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Winter air management

Posted: Thu Dec 08, 2022 10:24 pm
by Joeboy
The other week SWMBO brought home a 950Wx2 fan assisted oven with thermostat control in the guise of some sort of coal fire. 'Fix it Joe she said'. So I did. 1 x 25W bulb later and we were cooking with coal (sort of). Obviously I quickly saw the advantage to combining the dehumidifier & fan heater assisted platforms. It's no replacement but I have to say that my upstairsarium is bone dry and warm and between them pulling 1.1kW. :D

I have another dehumidifier which boots up when power on and needs no manual intervention (which the current one does). I think I'll swap them out and run them off a single hive plug when the hive plugs arrive.

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Re: Winter air management

Posted: Fri Dec 09, 2022 9:07 am
by Oldgreybeard
We have the opposite issue at this time of the year. With the MVHR heat pump running it pulls what little water there is in the cold fresh air being drawn in out. Indoor humidity right now is way down at 31% in the hall, which is in the uncomfortable range, so it's time to start putting bowls of water around on windowsills to get the humidity up a bit and stop me from sneezing (for some reason dry air makes me sneeze a lot).

Outdoor relative humidity here is OK, at around 70% to 80%, it's just that's deceptive as the outside air is still hovering around freezing, so the absolute moisture content is very low. There is an add-on for the MVHR to re-humidify the warmed air fed into the house, but it's a faff to maintain, as it need pure water and stuff to reduce the Legionnaires risk.

One positive about the dry air in weather like this is that if we put clothes out to dry indoors they dry exceptionally quickly, the dry air literally sucks the moisture away as fast as it can.

Re: Winter air management

Posted: Fri Dec 09, 2022 9:51 am
by AE-NMidlands
Oldgreybeard wrote: Fri Dec 09, 2022 9:07 am One positive about the dry air in weather like this is that if we put clothes out to dry indoors they dry exceptionally quickly, the dry air literally sucks the moisture away as fast as it can.
that has cheered me up! I hadn't twigged that indoor clothes drying might counteract the low RH from cold outside air... I don't like very dry indoor air either, but we are getting condensation inside our double-glazed windows all the same. Hopefully I shall have got MVHR in by next winter, which should help both.
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Re: Winter air management

Posted: Fri Dec 09, 2022 10:02 am
by Joeboy
AE-NMidlands wrote: Fri Dec 09, 2022 9:51 am
Oldgreybeard wrote: Fri Dec 09, 2022 9:07 am One positive about the dry air in weather like this is that if we put clothes out to dry indoors they dry exceptionally quickly, the dry air literally sucks the moisture away as fast as it can.
that has cheered me up! I hadn't twigged that indoor clothes drying might counteract the low RH from cold outside air... I don't like very dry indoor air either, but we are getting condensation inside our double-glazed windows all the same. Hopefully I shall have got MVHR in by next winter, which should help both.
A
We set up an airer off to the side of the WBS, the stove fan visibly moves the clothes and the downstairs dehumidifier catches the moisture. The dehumidifiers make a huge difference at this time of year.