Whole House Dehumidifiers. What you need to know! Installed Twice. Why?
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- Опубліковано 15 лип 2022
- Whole house humidifiers installed right! What you need to know! This is an update to a video I did on Whole House Dehumidifiers, "Does Size Matter".
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It's interesting that Aprilaire's alternate method is Santa Fe's recommended method. With my Santa Fe dehumidifier it's recommended to either have a separate return for the dehumidifier or connect into the HVAC return, and then provide the dry air to the HVAC supply air in order to bypass the AC coil.
Thank You as I ponder getting this for my house. Great explanation.
Thank you so much for sharing this video. I’m currently dealing with higher humidity than I’m used to inside my home. We’ve just got a new forced air furnace & AC installed to replace our 2006 (original to the house) system. The old AC had R22 refrigerant and it developed a leak, I now know that system did so much better at dehumidifying the home then the new one, likely because of being less efficient and running longer.
It has been about a month since new system install and I’m trying to acclimate to it but I can’t stop thinking about it. We were used to having humidity in the low 40% and would run the fan only mode for a few hours to move air around. This would raise humidity but still be under 50%.
New system will lower humidity to around 45% at the thermostat and near ducts areas but not entire home, and will settle at around 51. If we run the fan, it will get up to 58% and feel uncomfortable, even at 72°.
I should also mention, the new system has a V coil (it’s some new crap technology from ICP)-it’s more efficient at moving air but maybe doesn’t trap enough moisture during operation.
We will likely install one of these systems in our home and now know to stay away from moving air for it through the coil.
Thanks and sorry for long text here!
I really appreciate you sharing this. it makes a lot of sense. thanks you.
Thanks for the second video excellent and very helpful. Looking forward to installing one in the attic of my 2016 house here in South Louisiana.
Great video with awsome details, that setup works for me. thank you!
Great to hear!
You make great points. Another thing to consider is that warmer air is able to soak up a lot more humidity. Therefore, if you hook up your dehumidifier to the return duct, the warmer-than-room-temperature air coming from your dehumidifier is going to soak up more moisture from your HVAC A-coil compared to the room-temperature air that normally passes through your A-coil.
Really good video. Thanks for sharing.
On new builds I’d not even mess around db with the hvac return duct. I set a simple separate return duct system to a;rialirae with maybe 2-3 strategic regsisters in basement areas, and trigger the havc fan to run when aprilaire humidistat triggers so you are confident you are overcoming static, plus you get additional tiem of while hosue fiktration.
Thanks for your bother and effort in making this. No one is expecting to have instructions in black and white, that are incorrect. I'm planning to add a whole-house dehumidifier in the future, and I've saved your video in my UA-cam reference folder. I think Aprilaire would do best to correct that page of instructions. I had watched another video on installing these and it sounds like the guys that you used to correct the ductwork had done the exact right thing, as a dedicated inlet/supply for the dehumidifier unit is supposed to be the best way to go. In that application they had used a ceiling inlet that held a filter as well. I'd like to say that your title here was excellent as it caught my attention to that a potential problem existed. And a problem it is! God bless you for speaking up.
Glad it helped you. Yes I agree a ceiling inlet is great. Humidity rises!
This is pure gold. I was looking at April Aire’s recommendation, but it looks like air could be race tracking around on the supply side. And your point about the air being re-humidified is also an important one. There is one thing I heard from someone else though it’s that it kind of doesn’t make sense to dump dehumidified air onto the supply side because the humidity has already been lowered quite a bit and so you lose on the dehumidifying properties of the coils if you’re feeding it already dehumidified air. I really like your method much better.
@@ryanrichardson1169 Thank you very much. I'm planning to have a new system installed this fall. I've got to watch this video again as a year's gone by and I could use a refresher.
I think I'm pretty much telling you a bunch of nothing here because you were already on the right path anyway, but maybe I'll say one thing that will be helpful to you.
