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I have a weird shaped bungalow (it's an H shape), with the master bedroom being at the end of quite a long corridor (think the top of one of the vertical bits of H). As a result the air in the bedroom tends to be a bit damp and it doesn't heat up all that fast either.
So dehumidifier is in order as we do get a bit of black mold in winter (yes the trickle vents are open). Looking at the guidance I can see that the choices are either:
- compressor, uses less energy but doesn't work all that well at lower temperatures (we tend to set the thermostat at 16 degrees, and the bedroom often sits about 15). Some of the newer Meaco ones seem to claim to work ok down to 10 degrees but pull less water.
- desiccant, uses more energy but works fine in low temperatures (about 1/2 more so maybe 350-400w vs 200ish).
The annoying thing is that a lot of the guidance seems to be 'if you have temps below 16 go desiccant' which is obviously right on the cusp for us.
I'm still erring on the side of the desiccant (this one https://www.meaco.com/products/meaco-dd8l-zambezi-dehumidifier) as I figure any wasted energy is going to be warming the room up, which is not the end of the world.
What would people do? Needs to be fairly quiet too.
Not intending to use it in the summer really (but who knows!)
According to this (note this is speed not power efficiency- but it tells you the compressor would need to run longer to achieve the same extraction so it kinda is):
(src https://ionmax.com.au/blogs/resources/desiccant-or-compressor-dehumidifier)
It looks like desiccant would be a better option.
I have a compressor powered one and can confirm it is noticeably slower at 15-17 than at 21.
I've got that model I think, and I use it in that kind of temp.
Would recommend. And yes it does warm the room a bit, so the heating doesn't need putting on so much.
I've got a meaco Zambezi and a meaco 20L low energy platinum.
They were for a damp problem I was having in a small bike store room (ex coal hole below ground). The problem was coming from a soak away which needed fixing but for a few years I just made the problem go away by sticking a dehumidifier in there. Due to current electric prices I've now got the problem fixed but will still need a dehumidifier going for a while to dry the area, I suspect.
Anyhow, Zambezi was brilliant at it's job, filled the tank every day (set to 50% humidity). Which was the downside, tank is a bit too small (there is an option to fit a pipe). Also it is electric hungry. As a rough rule of thumb it appears to use approx upto 2kwh per day more than the meaco 20L low energy. However, I've had the Meaco 20L low energy set at a higher 55% humidity.
Part of the difference appears to be that the Zambezi fan was always on whether it was dehumidifying or not, where as the 20L low energy actually stopped when it wasn't dehumidifying.
I've read somewhere (Which mag website) that the meaco 20L low energy was still good at lower temps in tests.
Thanks all - it's the claims that *some* compressor ones work ok at lower temps that is causing the confusion. Are they just 'claims' or are they actually true?
I’ve got that model I think, and I use it in that kind of temp.
Do you find it noisy? Esp, is it too noisy to sleep with (or for a baby to sleep with in the same room).
We've got 3 dehumidifiers (more by accident) - all compressor. Our old one is used over winter in my garage - it's a compressor and does work in single figures, but it's set at 60% as the buttons are broken ! The one we've got in the conservatory for drying clothes does seem to work fine in lower temperatures too and we set it down to 40% to dry everything. If it's just to dehumidify the house then set it at the 55-60%
It's not heated in the conservatory at present and is drying clothes overnight with around 10c ambient.
PS our house is set at 17. PS you room will be warmer with one as dry air heat's better !
We dry clothes in the small back bedroom which is unheated, but with a compressor dehumidifier the room noticeably warms up....
Do you find it noisy? Esp, is it too noisy to sleep with (or for a baby to sleep with in the same room).
I think a baby would be fine, but I might struggle until I got used to it.
It's quite a "white noise" kind of noise, so not the worst for sleeping.
My opinion is the Zambezi is fairly loud (I've got it on now), even on fan setting "one". You def wouldn't want it next to your bed, maybe even not in the same room, no problem on the landing maybe. Babies sleep thru anything, right? especially if it's constant. Like I said above the fan seems to stay on constantly even if it's not dehumidifying (presumably to do with the heat), so that might be a good thing at night as I think it would be worse if it was constantly turning on and off.
Put it another way, I don't think you could describe it as background noise, unless it was at the far end of a big room or in another room.
If you're within striking distance of Bingley/Skipton you're welcome to try mine, as it's now pretty much redundant apart from drying clothes.
Dessicant is Ok for small areas, like a cupboard or box room. The compressor ones are much better, but the air temp needs to be nearer 20 degrees, as there will be more moisture in the air. The desicant will still take it out at lower temps. Even salt will work at below 10 degrees.
Install a Drimaster instead. Job jobbed for the entire house 🙂
Not only is it much cheaper to run than either sort of dehumidifier (tho you can add a heater which ups the consumption a bit), it'll save a noticeable amount on your heating bills, too, even though it seems like you're constantly adding cold air as it's much easier/cheaper to heat dry air than damp. Also, helps if anyone suffers allergies as it's constantly adding filtered air (ok, not the best filters ever, but far better than not).
https://www.nuaire.co.uk/product-list-page/drimaster-eco-range
Have considered the PIV systems, and I agree would be a good solution, but for two issues. I live in a bungalow and the loft area is partially converted (annoyingly above the problem rooms) so I can't just stick it in the loft. The lay out of the house is a H shape so the sticking it in the hall way that isn't converted is quite some distance away (and around a corner) - can't see it working. They do a version that can take air from the soffits which might be an option but a) this would always be pumping in cold air, which wouldn't be ideal b) still seems to take air from the loft (which in this case would be a converted loft storage space which isn't amazingly ventilated either).
The other problem is that the loft itself doesn't seem to be amazingly ventilated - no soffit vents in the main loft (just gaps in things which seems to give enough ventilation as there are no signs of condensation) so the air isn't massively fresh. The solution to this is to swap out the soffits for ventilated ones, but given it's a 50s bungalow they're probably abestos so it's a huge PITA.
Long term I imagine sticking in a MHVR would work, tho the house isn't massively air tight. In the short term a dehumidifer will probably help.