Dehumidifiers

If you live in an area with high humidity you need a dehumidifier. In some regions the humidity is so dense you can see the condensation on the windows inside the house and moisture on the rugs and furniture.

In areas such as these you risk the formation of mold and mildew. A dehumidifier is a necessity. An overabundance of moisture can also be seen in the wooden items – for example, doors and drawers are hard to open and close; the floors will warp and windows are hard to open.

To get a good dehumidifier, just search online for ‘dehumidifiers for sale’ – you will find many dehumidifier brands and prices. Your job is to find the one that best suits the area from which you want to remove the moisture.

To do this you need to know the size of the area in cubic feet (length * width * height). You will also need to know what type of dehumidifier you want.

Do you want a simple small dehumidifier that can be plugged into an electric outlet in your home, or do you want an elaborate large unit that has to be professionally installed? You may want to opt for a whole house or central dehumidifier.

Have all of this ready before you sit down at your computer and start your search for dehumidifiers for sale. If you are confused or just  unsure of what you want and need help in making your decision, talk to a professional or get the information from web sites that have dehumidifiers for sale.

You will find many brands of dehumidifier and many sizes from the petite to mid size and larger. Prices range from under $100 to as much as $900+. Their capacity to hold water also varies from 16 ounces to over 65 -70 pints.

Some have an automatic drainage system that drains the water accumulated in the dehumidifier directly into a waterproofing system such as the sump pump.  Others have a bucket into which the water is drained and has to be emptied manually daily.

Last but certainly not the least, you may wish to ensure that it has a quiet motor as most dehumidifiers can be noisy.

When you are looking for dehumidifiers for sale be fully prepared and know what you are looking for. Take notes about the different brands, their price and their ability to dehumidify the size of your area. Pick the dehumidifier that will do the best job for you based on your research

Most of the dehumidifiers for sale today have an Energy Star rating making it safe for the environment and your wallet by saving energy. The Energy Star rating is given when the product meets the strict guidelines imposed on it by the US Department of Energy and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

The Eva Dry Dehumidifier

The Eva Dry dehumidifier comes in assorted sizes from the petite to the mid size and in some cases is a renewable dehumidifier.

The mini versions of the Eva Dry dehumidifier use a silica gel which absorbs  many times its weight in moisture. It locks in the moisture and keeps the water in so it will not leak out. It is called renewable because when the unit is full the silica can be renewed by plugging it into an electrical outlet. The heat that is generated from the electricity will cause the Eva Dry dehumidifier to release water vapor. This procedure can be repeated over and over for a period of ten years.

The smallest Eva Dry dehumidifier works an area of 333 square feet. It is compact and silent and does not need batteries or cords. This unit is completely renewable in a period of twenty to thirty days. It has an automatic off switch when it reaches full capacity. It is child and pet safe and non toxic.

The largest model, a mid size dehumidifier, is effective in a 2,200 square foot area and absorbs 20.5 ounces of moisture per day.

Where a whole house dehumidifier may be fixed in position, the Eva Dry dehumidifier is mobile.

In the bathroom where mold and mildew thrive this unit will solve the problem. It is best used where it is warm and humid. Its portability makes it effective in any room in the house.

The Eva Dry dehumidifier has a low energy consumption. The larger Eva Dry dehumidifier is 7”long x 8.5” wide and 14” high and weighs in at 6.7 pounds, This unit is small enough to be put in an out-of-the-way place in the house. It uses the Peltier technology which is a low energy technology therefore, good for the environment. .

Besides the home dehumidifier Eva Dry also manufactures the Eva Dry shoe stretcher, a dehumidifier for shoes. The perfect unit for eliminating odor causing bacteria which thrive on the moisture in your shoes. This unit, as the previous home dehumidifier uses silica gel to absorb the moisture. When the silica gel turns pink it is time to renew. It is fully renewed when the silica gel turns blue. This unit will keep your athletic, outdoor, or deck shoes fresh while keeping their shape.