My concern with your concern isn't so much when your central a/c and dedicated dehumidifier are operating at the same time, as I don't necessarily think, as you stated, you would be losing on the dehumidifying properties of the central air's coil. The reason is, that coil is going to work on pulling out whatever humidity comes to it as it's able to. As well, if you have the central a/c system running I wouldn't expect that you would need the dedicated dehumidifier running too. My concern is for the times when you only need to have the dedicated dehumidifier running, such as when the weather is too cold to run the central a/c. In that case, I would think having the dedicated dehumidifier return flow tied-in before the central a/c coil, that the a/c coil would be somewhat of a blockage to the return flow, thus lowering the cfm's. Whereas if the return flow from the dedicated dehumidifier is tied-in after or past the central a/c coil it would deliver the maximum cfm flow.
I'm probably saying too much here, but I want to remind you that my understanding is that dedicated dehumidifiers come with their own filter, or they should have one. So that's another plus to tying-in the return flow after or past the central a/c coil because you wouldn't need to tie-in before the central a/c filter, and that impeding the flow.
I'm putting off installing my new system until fall as the labor rate drops then. Also, because I don't think it's fair to the HVAC men as the attic is wicked hot until late October. The air handler unit is in the attic.
I'm at the point now that my entire central a/c system is so old I have to replace all of it except for the duct work. My conditioned air man has been in business for about thirty-five years, and he's filled me in very well. He'll get any brand I want but he wants me to go with Trane, inside and out. He says their products are good and he's had a good relationship with them in taking care of their end on the times things acted up. When we got to the conversation about the dedicated dehumidifier, I assumed he would be installing a Trane unit. I was surprised when he said it would be April Aire. In short, he said that April Aire is basically the master for dedicated dehumidifiers and that he won't install anything else. He says that they hold up well and he never has problems with them.
Something else I'm having installed in the new system is an electric heat coil, like the emergency heat feature on the heat pump systems. I'm in New England and have an oil-fired boiler for heat so I don't need a heat pump system, but I wanted an electric back-up if the boiler goes down. As well, the boiler is older too, so having an electric coil ready at the touch of a button would give me time to shop boiler brands and prices without being pressured by an oil man.
Good luck with your system and God bless.
Personally, I would have installed a single, dedicated return and supply duct for the dehumidifier. It’s not necessary to supply the dried air to every room. Humidity will move from those spaces to the driest air, especially if the HVAC system is circulating the air.
So, completely independent of the house HVAC trunks? Have you done it this way before?
You’re the man 💪. Thank you for the insight buddy.
Great video-these instructions are nuts.for the reasons you point out.makes you question aprilaire engineering department.
I never did. :-(
Your video was very informative. I learned quite a bit from watching it so I do want to thank you. I’m currently running the E080 model and it appears to be struggling quite a bit. My home is approximately 2700 sqft. I connected the return line to the return side of the furnace and the supply side well above the a coil. However, the dehumidifier has been running for more than 24 hours and is stuck at 51% relative humidity. I have no idea what to do.
Great video! for me, if possible, I use the return duct but try to cut in a dedicated supply boot in a central room separate from the supply duct system.
This was very helpful, thank you!
You're very welcome!
Brilliant. Thank you!
You're very welcome!
Have same issue. Unit is running 24/7 but barely reduces the humidity. I hope this method works. Will try this weekend and share the results. Thank you!
Ok, for me your method worked way better. Finally rh slowly decreasing. Thank you for sharing this!
My ac is in a closet with the return duct just being at the bottom of the unit and not in the attic so i cant install my aprilaire e100 to the return duct without moving the unit into the attic. What would be the best way to install this unit without going directly into the ac return duct?
Thank you for the video. Great stuff. I have 2 heat exchangers side by side (another 2 elsewhere). Upper (bedroom) and Lower (kitchen big space) south side. I was thinking of drawing from upper return and pushing to lower return with the dehumidfier in the middle. I would only use for several months to avoid ice on windows and would run upper/lower/dehumidifier continuously. ??
2nd question - I need to get the humidity down to 15% when its -35c. Does your dehumidifier set that low. I was going to buy the aprilaire e100 and only run it at 15% when the forecast is for extreme cold.
