Humidity is often worse than the heat here in Louisiana. The high moisture levels in the air are like having an extra layer of clothing on: the moisture makes it harder for your body to release heat, and that extra heat trapped in your body makes the temperatures around you feel hotter than they are—sometimes as much as 8 to 10°F! The moisture can cause other troubles as well, from simple things like making it harder to dry off towels, to more serious issues like the growth of harmful molds in a home that lead to triggering allergies.
One of the best ways to deal with the high humidity of the summer is to use a dehumidifier. But if your first instinct is to go online and search for a portable dehumidifier (also known as a room dehumidifier), which can cost anywhere from $100 to almost $2000, we recommend you instead contact our technicians to arrange for a whole-house dehumidifier installation in Haughton, LA.
The Issues with Portable Dehumidifiers
The general workings of a dehumidifier are helpful. Operating similarly to an air conditioner, a dehumidifier pulls moist air from a room and runs it over an evaporator coil with cold refrigerant to remove moisture from the air. This also cools off the air, so to warm it back to room temperature, the air passes over a condenser coil with warm refrigerant to return the heat to it, after which it is blown back into the room. The moisture from the evaporator coil collects in a compartment that must be regularly emptied.
So why don’t we recommend using these portable units? There are a couple of reasons:
- They have limited power. A 30 to 40 pint unit can deal with a single room that occasionally gets damp, but when humid weather starts up, they’ll quickly be overwhelmed.
- They only affect a small space. When you have humidity making your entire home uncomfortable, you would have to purchase room dehumidifiers for every room, which is expensive and often not even helpful.
- They’re inconvenient, requiring regularly emptying the water chamber, or moving them from room to room.
- They are potential fire hazards. Trying to run a room dehumidifier as much as possible can sometimes lead to the unit catching fire. There have been recent recalls of many models of dehumidifiers because of these hazards—and we expect there will be more recalls in the future.
Whole-House Dehumidifiers Are the Best Way to Go
A whole-house dehumidifier avoids all of the above problems. The unit is integrated into the ventilation system so it affects all the air circulating through the house. The water removed from the air is conveniently sent into the waste water system. You control the dehumidifier using a humidistat, which makes it easy to find the right level for comfort without making the home too dry.
To find out more about installation of a dehumidifier that takes care of your entire home, talk to one of our indoor air quality specialists.
Call the Doctor of Home Comfort today! Hall’s Heating, Air Conditioning & Refrigeration serves you AC and air quality needs in the Shreveport Area.