The petite Eva Dry humidifier, unlike its silica gel companions, uses electrical power and will absorb up to 16 ounces of water. It has a removable tank and shuts off when he unit is full. Its dimensions are 5” high x 6” wide and 4.59” deep. Because it is small it can be used in closets, store rooms, nurseries and any small area where humidity is a problem.

Some dehumidifiers are noisy but this unit does not have a compressor making it light and quiet.

As you can see the Eva Dry dehumidifier comes in many sizes and includes a dehumidifier for shoes. Before you shop determine what type of unit you want for the space you want to dehumidify.

The Wall Unit Air Conditioner

If you are looking to buy a new wall unit air conditioner the best time to buy it is in the fall or winter months. Most retailers will be out of wall mounted air conditioners, or any air conditioners, during the peak summer months.

When buying an air conditioner there are four things you want to take into consideration: 1) Cooling capacity; 2)Energy efficiency; 3) How difficult will it be to install: 4) Extra Qualities.

Cooling Capacity

The cooling capacity is measured in BTU (British Thermal Units) per hour. The higher the BTU the more power the unit has to cool. If you buy a unit that has too much cooling power it will go off and on too often. This can be wearing on the machine and will not stay on long enough to eliminate the humidity.

Measure your room in square feet before you shop for that wall unit air conditioner. A room of 350 square feet with a eight foot ceiling can be cooled by 9000 BTU.

Energy Efficiency

The energy efficiency of the unit is measured in Energy Efficiency Rating (EER). The higher the EER the more efficient the unit will be in saving energy and lowering your electric bill. A wall unit with an EER rating of 10 will use about 20% less energy than a unit of an EER of 8.

Installation

Installation of a wall unit air conditioner can be somewhat awkward and heavy.

Unlike free standing air conditioners the wall unit air conditioner is designed to be installed in a hole in the exterior wall. Since burglars like to use the air conditioning units as a means of entrance into a residence, the wall unit makes it more difficult for them to gain that entry.

Extra Qualities

Some of the qualities you want to look for when buying your wall unit air conditioner is how it will maintain a constant temperature; how noisy is the unit of your choice. Air flow is another important quality you want to look for. How does the air flow, does it have manual or electric louvers to direct the flow of air up and down? Does it have the ability to switch to the outside when you want the air out of the room?

Today’s air conditioning units have all sorts of abilities and the one you don’t want to forget is the remote control. Unlike a portable room air conditioner which you can easily operate, the wall unit air conditioner may be mounted a little higher than you can reach.

All of this information may seem like a lot of work just to buy a simple wall unit air conditioner, but keep in mind that a little homework and research before you shop can save you a lot of money. You will save money because the unit will be more efficient therefore more suited to your cooling needs and it will save energy. You will also feel a certain satisfaction for accomplishing what could have been a stressful task.

When shopping for your Sanidry Dehumidifier do not shop in the peak of the hot season. To save money on your purchase wait for the fall or winter. Also give yourself  time to learn something about the unit you choose to buy.

The Sanidry dehumidifier can remove up to 100 pints of water per day from your basement while maintaining its Energy Star rating.

It features a 250 CFM (cubic feet per minute) blower which is large but very energy efficient. It has a 2-stage air filtration system that can remove particles as small as two microns the size of which is equivalent to a human hair. It covers a 3000 square foot area with an eight foot ceiling.

The Sanidry Dehumidifier requires no professional installation and can be plugged into a standard 15 amp.110 volt electrical outlet. The unit can operate in temperatures as low as 55 degrees.

The Sanidry has additional features to make it the best in efficiency, such as a muffler kit to reduce the sound level as a whole house dehumidifier can sometimes tend to be noisy, and a gravity drain to eliminate the need of emptying buckets.

The Sanidry Dehumidifier has earned its Energy Star rating because it passed all of the stringent guidelines imposed by the US Department of Energy and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

If your basement has that damp feeling and smells musty a Sanidry Dehumidifier, with its powerful air circulation system, will move the air around every space in your basement. This makes it more comfortable for lounging or working in that basement. The Sanidry automatically drains into your basement waterproofing system, such as the sump pump. Some units drain into buckets which have to be emptied manually.