Hello. I use my thermostat Aprilaire 8920W to control my humidifier and dehumidifier. I do not just set it to a certain humidity. I use the thermostat's built in temperature table. What that does is it senses the outside temperature and adjust the humidity accordantly. Hope that helps.
Thank you!
Your welcome.
I have a few questions. 1. Do you run the dehumidifier with the furnace fan on or off? If it's off I would think you would get a loop effect from the supply side (positive pressure) backwards through the A/C coil and furnace to the return duct (negative pressure). 2. Do you have a damper installed on the dehumidifier to prevent reverse air flow through the unit during the heating season?
During call for Dehumidifier I do not run the HVAC's blower. In my case the output of the dehumidifier is so far away it is going to take the path of least resistance. To push back against the HVAC blower then the A/C coils and finally the Systems filter. But you could run the blower if you wish because you still are not taking warm dehumidified air and blowing it across the A-Coil. Think of it as a spot of water on your countertop. Take a hairdryer and turn it on air only and it will take a long time to evaporate. But if you put the hairdryer on heat the water will evaporate fast. So by taking the dehumidifier's output and remoting it past the A-Coil does the job. My system sometimes runs the HVAC blower if it is also calling for Cooling and dehumidification. Some people like the blower "on" to even out the house humidity. Hope this helps.
Doesnt it make the house hot and the ac to work harder? And what if it dries out the a coil when system is off because sucking the moisture from it..?
AprilAire states that in ANY application where you connect their dehumidifier into HVAC ductwork, you must connect the dehumidifier TO the furnace in order to engage the HVAC’s blower whenever the dehumidifier is running. This supplements the
Thank you for your comment. Yes you can run the HVAC blower if you wish. The point of my video is to show you never want to have the dehumidified (dry/warm air) blowing directly over the wet AC coil as this just raises the humidity in the house fast. The second point of the video is to show if you connect both ends from the dehumidifier to the return duct you will get a looping issue. I can tell you from my experiences that after the second installation this unit not only is big enough, but is now only running a few minutes, vs 24/7 before. Also the humidity is being controlled and house is nice and comfortable. Running the blower as you state is fine since you are taking the house air with it's normal humidity and blowing it across the A-Coil and this is fine. Think of it this way. You have water on the counter and you place a fan moving house air it will evaporate over time, but if you put a hair dryer (dry/warm air) across the water it will evaporate in seconds. You can run the blower or not. Mine system is working great without the blower running, but I agree with you the air humidity would be extra even if the blower is running too.
I struggle to believe the static pressure in your system is so low that aprilaire fan can move much air on its own. Your critique of the loop aprilaire recommends makes much sense to me tho….one variation I thought you were going to suggest was esp,on new build feed aprilaire from house return and exhaust aprilaire to separate single duct run to your largest/most humid room -often basement or rec room or
Running the HVAC fan immediately after an AC call yields the same effect whether you run this unit return to return or return to supply. I use a Nest thermostat and it has a feature called Airwave. After the AC shuts off, the blower motor stays on to circulate the cold air. Unfortunately, it starts to kick the humidity back up due to blowing air across the now thawing AC coil. It was a feature that got disabled very quickly in my house.
It’s much more than a bathroom fan, at least on the E100. You could probably run the dehumidifier with its own ductwork given its properly sized.
There's another company that makes these units called, Santa Fe. They state certain situations of when to wire-in the HVAC blower to operate with the dehumidifier. But it's not a given. I don't want to repeat when they say to do that because I don't want to chance getting it wrong. But based on their reference, adding the operation of the HVAC blower isn't always necessary. Some systems don't require it as the homeowner here had replied of his experience. It probably has to do with the HVAC system capacity, the number of bends in the ductwork, and if a dedicated inlet is used for the dehumidifier, such as a ceiling grille, and the capacity and CFM of the dehumidifier unit as well. I'm sure that Santa Fe would be happy to supply this info for anyone interested in seeking it. And they do seem to build good heavy-duty units from what I can tell.
