Sizing a Dehumidifier for Your NE Ohio Home

High levels of humidity in your NE Ohio home is more than an annoying problem. It can greatly affect your health and well-being while negatively impacting your home comfort. Short-term effects of high humidity include mold and mildew growth, unpleasant musty odors and sticky air. Long-term effects include health complications and staining on ceiling and walls. A dehumidifier is the ideal solution for reducing humidity in your home.

Types of Dehumidifiers

Dehumidifiers come in various styles and sizes with different features and price ranges, though your main choice will be between one or more portable, or room, models and a whole-house dehumidifier. These features should be considered before purchasing the dehumidifier.

• Portability. Portable dehumidifiers give you the ability to move the unit from one room to the next.
• Humidistat built-in.Units that have a built-in humidistat are programmed to shut off automatically when they reach the desired humidity level.
• Storage tank capacity (for portable models). The capacity of the tank – which collects the water removed from the air – will determine how often you will have to empty it. Choosing a unit with a continuous drainage port eliminates the need for physically emptying the tank. Whole-house models are plumbed directly to your home’s drainage system and water supply.
• Filter. The type of air filter a dehumidifier uses will vary from one brand and model to the next. For a low maintenance option, choose a unit with a washable filter.

Sizing Dehumidifiers

The size of the dehumidifier is critical to properly dehumidify your room. This applies to both portable and whole-house models. If you have a particular room in mind, make sure the portable model you choose can handle that square footage. For a whole-house model, you’ll want to make sure it can handle removing humidity from your home’s entire space.

In general, models with larger capacity can dehumidify areas in a shorter time than ones with smaller capacity. For example, areas measuring 1,000 square feet that are moderately damp with musty odors should have a portable unit with a 14-pint capacity while areas that are chronically humid, such as a finished basement, may need at least a 23-pint capacity for the same size room.

For more information about how running a dehumidifier will improve air quality and comfort in your home, contact the experts at Energy 1 Heating & Air Conditioning. For more than 50 years, we have provided reliable HVAC services to Lorain, Erie and Cuyahoga counties.

Our goal is to help educate our customers in Lorain, Ohio about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems).  For more information about dehumidifiers and other HVAC topics, download our free Home Comfort Resource guide.

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