Another positive feature of the Sanidry is the size of its cold coil. The standard dehumidifier has a small spiral cold coil, while the Sanidry Dehumidifier has a very large cold coil which is often compared to the radiator of a truck.

The Sanidry Dehumidifier helps the person with allergies as it cleans the air of all allergens. Although there are many allergens in a house such as pet dander, dry human skin and plants to name a few, most allergies in the home are caused by the key allergen, the dust mite. Dust mites do not drink water. They absorb water from the air through their skin. The Sanidry Dehumidifier will remove the water from the air that the dust mite depends on, and will eliminate the dust mites. Although there are other allergens the dust mite is perhaps the one that causes the most allergy problems.

In conclusion, know what you want before you shop. To get the right size Sanidry Dehumidifier:

Know the size of your room in cubic feet.

Decide if you want a large unit professionally installed, or a smaller unit that you can just plug in and does not need to be professionally installed.

Most of all, remember to buy your unit in the right season.

We all know what we want the dehumidifier to do but, do we know how it does its job?

Most of us have experienced condensation on a small level, that is, when a cold drink is exposed to a warm hand a mist forms on the glass hence, condensation. The application? In this case cold  air is exposed to a warm surface.  The same process, albeit on a larger scale is true of the dehumidifier.

The job of the whole house dehumidifier and with any dehumidifier, is to extract the water from the air and to collect it onto the cold coils, which is then reheated and exhausted. The water is collected in a reservoir and drained.

The anatomy of the dehumidifier is simple. It needs a fan-to collect the air send it across the coils and then back out again. The amount of air a dehumidifier can move is measured in CFM (cubic feet per minute). The more CFM the more effective the dehumidifier is in moving the air.  The whole house dehumidifier is equipped with very large fans and can extract more moisture from larger spaces.

The dehumidifier can do a more efficient job if there is moisture in the air already. If you are trying to dehumidify a room with a relative 70% humidity or more and bring it down to 50% a whole house dehumidifier is the answer. However, if you are trying to get the level of humidity down to 20% you will need a much more powerful dehumidifier.

The average townhouse or condominium can easily use a 65 pint unit while a house of 4,000 square feet or more should look to a 135 pint unit or more.

Although the wall unit air conditioner will extract moisture from the air, it will also cool the area. In climates where the seasons change and it is cool but damp, the air conditioner alone is of no help. In a case like this you need an air conditioner dehumidifier or a whole house dehumidifier.

The whole house dehumidifier allows you to be comfortable and save money by saving energy.

A whole house dehumidifier is very important to have if you are a traveling person, whether for business or pleasure, and needs to be away from home for long periods of time. During that time, in a damp climate or other moist conditions, mold and/or mildew can build up in the more moist areas of the home causing damage to your health and wallet.

The whole house dehumidifier will take care of your premises even when you are not there.

By setting your temperature to 85 degrees and your dehumidifier to 59%RH you can save as much as 44% on your energy bill.  Your dehumidifier does its job efficiently and effectively to protect your home from mold and other unsavory moist air damage while you are away.

As mentioned before the whole house air dehumidifier will keep you healthy by keeping the mold and mildew away. It will protect your wallet because it will save energy costs and costs of cleaning off mold and mildew from your home.

The mini air conditioner was invented by an outdoorsman that was looking for a small room air conditioner that would be both serviceable and inexpensive. As they say, if you can’t find it, make it and he did.

The mini air conditioner is very simple to operate. It uses very little power. It’s compact and in most cases very inexpensive. With a 12 volt mini system it can be used in places such as your boat, your car or any small enclosed space.

When we think of air conditioning we think of the large window unit, the wall unit or central air conditioning. What we have done is to take air conditioning for granted.

What about small areas that need to be cooled? The practicality of the mini air conditioner should be foremost on our minds for small space cooling.

