A friend rented a ground floor apartment in Houston (city motto, "it's the heat and the humidity) and says her wall mounted unit cools the house OK, but that the closets always seem damp. Former tenant used "Damp Rid" and left her a couple and she's bought more, she asked me about a dehumidifier because a couple of people told her to NEVER run a dehumidifier with an A/C.

I told her it shouldn't be necessary if the system is working OK and the drain line is draining the overflow to the outside. She said she saw no drain line anywhere and also that the area of carpet right in front of the unit seemed to always feel a bit damp.

I wondered if maybe the unit was installed incorrectly since an A/C is a big dehumidifier, if it's capable of cooling the apartment it should dry it as well. The problem is it's basically a big window unit in the living room and the bedroom is at the other end. She has a fan blowing the cool air toward the bedroom but I don't know if that's enough to allow the unit to draw the damp air out of the B/R.

She says her landlord seems very cooperative so I suggested she ask him to call a qualified A/C tech to check if the unit is right sized for the apartment and maybe a small window unit in the bedroom is a better solution than a dehumidifier.

She is a graduate student/college instructor so the humidity plays havoc with the papers she's grading and writing her thesis on.

Any help?

Frank

 

We have air conditioning in our house and the basement is always damp, we have a dehumidifer down there that we run along with the a/c conditioning as do most of our neighbors. If it is that damp then get a dehumidifer and save those school papers.

I would say the a/c is not getting all the humidity out because of poor air circulation through out the entire place. Wall units do a very poor job circulating air through out the entire place. Plus your risking mold with humidity that is always that high.

 

Houston? It's the heat and the humidity AND the salt. Get used to it.

Usually when a unit is cooling well but not getting rid of enough humidity, it's because it's oversized. In this case, I'm also betting that the unit is either designed so that the fan runs all the time when it's set on cool (rather than only when the compressor is actually cooling) or is set on the constant fan setting. It shouldn't be. That causes it to blow humidity from the coils back into the house whenever the compressor cycles off.

There won't be any type of drain line for a window or wall unit. The water that's removed from the inside by the evaporator coil drips down to a pan where it is picked up and "flung" out against the outside condenser coils to help increase efficiency. Any excess drips out the back. It's possible that the unit isn't installed at the correct angle and the water isn't making it to the back as it should.

There is no reason why a dehumidifier can't run with an air conditioner, but if the bedroom needs some extra cooling, a small additional window or portable unit might work better.

One other thought: Houston has had a ton of rain over the last several weeks (unlike us in the newly forming Dallas desert. ). There is always a lot of moisture there, but this may be a little more than is usual even for them.

Doug M.

 

Like said you can run a dehumidifier with an Ac running. But first here have them check the coil and see if it clean. Is filter clean and new ? then check the blower speed and drop it down one step this will let the unit pull much more humidity out
For sure check the P trap and rest of drain line.

ED

 

No P trap or drain line...

Doug M.

 

Does it tilt to the outside? Then Is over flow drain hole open? Fan water sling ok Run unit blower on slow. Outside vent closed on it?
Lots of IFS

We do have package units 1 1/2 ton on up That can go into the wall.

ED