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Posted by Dave Martindale on July 28, 2008, 4:09 pm
>As an aside, the old dehumidifier just had the little rotating knob
>humidistat on it and I'd set it for slightly higher than "normal"
>humidity. It cycled on and off, more off than on. The new one has a
>digital humidistat so I set it for 55% RH because I've heard that to
>minimize all of the bad things that can happen to your basement due to
>incorrect humidity you should be in the 45-55% range. Apparently the
>old dehumidifier was actually set for about 60 to 65% RH. New unit
>showed 65% when I turned it on, quickly dropped to 60, now is showing
>55% but have not heard it shut off yet (granted, I haven't been in my
>basement for the whole time period.)
Leave it alone for a day or two, then see if it's still running
constantly. If your old dehumidifier was set to 65%, then *everything*
in your basement that can absorb water vapour has about that level of
absorbed water. If you try to bring the humidity down to 55%,
everything is going to be "bleeding" moisture into the air for a while -
your drywall and studs, your bookshelfs, all the books, etc. Once the
humidity has been 55% for a while, everything else will stabilize at
that level, and the dehumidifier will have to run less.
>So I assume that it just displays
>in 5% increments and showing 55% means it's probably in the range of
>52.5-57.5%. This is a 45 pint unit and based on the amount of water
>it's pulled out, I don't know that I suspect that there's a problem with
>the unit; more that my house is very open and it would seem that due to
>the climate (this AM: almost 90 degrees and 57% RH outside; now, 77
>degrees and raining) the humidity in the whole house is higher than 55%
>and trying to suck it down to that is taxing the unit. Any real problem
>just leaving it at 60% and letting it go, even if that isn't "ideal?"
If outside air can flow freely through your house, you are trying to
dehumidify the outdoors. That is a hopeless task. You need to provide
some barrier between inside and outside air.
On the other hand, it's not "taxing" your unit to run all the time; it
oought to be built to deal with that. At worst, it won't be able to
keep the humidity down to what you want.
Dave
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