Need To Cool Down? Use A Dehumidifier!
A dehumidifier is a device which removes excess moisture in the
air. This device performs this process by condensing the
moisture on a cool surface. A dehumidifier is simply an air
conditioner. The air conditioner cools the temperature of a
humid room by condensing the air in its cold coils.
A dehumidifier has hot and cold coils that are built in the same
box. The unit's fan draws the air in the room through the cold
coils of the dehumidifier to condense its moisture. When this
happens, as in the case of window type air conditioning units,
water drips out of the unit. Dry air then goes through the
dehumidifier's hot coils so it can we heated up again back to
its previous temperature.
An example of a dehumidifier is an air conditioning (AC) unit.
It is a device that was designed to remove heat out of an area
using the principles of refrigeration. An AC is a good example
of a dehumidifier because it is designed to lower the humidity
in the air which goes through it.
Human bodies have natural dehumidifiers in form of sweat. When
we sweat, our bodies cool because of the evaporating
perspiration from our skin. Dry air, then coming from an AC unit
creates provides comfort as it creates 40-60% relative humidity
in an area.
As a dehumidifier, an AC unit is basically another form of
refrigerator without an insulated box. It uses a refrigerant
like Freon for its evaporation to cool an area. Freon is one of
the many non-flammable fluorocarbons which are in use today as
refrigerants.
In an AC unit, the evaporation cycle works in this manner: 1)
cool Freon gas is compressed, making it high-pressure, hot gas;
2) the hot gas then goes through the set of coils in the AC unit
so it can disperse its heat and then condenses into liquid form;
3) Freon goes through a valve, and through this process it
becomes low-pressure, cold gas; and 4) the cold Freon gas then
goes through a set of coils in the AC unit that will allow the
gas to take in heat and chill the air within the area. A special
type of oil is mixed with the Freon gas to lubricate the AC
unit's compressor.
The coldness that a dehumidifier can provide depends on the
air's relative humidity and the barometric pressure (this is sea
level normal pressure). When there is 50% humidity in the air,
water temperature will drop at about 6 degrees to 89F.
Change that to 20% air humidity and the temperature drops to 28
degrees to 67F. These small temperature drops affect energy
consumption because the use of these AC units places a large
demand on electricity especially on warm months when more units
are operated.
During these peak times, more power plants must be online to
cater to the large demand for energy. Studies of residential air
conditioning showed that AC units wasted 40% of energy. This
energy gets wasted in the form of heat waiting to be pumped out.
When you see large quantities of water running through plastic
hoses at the backs of big buildings, you'll know that there are
dehumidifier units inside. Many apartment and office complexes
now use centralized AC units and the chilled water coming out of
these systems is directed to underground pipes.