The mini air conditioner usually comes with a base unit that is placed outside, and additional unit or units that are small and fit into any room. These units are powerful, as much as 15,000 BTU. The advantage of this type of air conditioner is that it eliminates the necessity of bulky units, since the entire unit, inside and outside, takes up very little room.

This type of unit is perfect for the person moving to or living in a townhouse or condo.

The difference between the mini air conditioner and the portable room air conditioner is that the portable can be moved from room to room where the mini air conditioner cannot.

The mini air conditioner also known as the mini split air conditioner has a central outdoor unit and as many indoor units as one needs for each room to be cooled. As each room would have its own thermostat the room only needs to be cooled when someone is using it.

The mini air conditioner does not have any ductwork such as you may need in a central system. Ductwork is responsible for about 30% of energy consumption. Therefore, the mini cooling arrangement saves both energy and money.

The mini air conditioner offers flexible interior design as the unit can be floor standing, ceiling mounted or wall mounted. Many have entered into the world of high technology and offer a remote control for easier off and on access to the ceiling or wall mounted units.

The mini air conditioner is safer for use in your home. Not because of anything on or in the unit, but the fact that it is not window mounted. Unlike the window mounted units the mini air conditioner does not provide, but deters, any easy entrance or exit for intruders.

In conclusion, the mini air conditioner is the ideal system for anyone living in a townhouse or condo. In these days of economic straits the mini air conditioner saves both energy and money. It requires less space than most window, wall or central units and can be mounted just about anywhere in the house including the ceiling.

There is little, if any, difference between free standing air conditioners (also referred to as the windowless air conditioner) and a portable room air conditioner.

Free standing air conditioners are best for people living in small apartments, offices, attics and computer server rooms. Unlike their larger counterparts, the free standing air conditioners can be moved from room to room. The wall unit air conditioner and most other central air units cannot be moved.

The free standing air conditioners do not need any permanent installation although they do need an exhaust tube. The advantage to using the free standing air conditioners is their portability. Most of the units have wheels so that they may be easily moved.

In order to buy the right size unit for your apartment or house you have to understand the equipment’s capacity. The air conditioner, no matter what its size, consumes more electrical power than any other appliance. The cooling power of a unit of 907 kilograms is equal to 12,000 BTU (British Thermal Units) per hour or 3517 watts. In the summer months the use of air conditioners puts a heavy demand on electrical power in some instances causing blackouts in cities and towns. Because air conditioners are responsible for about 40% of the electrical consumption there is good reason for the free standing air conditioners to be the best choice for the apartment dweller or home owner. These units use less energy therefore, reducing the use of electrical power and subsequently the cost.

There are advantages to the use of free standing air conditioners. Unlike the wall unit air conditioner free standing air conditioners are easy to install, just plug them in and turn them on.

There are no large installation fees involved with the free standing unit as there are with a window unit or wall unit. They are light enough to move around consequently, you can have cool air in whatever room you want cooled down.

With a central air conditioner, rooms that are not in use are all cooled at one time, which pulls a heavy load on the electrical power. The free standing air conditioners are more economical because they cool only one room at a time.

Free standing air conditioners meet all of the cooling criteria for the apartment dweller or home owner, whether they own a free standing house, town house or condo.

If you are looking for an energy saving unit and one that doesn’t require any installation,  then free standing air conditioners make the ideal choice.

The name Frigidaire in connection with refrigeration dates back to the 1920’s when their first refrigerator replaced the wooden ice box. Many housewives were so used to putting things into the “ice box” that the term remains to this day together with their nickname “Fridge” which is also still used today.

Having made its mark in the refrigeration community, the Frigidaire air conditioner was the next thing they started to manufacture. They were the first air conditioner manufacturer and are considered one of the top U.S. appliance companies.

Frigidaire offers a full range of air conditioners to cool the smallest room to the largest commercial areas. Their newer air conditioners feature remote control, filters for clean air and energy saving technology.

