On Thu, 29 Dec 2005 16:13:57 GMT, "Dave" <[email protected]> wrote:
>I have my woodshop in my basement. I live in Illinois. Do you recommend that
>I leave it on all winter long, or just in the spring, summer, and fall?
Turn it off (you can rig a thermostat for this) if the air temperature
in the room drops within a few degrees of freezing. You can sometimes
achieve this with a timeswitch too.
Humidifiers work by dropping the air temperature to just below freezing.
This causes moisture to precipitate as frost on the humidifier
evaporator. However if the air is already near to this temperature, they
are increasingly less effective.
In Illinois I'd expect that your winters are pretty dry and you wouldn't
need the dehumidifier in winter anyway. My winters are damp and I need
it most just now, sadly when its least effective.
Dave wrote:
> I have my woodshop in my basement. I live in Illinois. Do you recommend that
> I leave it on all winter long, or just in the spring, summer, and fall?
> Thanks
Doesn't it have a humidistat that will turn it off when the humidity
level gets low enough? If so, I'd leave it on year 'round. Otherwise,
buy a hygrometer to monitor humidity levels to make your decision.
DonkeyHody
"Give a hungry man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach him to fish
and . . . he will sit in a boat and drink beer all day."
On 29 Dec 2005 09:16:41 -0800, rickluce <[email protected]> wrote:
> How does your dehumidifier work in such a large space? Does it increase
> the cost of your electricity by much?
Keep in mind, that even if it does cost you in electricity, you get
those BTUs as heat, so it cuts down on the heating bill. In some
places, at some times, electricity is cheaper than other fuels.
I am in Ohio (couple states east of you) and in the winter, I am having to run a
whole house humidifier to keep the humidity to a decent level and reduce static
electricity build up on the carpets and cat...
Usually the air inside of a house in this region gets drier during the winter
months because the humidity outside is low also...I would suggest only running
it in spring, summer and fall unless you have central air.
Dave wrote:
> I have my woodshop in my basement. I live in Illinois. Do you recommend that
> I leave it on all winter long, or just in the spring, summer, and fall?
> Thanks
"Dave" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:9XTsf.683600$xm3.382239@attbi_s21...
>I have my woodshop in my basement. I live in Illinois. Do you recommend
>that I leave it on all winter long, or just in the spring, summer, and
>fall? Thanks
>
If you're heating the house, turn it off. The drop in RH from cold outside
air being heated is significant. If your humidistat wants to keep it
running, it's a good bet it's broken.
Then there's the fact that a dehumidifier in colder air freezes up and just
wastes electricity - assuming there's enough moisture in the air to freeze
up on, that is.
As to garages, rickluce - I would no more attempt to dehumidify the
neighborhood than I would to air condition it. Which by the way, dries the
air. Takes a fairly intrusion-controlled space before either is worthwhile.
"DonkeyHody" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
>
> Dave wrote:
>> I have my woodshop in my basement. I live in Illinois. Do you recommend
>> that
>> I leave it on all winter long, or just in the spring, summer, and fall?
>> Thanks
>
> Doesn't it have a humidistat that will turn it off when the humidity
> level gets low enough? If so, I'd leave it on year 'round. Otherwise,
> buy a hygrometer to monitor humidity levels to make your decision.
>
> DonkeyHody
> "Give a hungry man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach him to fish
> and . . . he will sit in a boat and drink beer all day."
>
It does have a stat and I can hear the compressor kick on and off
occasionally. However, the fan runs all the time.