Dehumidifier Size - Your Dehumidifier Must Suit the Size of Your Room

When choosing a dehumidifier, size is important. Your dehumidifier needs to be capable of handling whatever size of space you plan to use it in. Using a dehumidifier that is too small for the area of a room means that it would not be able to do the job satisfactorily. The unit would also need to be running constantly, consuming much more energy than should be necessary.

Before you go shopping for a new dehumidifier, the first thing to do is measure the area of the room in square feet. Different dehumidifier size means different capacity, measured in pints. The number of pints in a unit’s specifications generally refers to the number of pints of water the unit is capable of removing from the air in a 24 hour period. For example, a 40 pint dehumidifier would be able to remove 40 pints of water in 24 hours, which may seem like a lot of water, but surprisingly, an average sized basement can quite commonly contain that amount of moisture in the air.

Once you know the square footage of the room, all you need to do is match the size of the room to the correct dehumidifier size and then you will be ready to select the unit that best suits your purposes. Leading manufacturers of dehumidifiers have made this choice easy for you by specifying the maximum square footage each size of unit is capable of managing.

Typically, portable dehumidifiers are available in sizes large enough to manage humidity in areas up to 1000 square feet, or small enough to keep moisture at bay in cupboards and storage rooms. The dehumidifier’s documentation will tell you the size of room that the unit is good for, which makes selecting the right one quite simple.

For areas larger than 1000 square feet, you may want to consider using more than one dehumidifier, and portable units can be moved from one room to another as needed. For effective humidity control for an entire house, you will need to select your dehumidifier size accordingly.

A typical whole house dehumidifier is installed into the home’s existing ductwork, where it can access all of the rooms of the house for complete humidity control throughout the home. Built-in dehumidifiers are considerably more expensive than portable units, but they are a worthwhile investment for several reasons.

Although a central air conditioning unit can also control humidity, it only does so while it is running, and cooling the air. For obvious reasons, this is not feasible in cold weather, nor is it very energy efficient. A dehumidifier works at any temperature, and can work alongside either central air conditioning or a furnace, as long as there is a properly functioning ductwork system.

Like an air conditioner, a dehumidifier captures moisture by cooling the air, but instead of producing cold air, it reheats the air before releasing it back into the home. Once installed, a built-in dehumidifier can sense the moisture levels in all rooms of the house and adjust itself accordingly for year round comfort.