In our living environment, humidity plays a very important role. High as well as low humidity brings on discomfort and various health problems. A dehumidifier is a household appliance which helps regulate the humidity in the air.
What is humidity?
According to the surrounding temperature, the air has a certain level of holding water particles. The amount of water particles or moisture content in the air is what is referred to as Humidity. If the day is cloudy or rainy, humidity will be high in the air. Whereas during winter when the temperature falls, the air becomes dry and so humidity is low. In places where there has been no rain fall for a very long time, would also have low humidity levels.
Besides high and low humidity, there is Relative Humidity or RH too. RH is the measurement of moisture in the air expressed in percentage terms. If RH is 100% that means the air has reached saturation and cannot hold any more moisture. If the RH is zero, then that would mean the air is absolutely dry. The advantage of knowing the relative humidity is that in our office or at home, we can regulate the humidity with a dehumidifier.
How does humidity affect us?
If relative humidity is high which basically means higher moisture content in the air, it leads to dampness in our surroundings. As condensation takes place, the walls, doors and windows will all invite breeding of mould and mildew. Fungi along with mites will grow on things and clothes. This can lead to respiratory illness, allergies, cough and asthma. Due to high vapour content, profuse sweating will be there even on cloudy days. Dampness will lead to peeling off of wall paper, paint, doors losing shape and not fitting into frames, etc.
If the relative humidity is low, the air will be dry and would make winter days unpleasantly cold. Dry air leads to dry skin, chapped lips, sore throat and may make breathing a little difficult. Low moisture levels do not affect the house the way high humidity does but the furniture and wood could shrink due to dryness.
Thus, to maintain a comfortable level of humidity a dehumidifier is the most useful home appliance. A dehumidifier will control the right level of moisture. On humid days it will remove excess moisture and add moisture on dry days.
How to choose a dehumidifier?
It is important to take the size of the room into consideration because that will determine the capacity required for the humidifier. Larger rooms will need a dehumidifier that can extract 20 to 40 litres of water everyday especially on very humid days. A smaller room will require may be just half the capacity.
The dehumidifier has a tank to collect the dripping water which has to be emptied periodically. If it is a small tank, this may have to be done twice a day and if not done on time, the dehumidifier may shut off until it is drained. So a bigger tank will be more convenient. Emptying may have to be done once in a day or may be in two days. Thus size of the tank is an important point to be considered.
The new dehumidifiers have less noise levels. Make sure you check out on the noise it produces to move the air.
Filters clean the air and protect the coils. Over a period of time, the filters need to be cleaned. Disposable air filters are available which can be changed periodically.
Lastly, during winter the dripping water gets frosted and the dehumidifier completely stops. Hot gas defrost unit can be added on to the standard unit. To prevent water vapour getting frozen on the coil, some standard units have an extra heater.
Visit dehumidifiers reviews site to read reviews on Delonghi, Bionaire, Sealey and Duracraft dehumidifiers.