Mine would go in the attic and the primary way is like you had it first Intake plenum to intake plenum with 6ft apart, which I dont have room for. Secondary is across the coils. I am thinking just install an intake vent in the house laundry room which is center of the house in my case and output to the plenum to feed the house duct work. That way there's no chance for it to cross the A/C's coils. You answer one of my other questions, I was wondering if I needed to tell the A/C to shut off when the dehumidifier is running. It seems like you don't need to do that and they both can run at the same time and also it can run without the air hadler blower needing to be on too. Thank you for the video.
Glad to help
@@thewrite-up2916I did install with a dedicated intake with a filter in the cealing of the laundry room. I am using the ecobee enhanced thermistat and a relay to call for the dehumidifier and air handler fan. I wound up with the Aprilaire 1850, the 1830 didn't seem to do well, my house is 1850 SF, but the 1830 ran alot. Overall I'm happy with the setup and the way it is installed.
Interesting video! We are in the process of getting an Aprilaire system installed in the near future. HOW the system is hooked up seems to make a lot of sense. Now that 10 months have passed since you posted this do you still feel the "alternate" way of ducting this system is the best way? Thanks for your feedback!
Yes, getting the warm air away from the coils is the way to go. Works great now.
@@thewrite-up2916 Thanks for your quick reply! I used to teach in Eddyville so have been to Ottumwa many times.
Ok Thanks
Welcome
Thanks for the video. My only problem is all that water vapor collecting in the ductwork and making the return filters moist. Moisture creates good terrain for microbial growth.
In my second video with the new and final install of return to supply the dehumidifier works great. It also does not go through the filter system. On my thermostat I can set the unit to run the blower or not to run the blower during dehumidification call. My choice is not to run the blower. Reason being is I do not want any backpressure on the unit, even a small amount, lower electrical cost, wear and tear on the furnace blower motor. The only time is when a call for cool and call for dehumidifier then they run together fine. If you notice there are Honeywell UV lights to kill germs. One is by the filter and one I have above the A-Coil. (video coming someday on them).
The video I have of the two Humidifiers side by side installs I left out a point that I did not like humidity blowing into the filter. The second unit has it own blower and the humidity goes out to the house not the filter. I know this is not what you are talking about (humidifier), but I feel if you place the dehumidifier return to supply and the humidity will drop greatly in the house and in the whole system. It is all a balancing act.
@@thewrite-up2916 thanks for your input! So I assume you have a furnace filter and your returns are open with no filters, connected with flex line?
That is correct. The dehumidifier has almost zero restriction in it's path.
@@thewrite-up2916 awesome, I’m sold. Except for the restriction of the flex line connected to the returns in the house. When that water vapor runs through them, the ridges of the flex must collect some dampness? Thanks again.
I read a comment on another video that someone has this installed with their HVAC too, but it takes hours and hours for it to drop RH by 5%. Something doesn't seem right there. Tell me this works more efficiently than that
Thank You for your install video. Where exactly can I get a copy of the diagrams you are working with? I'd like to print them for my installer.
www.achooallergy.com/user_manuals/aprilaire-1830-1850-install-manual.pdf page 10 They come inside the unit you purchase.
Wow what was the thinking of that first installer? Thanks for the heads up!
Any time!
So why does Aprilarie use or want you to use the "Preferred" air flow method??? I am having one installed next week... what questions should I ask the installer?
That is a good question. For me that just did not work. I don't claim to be a HVAC expert, but that method just plain did not work. You will know if the unit funs constantly or if it runs for a few hours.
I think this is my issue. Mine is return to return and my Aprilaire runs and never shuts off and can't get humidity down past 60% in the evening. I figured the wet evap coil was messing everything up but you confirmed it
Yes that is what mine was doing. Glad to help. Hope it works out as well as mine has.
