Why Buy a Dehumidifier?
Dehumidifiers remove excess moisture from air, eliminating dust mites and musty odors. They can also save energy by working more efficiently when combined with an air conditioner.
Humidity can make rooms feel stuffy and can even cause walls to crack as wood swells up. Our dehumidifier buying guide will help you find the right product to suit your home.
Reduce Allergens
When mold, mildew, dust mites, and other allergens grow, they release spores that irritate healthy lungs and trigger allergic reactions. They thrive in humid areas, and dehumidifiers reduce humidity levels to discourage their growth and keep them under control.
Dehumidifiers also help prevent pollen allergies. When the air is dry, pollen stays closer to the ground, where it’s less likely to be inhaled. This can be especially beneficial during the warmer months when Philadelphia’s high humidity can promote mold and dust mite growth, which may worsen allergy symptoms.
If you suffer from allergies, it’s essential to keep humidity below 50%. Otherwise, your sinuses can become irritated and your skin will dry out. The best way to know the humidity in your home is to use a hygrometer, which measures moisture and is available at hardware stores.
While in nature mold plays a vital role in breaking down decomposing organic matter, in your home, it’s an allergy trigger that can exacerbate asthma and other respiratory conditions. It also attracts other pests and destroys building materials. As such, preventing mold growth is a top priority for allergy sufferers. Dehumidifiers can help by keeping humidity below the 50% mark.
Reduce Humidity
A dehumidifier helps you control the amount of water vapor in your home’s air. This electric fan moisture is a major trigger for allergies, and it promotes mold growth and allows dust mites to thrive. Dehumidifiers reduce the humidity level in a room to about 50%, which is ideal for allergies.
In addition to controlling indoor allergy conditions, dehumidifiers also lower your energy bill by reducing your use of air conditioning. This is because air conditioners must work harder to cool a house that has excess humidity, and this in turn increases your energy usage.
Excessive humidity can lead to a number of problems in your home, including blistering paint and wallpaper. Using a dehumidifier can prevent these issues and help you avoid expensive repairs and replacements.
You can also recycle the water that collects in your dehumidifier’s bucket by using it to water plants. This is called greywater and is usually safe to use (depending on your local laws).
The dehumidifier will also eliminate other unwanted residents, such as silverfish, roaches, spiders and centipedes, which are attracted to moist environments. It is electric fan wholesale also helpful for people with asthma, as it reduces moisture in the air and makes it easier to breathe. For best results, a dehumidifier should be placed in a well-ventilated area away from curtains and furniture.
Increase Comfort
Humidity has a direct impact on indoor comfort. High humidity levels make you feel warmer than the air temperature, and can cause your cooling system to work overtime. Dehumidifiers remove excess moisture from the air, improving your indoor comfort.
Removing moisture from the air also makes your home less hospitable to allergens like mold, mildew and dust mites. These allergens thrive in humid conditions, especially in rooms that are often damp, such as bathrooms and basements. Dehumidifiers can help decrease the humidity levels in these rooms, which will control allergies and asthma symptoms.
Dehumidifiers reduce the amount of moisture in the air by pulling it into the unit, cooling it until it reaches its dew point and then condensing the moisture. The resulting dry air is then circulated back into the room. Some units also add heat into the process of removing moisture from the air, which can help make you feel more comfortable.
Humid conditions also lead to wood problems in your home, such as warped and rotting furniture. Dehumidifiers can help prevent these issues by keeping the humidity in your home low, which will keep the wood swelled and stable. There are whole-house dehumidifiers available that will attach to your HVAC system and dehumidify the entire house using your ductwork. These units, which are popular among Sylvane homeowners, are usually quieter than room-size models.
Save Energy
Dehumidifiers are an energy-efficient way to reduce excessive moisture in your home. Excessive moisture in crawl spaces, basements and attics can lead to mold growth, which is not only unsightly but also creates odors, and spreads microscopic mold spores throughout your home that cause allergy and respiratory discomfort. An air-conditioning system is a good way to lower humidity levels, but an energy efficient dehumidifier can do the job even more effectively, and cost-efficiently.
A dehumidifier draws moisture from the air by a process called condensation. It consists of a fan that pulls warm humid air through refrigerated coils that cool down the air. When the cooled air touches a metal surface inside the dehumidifier, the water in it condenses and drips into the dehumidifier’s reservoir or bucket. This bucket must be emptied regularly. Some models have warning lights to let you know when it’s time to empty the container.
Dehumidifiers use only a fraction of the electricity that an air conditioner does, and they can be much more energy-efficient than a refrigerator. They can also help your house feel cooler, and as a result you might not need to turn up the air conditioning as high as you normally would. This can further lower your energy bill, and reduce wear on the air-conditioning compressor over time, extending its lifespan and saving you money in repair costs.
