I had to take some kind of action because the RH% in my basement was around 75%, which was totally unacceptable. Good luck in your quest.
Do Aprilaire dehumidifiers only work when a/c or heat are running?
My basement is always cooler than the rest of the house, but I wouldn't say it is cooler than normal now. Today the humidity level is 65%.
It will only dehumidifer the air going through it. If the furnace fan is off...id assume its doing nothing. They would prob reccomend you running your house fan 24/7 to circulate the air through the unit...but if you have a newer house, youll have outside fresh air coming in through your return...thus dehumifying that also. Unless its on a damper controlled by the call for heat/ac.
Any recommendations that weren't mentioned above for a dehumidifier that isn't whole house?
best you can do is just buy the freestanding 50pt ish models. They wont last longer than 3-4 years. Or have your energy company come to your house and do an energy audit to see where your home is letting outside elements in. (i havent)
I'm no expert but this feels comfortable and the guitars here are fine. In fact, after moving out of the dry North East to Florida, the guitars get no more fret sprout and there is nothing weird like swelling or bowing or anything. The house stays between 50-65% or so year round.
That's good to know. Thanks!
The previous owner of my home had it gut rehabed in 2019. It was taken down to the studs and has all new plumbing, electrical, ... The temp stays pretty constant and there are no drafts. Generally I don't have an issue. For some reason this year the house just is a lot more humid than normal. Even if I run the A\C.
Not the way we had it installed, it was able to run stand alone with/without AC/heat
I worked in a temperature/humidity controlled environment for decades. Our labs were always 68°F (physical/dimensional labs)-70°F (electrical labs) with RH at about 50%. My house was set at a constant of 70°F at 50% RH (summer) and 68°F ~40% RH in the winter (can't do much about winter unless I went for an additional whole house humidifier). Everything in our ~3,900 sq.ft. home was electric. We had flat rate billing and it was ~$210/month, with the final bill in December usually being less.
I think trying to keep this house at 50% is futile. It is just too humid here. Everything/everyone seems happy at 50-60% or so.
It's 75% in my studio.
the mold would scare me.
I don't see any actual mold, but it does have a bit of basement smell. Don't know what to do about it except...
Get a dehumidifier with a good size reservoir and just dump it once or twice a day, that’s better than living with that humidity. You’ll be happy you did.
I've had crappy experience with every one I've ever had, including the one that's there now. They're noisy, and just get unreliable way too soon away too often.
If you’re in the basement, there’s a floor drain somewhere. If you have whole-house A/C, there’s probably already a condensate pump with a hose leading to that drain.