My setup is the same as yours, but the dehumidifier can not get the humidity much below 60% for my 1600 square foot home with eight foot ceilings. I suspect the damper, which is between the dehumidifier outlet and the furnace supply plenum, is not open enough to let the dehumidified air into the plenum. How open should the damper be? I live in Florida so the a/c is on a lot of the time. Also, the humidity sensor is in the ductwork. Could that be part of the problem and if so, should I have a humidistat, I think that is what it is called, installed in the house? Any help is appreciated. My a/c guy who installed the dehumidifier has ghosted me.
Hello, I will answer your questions the best I can. If you are talking about the damper on the dehumidifier itself, it opens up about 45 degrees or so when running. Go to minute 7:20 in the video. When you say you have the same setup as I do, are you talking return to return install or return to supply install? For me when I had return to return I also could not get the humidity down and the unit ran all day.
As far as the humidistat, I have had three setups on these. I had first the in the duct control. Then went to a humidistat inside the Livingroom. Now I have a thermostat that controls everything. All that being said none of the helped or hurt the poor humidity reduction.
What worked for me was changing from return to return install and going with return to supply install. Hope this helps.
@@thewrite-up2916 thanks. My damper only opens about 20%. It is a Honeywell damper. I adjust it but about 20% is the most I can get it to open.
I originally had mine return to supply, but the static pressure in my HVAC unit was too high with the fan running which actually prevented air from moving through the unit. I switched to return to return and the evaporation off my coils can raise my humidity by 5-7%. I didn't know about the AC disable feature and wired that up after the conversion. I have to wait at least 2 hours after my AC runs before the dehumidifier can run. It also takes forever to dehumidify. On a humid day, it can take up to an hour to lower the humidity by 2%. I am not too happy with the performance and running the fan and dehumidifier is raising my electric bill. After watching your video, I'm planning on going back to return to supply with the AC disable feature on and running it independent of the HVAC fan. How do you have yours wired and are you using the unit or a humidistat to control the unit? I'm currently using a Nest which controls it via a relay. How fast does the unit dehumidify for you?
I'm glad you posted your response - I just installed mine exactly how the book has it recommended, return to return, in my garage attic directly above the air handler. The dehumidifier never shuts off, nor does it allow my indoor unit to shut off either - it runs and runs and never gains ground. I installed this because of the fact the home has an oversized HVAC system (4 ton system for 1600 ft²). Running my Aprilaire 1830 makes my house go way up around 68-72% at night/early AM when the AC is not called upon to run very often. It's constantly (I think) blowing over the wet evap coil. I and my wife have been waking up with a clogged nose and sore throat since the install. I called AA tech support this morning, explained my situation, and basically was told the only thing they could think of is that I need a bigger unit, they recommended the 130 pint instead of the 95. I'm not even getting that much water out of the dehumidifier to begin with! I am going to plumb mine from return to supply with AC Off mode and see how it goes. If not I'll be moving it and doing dedicated duct work across my living room ceiling (center of the home, open floor plan). Please let me know how you make out when you address your situation. Thanks!
Hello, thanks for your questions. I have mine running off my thermostat since it can control several things. But there is no reason a separate humidistat placed in the living area can't do the job. A duct mounted humidistat will not work as it requires the blowing of air across the sensor.
@@gman4dx266 I definitely will. The whole situation is terrible. The unit works in return to return if it runs at least 2-3 hours after an AC call. Other than that, it has been doing more harm than good. My unit is removing a ton of water but it picks it back up from the evaporative coils. My Nest thermostat also has the Airwave feature that keeps the HVAC fan on after an AC call and it even starts to pick up moisture off the evaporative coils 3/4 of the way through its run so I am thinking running the HVAC fan post an AC call is just shooting yourself in the foot. It was a feature I disabled pretty quickly. Plus I cannot run the fan in return to supply because the static pressure is too high for my unit.
I called Aprilaire yesterday (second call I made to them so far) and they told me again that I have it hooked up correctly and they have never heard of the problem I am having. Every website I read mentions the problem with return to return. They could not even tell me if the unit could run a motorized damper like the 1700 series with the zoning feature off. I know the unit has a damper but I want one right at the supply side opening. They recommended against using the dehumidifier without the HVAC fan as the unit's fan won't be able to adequately circulate air. Which according to this video, that is not the case. My current hypothesis is Aprilaire may not have heard of this issue is because we run smaller AC units in Illinois compared to the massive units in the southern US. They may not normally have time to develop frost on their units under normal operation.
