install, you can’t easily change the location of it and in the beginning, it cost more.
It is mostly used for industrial areas where maximum control over humidity is needed and places where the temperature is less than 18/17°C.
Best location and position for your dehumidifier:
To get the best place to install the dehumidifier, you should know about the source of the moisture in your house/room. Mostly it is the toilet or swimming pool. If this is the case, then install the dehumidifier near those places.
Before placing the dehumidifier, make sure there is a 30 cm gap between the wall and the dehumidifier. Otherwise, air circulation issues will happen. Also after the air gets pushed by the wall, it will try to return to the dehumidifier. This can be a cause of overheating and because of that, your compressor will get damaged.
In which capacity you need to operate the dehumidifier:
You can set 50/55 on your dehumidifier. This is the standard for it. Because 40 is too high and 65/70 is too low.
We know that on cold nights, water accumulates on glass windows due to condensation. On those particular periods, you can set 40/45 on the dehumidifier. But generally, 50/55 is the preferable setting.
When and why the filter of the dehumidifier needs to be changed:
The filter of the dehumidifier needs to be cleaned in every 4/5 days. Because it gets dirty quickly. If the filter gets dirty, then the airflow will slow down which will affect the performance of the dehumidifier. Because it will not get enough air to remove the moisture. Due to those reasons, the blower fan of the dehumidifier will run faster than its regular speed. Which is the cause of more electric consumption.
If you see that the HEPA filter is getting black after long use, then just change it. There can be germs and viruses on it. This can make your home and bedroom unhygienic.
Water drain system for dehumidifier:
For water drain there are few options. You can physically change the collected water from the dehumidifier. Also you can connect a drain line with it and then connect the drain line with the drain rider or toilet.
There are other options like pump motors. Now for home or bedroom additional pump motors are not required, if you need you can use it. Lot of models on the market now provide inbuilt pump motors on dehumidifiers. But they are not reliable, so if your situation requires a pump motor then try to go for an additional one. They are more long-lasting and relatable.
How to choose the right size dehumidifier for Home:
Well, there are so many things to consider when it comes to choosing the right size dehumidifier for your home or bedroom. But I don’t want to make my starting calculation. After All, it is just for the home and bedroom, not for any chips, dry fruit factory or pharmaceutical industries.
For home and bedroom you can take a 30 pint dehumidifier for 500 to 1500 square feet, 50 pint for 1000 to 1500 square feet and 70 pint is for a high moisture level room over 1500 square feet.
Different kinds of mode to get more control over the dehumidifier:
Nowadays dehumidifiers are smarter than ever. There are so many different modes that make us a smart user and we can use them to make our home more comfortable in a productive way. Like Defrost mode, Passive defrost mode, Timer mode, Continuous mode and Auto-restart mode. Here I have describe them:
Defrost mode: In cold areas, sometimes dehumidifiers freeze up and for those issues, companies provide this mode. The old model dehumidifier has this setting. In cold weather, compressor-based dehumidifiers get frizzed. Defrost mode was invented to avoid this issue. what it does is, it automatically turn off the refrigeration cycle of the dehumidifier and it will only run its fan. So, this fan slowly melts the ice from the dehumidifier. After the ice is fully melted, it runs again.
Passive defrost mode: Companies now provide passive defrost mode in modern dehumidifiers. It is an optimized version of the deforest mode. In this mode, the dehumidifier is not actively dehumidifying, but still, it consumes electricity. So, this mode is less efficient compared to the deforest mode but provides a high value.
This mode allows the dehumidifier to operate at a very low temperature. We know that the compressor-based dehumidifier gets frizzed, if we use it in a place where the temperature is lower than 17/18 °C. But because of this mode, now the dehumidifier can run at 5°C temperature. At this temperature, it runs in a very low setting. This is crazy that modern dehumidifiers are improving so much. For more lower temperature go for the desiccant dehumidifier.
Passive defrost in a dehumidifier is an important mode you need to have for areas that are very cold in winter.
Timer mode: It’s a very common mode, most dehumidifiers on the market come with a timer. Imagine you need to go out for some work, before you go out you set the timer mode for 4 hours. After 4 hours it will turn off automatically. so that when you come home you find your place more comfortable.
Continuous mode: It is used in very humid areas like basements after rain & places where mold is a massive issue. Normally modern dehumidifier has a sensor when you achieve the required humidity level, it turns off automatically. But continuous mode doesn’t off automatically. it will run until you turn it off.
Auto-restart: Imagine you are using continuous mode or another mode on your dehumidifier and due to load shading the dehumidifier is off now. Once the power is available, the dehumidifier will run in the same mode, that you set before. Every dehumidifier has this setting.