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How to Get Comfortable with Dehumidification
Abstract
Residential consumers are educated to think
about their comfort conditioning system as air
conditioners and furnaces. Over the past several
years the technology of products and controls has
been changing. Homes have progressively gotten
tighter, new construction and up grading. Equipment
capabilities and performance have changed. The
ability to control to more precise conditions and for
more components of air treatment highlights the
need to educate the consumer on the potential
available today with adjunct components of the
comfort conditioning system.
Air conditioners are typically selected for one set
of design conditions. In many situations the latent
and sensible loads are not the consideration. only
total load and first cost. The design conditions are
exceeded only 2 1/2% of the time. Therefore, the
equipment is typically oversized a majority of the
time and not matched properly to the latent load. Air
conditioners are, constrained by their physical
performance of the components, such as the coils
and compressor. As a result. the equipment can not
track the wide variety of sensible and latent
conditions. The increased use of "set-up" thermostat
controls diminish the control of humidity. Air
conditioner thermostats sense and respond only to
the temperature condition, not to the humidity level.
The use of a separate whole house
dehumidification system can allow for separate
control of the humidity and temperature. The
humidity control level is independent of the cooling
set point. As a result, the cooling set point can be
raised (less air conditioner run time) and comfort
enhanced or improved. Moisture removed is
automatically expelled to the outdoors with a
desiccant based system. The whole house can be
treated rather than a spot area. Indoor air quality
concerns. such as odors, mold and mildew, can be
improved by the use of a desiccant based
dehumidification unit.
Citation
Beever, R. (1996). How to Get Comfortable with Dehumidification. Energy Systems Laboratory (http://esl.tamu.edu); Texas A&M University (http://www.tamu.edu). Available electronically from https : / /hdl .handle .net /1969 .1 /6678.