I will let you know what happens after I switch it. Right now I am tired of the whole thing. I currently have the nest set to 50% and allow it to only run between 3am and 10am when it is too cold for the AC to run which has helped a lot. I might restrict running this unit in early mornings during the summer and full time in spring and fall where it's too cold for AC.
@@sicilianlibertarian8417 I have a 4 ton unit. I called Aprilaire this week as well they told me my dehumidifier is undersized, which is BS. I have a 1600 sq ft house and the AC keeps it between 45 and 55% alone during our summer time. I am worried about the cool period we have here during January and February where the AC won't run as much. Haven't had a chance to change my ducting around just yet. Just have the thing off
@@gman4dx266 that is complete BS. You have the same square footage as me. In fact my E80 is supposed to be overkill. Plus my basement is unducted and has a dedicated 50 pint (70 pint under the old standard) portable unit down there, which unfortunately is barely keeping up for some reason. The whole situation is crap. I had the unit run for 24 hours unducted to see if it worked and it completely dessicated my basement. My other choice is to push up to an E100 and have the E80 on basement duty. I was planning on getting another unit in the future to do the basement.
Is the a[rilaire fan REALLY strong enough to get through the entire house ducting? What is it about 150 cfm?
In my case yes. My HVAC items are in the basement and it works great for me. It is a lot less fan than when the AC or Heat is on, but does the job well. You can always try it both ways and see what works for your home. The biggest thing to take from the video is to get the Supply and Return away from each other and if possible do not have the hot air from the dehumidifier going across the wet AC coils. The dehumidified air just needs to circulate even if it is slow blowing.
Interesting. Original desing would work if not at the same time as AC
By hooking it up to the hvac duct work, it seems to me that the dehumidifier is doing the dehumidification the airconditioning would otherwise do, at least to some extent. So, instead of adding a unit that dehumidifies and thereby increase your total capacity to dehumidify (including the air-conditioning's capacity to do so) you are no longer using the airconditioning to its full capacity to dehumidify. Had you installed the dehumidifier separately, you would have had two separate systems dehumidifying. What am I missing here?
That’s an interesting point! Of course I have zero experience with this. I’m just doing some research and trying to figure out how and where and what type to install. I was thinking of pulling air from the humid master bath, ducting it to the attic, where the dehumidifier will be, and then I’ll put the dry air in the master bedroom on the opposite corner of the house return.
I had the same result! I spent
$5000 for nothing and it increased the humidity in my house! so for 12 years I have a brand new April air sitting in my HVAC room doing nothing just laughing at me for being stupid enough to have bought that piece of shit
Damn! Can’t you just put a new ceiling vent in to pull the air, dehumidifier it and then pump the dryer into adjacent room in the house?
Sir - I think it's admirable you've done this on your own including all the research and testing, but there are a couple flaws in your thinking.
First, comparing each ductwork orientation by using relative humidity can be misleading. You're going to have to dig a little deeper into Psychrometrics, and compare grains of moisture or ABSOLUTE Humidity. This is because relative humidity is directly correlated to dry bulb temperature. If there was any variation in temperature your analysis will be off. 75 degree air with 40% relative humidity contains more water than 65 degree air at 60% relative humidity. If you want to learn more about Psychrometrics, send me your email and I'll shoot you a presentation.
Second, by removing air in your return and dumping it into your supply you there are two unwanted things going on. First, you are adding warm, unconditioned return air directly into your supply, undoing a portion of work your condenser and evap coil just did, slightly decreasing efficiency and total btu output of your system. You are further reducing efficiency by stealing air your blower motor used energy to bring into and push out of the ductwork, and since you are bypassing the evaporator you are drastically increasing your "bypass factor." Bypass factor is typically the ratio of air that is brought into your evaporator coil housing that never comes in contact with the cold coil. Modern, more efficient systems use better designed coils that reduce this number. If this dehumidifier is truly moving 200cfm, that is 16% of total airflow on a 3T system that you are losing out on.
