Dehumidifiers are handy electronic devices that free you air from excessive amounts of humidity and moisture. While picking out such a unit for your house, getting the right size is very important. Otherwise you might end up buying an under powered dehumidifier that might not be able to effectively remove all the moisture from your atmosphere. A few steps that might be followed in order to choose the rightly sized dehumidifier for your house are discussed in the paragraphs below.
Use a hygrometer
First of all, you need to make use of a hygrometer in order to take an exact reading of the amount of moisture present in your house. That way, you get an exact idea about how bad your situation is, and then you can get the rightly sized dehumidifier by discussing things with the retail dealer.
Use certain characteristics of your room
The second way is to make use of specific characteristics of your house for determining the levels of humidity in case you are unable to get your hands on a hygrometer. A few of these characteristics are described below:
- For extremely wet rooms, the levels of humidity are usually in between 90 to 100 percent.
- In case a room contains leaks, mildew and mold while feeling wet at the same time, the possible humidity level may be between 80 to 90 percent.
- Damped and smelly rooms usually have 70 to 80 percent humidity.
- If your room smells a bit musty only in humid weather, the humidity levels may be somewhere around 60 to 70 percent.
Determine the ACH
Another way to figure out the humidity levels in your room is to determine its air changes per hour.
- Extremely humid rooms usually have an ACH value of 6.
- Rooms with 80 to 90 percent humidity show an ACH value of 5.
- 70 to 80 percent humid rooms have ACH value of 4.
- Moderately damp rooms deliver an ACH value of 3.
Calculate the square area
You can also calculate the area of your room in square feet and then figure out the right size for your dehumidifier on the basis of the total area that needs to be dehumidified. You can take measurements of the width and length of the room using a measuring tape or a ruler. Check the best crawl space dehumidifier review by TheSoothingAir.com.
Calculate the area in cubic feet
You can also calculate the area that needs to be dehumidified in terms of cubic feet. This approach can come in handy as some of the brochures for some of the dehumidifiers describe their working capacity in terms of cubic feet.
Determine the CFM values
You can multiply the calculated area in cubic feet by the room’s ACH value and then divide it by 60. Then you can get a dehumidifier that is suitable for that amount of CFM.
Determine the moisture pints extracted from the room
You can also determine the number of moisture pints that are extracted from the room every day. There are different numbers of pints for different types of rooms having different amounts of moisture present in the air. After figuring this out, you can get a dehumidifier that seems to be the most suitable choice in that scenario.
Go for a dehumidifier that is suitable according to your requirements
Before you buy a dehumidifier, it is important for you to make one of the above discussed calculations. When you are done, you need to check the box or label of the dehumidifier that you are planning on buying. Carefully go through it and make sure that it supports all your requirements.
Data Source: The Soothing Air