Breaking 3 Myths around Whole House Dehumidifiers, With Science!

If you are considering to buy portable dehumidifier over whole house type, you have probably done some homework and have run into some common myths about them. Here in this article I will going to help you understand the origins of all these misconceptions, and the science behind why they aren’t true.

Myth no. 1: Whole House Dehumidifier is difficult and complex to install

If you have spent few hours or even couple of minutes researching about whole house dehumidifiers you will possibly have had come across some rich diagrams illustrating the ways you can integrate these whole house units into the HVAC system presently available at your homes. This definitely looks like lots of work, time and expense and would be quick turning off for a person who is not that does look like a lot of work and would be a quick turn-off for anybody who isn’t willing to deal with that level of installations.

Luckily, a whole house humidifier performs fine without any complicated ventilation and ductwork. Most if not all whole house dehumidifiers can work as isolated unit that means you can enjoy the same plug and play like in any portable unit.

The only compulsory step in installation is drainage lines. Portable units feature reservoir buckets or tanks to collect moisture that need to be emptied over and over again, else dehumidifier would not work. On the other hand whole house units drain condensate in a pipe, that you can run in floor drain or sump pump. If you have to run drain line in crawlspace windows or utility sink, then choose a unit with inbuilt pump to push water up drainage pipe, else you need to buy it separately.

In reality whole house dehumidifiers need just as little work of installation as a portable unit. Difference is that they offers much more flexibility when you like to integrate them into HVAC systems.

Myth No. 2: Whole House Dehumidifiers need special electrical outlets

Most if not all people assume that as whole house units are larger they might also need special electrical frameworks, such as special outlets, higher volts, hard wiring and the like. There are some industrial dehumidifiers that need 220 to 440 volts service, however these units cost $6000 or above and they aren’t appropriate for homes. As a matter of fact all whole house dehumidifier uses regular 3 prongs 115 volts and can be plugged in regular electrical outlets.

Myth No 3: Portable Dehumidifiers are Cheaper than Whole House Dehumidifiers

As whole house dehumidifiers are greater in size and cover comparatively larger area and therefore they are certainly price higher than over the counter portable dehumidifiers. On average a whole house humidifier costs, 900 to 1200 dollars, as portable ones can be obtained at only 100 to 300 dollars. Whole house units are larger and have larger compressors and fan motors and they usually use more electricity during operations. Therefore how can they be efficient as compared to the portable dehumidifier unit?

To break this myth, first of all understand how portable dehumidifier’s capacity is rated. If you have looked through the list of whole house humidifiers on any online ecommerce site, you will observe that whole house dehumidifiers have 2 capacities, i.e. Capacity at saturation and capacity at AHAM. Whole house when dehumidifiers disclose their performance at ideal humidity levels is AHAM and on the other when it close its function at maximum level of humidity is saturation. Portable dehumidifiers are meant only for saturation that makes their capacity significantly higher as compared to performance that you actually receive. At the saturation, humidity is at max and is easy to extract from air in the surroundings. Until your home is flooded, the saturation condition will never exist inside your home.

How to understand the capacity and cost of operation of the Portable Dehumidifiers

It is important to understand capacity of a portable dehumidifier because it actually leads to main part of this myth. In many cases portable dehumidifier can run continuously as it is very small to efficiently dehumidify everything and extract noticeably more moisture. This means that whole house unit move lots of air as well as it extract noticeably more amount of moisture. So, a whole house dehumidifier can get down the humidity level fast, and after this stop working unless humidity level increases again and then it will run shortly and then repeat if necessary. Therefore although whole house dehumidifier are bigger and uses much more energy, it can run much lesser than their portable counterparts. This table can better illustrate the difference of running expenses of a popular whole house dehumidifier and a portable dehumidifier