Although Frigidaire manufactures a wide variety of air conditioners they all fall into three categories: wall unit air conditioner, window mounted, and portable room air conditioner.

The window mounted air conditioners come in five series from mini to slider/casement and range from 5000 BTU’s to 12,000 BTU’s. The wall unit series of air conditioner has a BTU of 14,000 and the portable series registers 9000 BTU’s.

Frigidaire considers all of these air conditioners as wall mounted even though the heavy duty and slider/casement can be mounted through a window or through a wall. The wall unit series can only be mounted through a wall.

Part of this series is the mini which is their smallest air conditioner. With only 5000 BTU’s it will cool up to 150 square feet. The compact range will cool an area from 340 to 640 square feet and registers from 9,000 to 12,000 BTU’s. The heavy duty air conditioner can cool an area of 880 to 1,935 square feet with 15,000 to 28,500 BTU’s.

When planning to buy an air conditioner for your home or business you should first look for a reliable and responsible manufacturer. Calculate what you need by educating yourself in what is necessary to cool whatever area or areas you want it to serve.

As an example: 9,000 BTU’s (British Thermal Units) can cool an area of up to 350 square feet with a ceiling height of eight feet. The BTU is always listed on the air conditioner by the manufacturer. The calculations do not stop there. In order to get the best service from the appliance that you finally choose you have to take into consideration how many people will be using that area every day and if there are any electrical appliances that exude heat such as a computer.

If you do not do your math then you risk having an unfavorable cooling system for the area and in turn suffer a disappointment in the appliance.

The favorable and popular features of a Frigidaire air conditioner are the remote control which allows you to pre-select the temperature and use the remote to turn in on and off, an antimicrobial filter system, and a safety feature that will automatically shut the appliance off when it detects any current leakage or voltage fluctuation.

A Frigidaire air conditioner is definitely something worth checking out.

A portable room air conditioner is a free standing floor unit. Although it is a floor unit and is not installed into a window it does require venting. The vent is composed of two exhaust hoses which come with the unit and should not in any way be altered to fit a space. Shortening or lengthening a hose can void your warranty and also overheat the unit.

All air conditioners accumulate water condensation that has to be dealt with. The very simplest of portable room air conditioners have buckets that gather the condensation and have to be emptied every six to eight hours to about once a month depending on the size and usage of the unit. The more advanced models automatically dispose of the condensation by evaporating the moisture with air exhaust.

All portable air conditioning units are equipped with gravity drain hoses that eliminate the water by moving it upward to be drained out of a window.

A portable air unit can be used as a supplement to a cooling system that is already in place or as an independent unit that will cool a small space. A portable air conditioning unit’s ability to cool a desired space is based on its BTU (British Thermal Units) rating per hour. Not only does the portable air conditioner keep the area cool it will also dehumidify and keep the area dry.

The portable room air conditioner should not be confused with an air cooler which is designed to cool areas that the central cooling system does not reach or an area which is in direct sunlight. Some air coolers have cold compressors or ice packs with ionizing features to kill bacteria. The quality of an air cooler is determined by its price.

Many of the newer portable air conditioning units come equipped with energy saving devices, but the consumer should still be careful not to overload the electrical circuit with too many energy consuming devices. A portable air conditioning unit is made to run on 115 to 120 volts of electricity and do not require any special outlets.

There are many brands of portable air conditioners on the market and the consumer can choose the one that best suits their needs, i.e. maximum cooling area, venting, remote control, heating capabilities, if any, the speed of the units fan, and most of all the size.

If the unit is too small it will not be able to keep up with the cooling demands put upon it.

We have talked about size and cooling abilities but what about price? Depending upon the retailer from whom you would buy a portable air conditioning unit, the prices can range from four hundred dollars upwards of eight hundred dollars.

As with anything you buy to make the home environment more comfortable you should be thoroughly educated in what is out there after you have calculated your needs. Look into everything you can about the portable room air conditioner and ask as many questions as you can.