You are not wrong in regards to water sitting on the coil being blown back into the supply. There is no getting around this happening, but depending on the type of blower motor you have, this can be drastically reduced with proper ramp-down profiles. This is also reduced by using the lowest speed tap when running the FAN ONLY. On a standard efficiency furnace in a single-stage system, three speeds are typically used. One for heat(usually HI), one for cool(usually MED-HI), and one for Fan Only(usually LO). Hi-Efficiency units with variable-speed ECM's(AKA Constant Airflow) will have ramp-up and ramp-down profiles that work GREAT for humidity control.
If you have a higher-efficiency unit you should be running your fan at all times. Even if you don't have a high-efficiency unit, most thermostats have a minimum fan runtime per hour setting that I would highly recommend using for filtration and air purification(your UV light isn't doing anything for treating the air and not the coil when the blower is off).
If it were me, I would set up your dehumidifier in the first orientation to help reduce latent load on the coil when the outdoor unit is running and turn your thermostat fan to ON during cooling season. The better option would be to create it's own return and supply as to not interfere with your blower motor and evap coil. The best way to reduce humidity is to slow airflow across the evaporator coil. If you don't have a two-stage or variable capacity system, I would drop your motor down to the slowest speed tap possible without dropping your suction pressure too low causing liquid floodback or freezing coil temps. A dehumidifier is your indoor and outdoor unit combined into one box, but much less capable. It will definitely help, but if you are having humidity problems, I would see if it's worth using the energy required to power the dehumidifier over other system upgrades or adjustments. The #1 problem is an oversized system followed by air infiltration into the building envelope.
"First, you are adding warm, unconditioned return air directly into your supply, undoing a portion of work your condenser and evap coil just did, slightly decreasing efficiency and total btu output of your system. You are further reducing efficiency by stealing air your blower motor used energy to bring into and push out of the ductwork, and since you are bypassing the evaporator you are drastically increasing your "bypass factor." " That's exactly what I saw.
does the unit require a 240v?
No, just a 110vac outlet you can just plug it in.
A properly sized A/C and build air leaks sealed you wouldn’t have to worry about humidity
Hi👋 great video. What if… I’m wanting to never let my A coil get wet. To prolong its life. Keep it dry always, so it never grows mold. Which means the coils stay cleaner. A coils are much harder to replace. I want to sacrafise the coil of the dehumidifier. Maybe even OVERSIZE the dehumidifier. I’m in Texas. Brutal humidity. Would your first setup work if it had the largest Aprilaire oversized unit BEFOR the Ac’s A coil?
Dude it says it right on your first drawing that it is hook up wrong. Air is pulled from the supply you have it on the return. Thats why it didn't work
You need to look at the first picture, and read their instructions. Quote. "Air is pulled and supplied from the RETURN duct" If you are looking at my first setup it was this way, did not work for reasons in video. PS my RETURN is on the right side and A-Coil is on the left.
I think it’s not efficient. Brings allot of hot air to the room and AC is working harder ….. Electrical bill went up by 75%. In theory is perfect , but reality says absolutely different story.
Not using anymore……..
As standalone in Florida garage works perfect …..
I agree, any dehumidifier will produce heat. It is a standoff of do you want a humid house and lower electric bill or a dehumidified house and pay the extra. I personally found after installing mine from return to supply it went from on 24/7 to off most of the time. This alone cut down on the cost. But still it all about weighing cost vs comfort. Thank you for your comment.
If I use it as a standalone unit, pull air from the very humid master bath, and then exhaust the dry air either in the adjacent master bedroom or write out side the bedroom - right next to one of the 14x20 returns- wouldn’t that dry dehumidified warm air get pulled right into the HVAC unit rather than heat up the room? I’m starting to wonder if using it as a standalone is a safer bet. Some of that dryer would be drawn to the master bath and someone hit the main return to go to the rest of the house - right?