Re: high humidity levels inside house--been there

[Guest guest]

Hi Mccallalton,

I have been fighting high humidity levels in my house in the summer

since I run an air exchanger which brings in fresh outside air 24-

7. House is very dry in winter doing this since, as Carl showed,

cold air can not hold much moisture. Summer is the opposite.

I purchased a Lennox heat pump which had a humidistat that slows

down the air handler fan to a slow speed which allows more moisture

to be removed. You can do this yourself by changing pulleys on your

fan or getting an electronic control module to add to your fan motor.

But you said your unit was fairly new? It may already be a variable

speed DC motor, then you may be able to adjust the fan speed by

looking in your owner's manual.

Even with the slow fan, my humidity was hard to keep below 50% in

the summer, the house reached a cold temperature before the humidity

levels were low enough, even with the slow speed. I ended up buying

a huge and efficient Santa Fe dehumidifier for my basement. I also

have a pipe from the highest point in my upstairs hallway to the

ceiling in my basement. I was going to put a fan there, but with

the vents in the summer being closed in the basement and suction

from a floor pipe to the air exchanger, the negative pressure

created naturally brings down the warm and dry air from my upstairs

hallway to the basement and equalizes the pressure between floors in

the process.

Now I see Lennox came out with hot coils for the furnace which is

exactly what I wanted two years ago before I bought the SantaFe.

Instead of the hot Freon going to the outside, it bypasses to the

airhandler to keep let the cold coils run long enough to reach

desired humidity levels. See

link:http://www.lennox.com/products/overview.asp?model=HD

I am not advertising Lennox products, I am sure most companies have

this or will have this same system, but the link gives you an idea

on how to have a very efficient whole house dehumidifier.

Lennox is not perfect, their humidistat only goes down to 45% which

would be fine, but their 45% is 55%+ on two of my other digital

humidity readers. Lennox put a new humidistat in right away, but

the new one was off too. There is not way to calibrate it either.

Now I wet a small piece of paper towel and place it on the

humidistat to fool it into thinking the humidity is high. $10000

system with a wet paper towel, not my idea of perfection.

Fletch

[Guest guest]

--- In , " fletch_82000 " <fletch_8@...>

wrote:yes i do have a vaiable speed system and it is set at high.

it seems it got moe humid after the adjustment was made from medium

to high. could that be the issue???

>

> Hi Mccallalton,

>

> I have been fighting high humidity levels in my house in the

summer

> since I run an air exchanger which brings in fresh outside air 24-

> 7. House is very dry in winter doing this since, as Carl showed,

> cold air can not hold much moisture. Summer is the opposite.

>

> I purchased a Lennox heat pump which had a humidistat that slows

> down the air handler fan to a slow speed which allows more

moisture

> to be removed. You can do this yourself by changing pulleys on

your

> fan or getting an electronic control module to add to your fan

motor.

>

> But you said your unit was fairly new? It may already be a

variable

> speed DC motor, then you may be able to adjust the fan speed by

> looking in your owner's manual.

>

> Even with the slow fan, my humidity was hard to keep below 50% in

> the summer, the house reached a cold temperature before the

humidity

> levels were low enough, even with the slow speed. I ended up

buying

> a huge and efficient Santa Fe dehumidifier for my basement. I

also

> have a pipe from the highest point in my upstairs hallway to the

> ceiling in my basement. I was going to put a fan there, but with

> the vents in the summer being closed in the basement and suction

> from a floor pipe to the air exchanger, the negative pressure

> created naturally brings down the warm and dry air from my

upstairs

> hallway to the basement and equalizes the pressure between floors

in

> the process.

>

> Now I see Lennox came out with hot coils for the furnace which is

> exactly what I wanted two years ago before I bought the SantaFe.

> Instead of the hot Freon going to the outside, it bypasses to the

> airhandler to keep let the cold coils run long enough to reach

> desired humidity levels. See

> link:http://www.lennox.com/products/overview.asp?model=HD

>

> I am not advertising Lennox products, I am sure most companies

have

> this or will have this same system, but the link gives you an idea

> on how to have a very efficient whole house dehumidifier.

>

> Lennox is not perfect, their humidistat only goes down to 45%

which

> would be fine, but their 45% is 55%+ on two of my other digital

> humidity readers. Lennox put a new humidistat in right away, but

> the new one was off too. There is not way to calibrate it

either.

> Now I wet a small piece of paper towel and place it on the

> humidistat to fool it into thinking the humidity is high. $10000

> system with a wet paper towel, not my idea of perfection.

>

> Fletch

>

[Guest guest]

Hi Leigh McCall-Alton,

YOU WROTE:yes i do have a vaiable speed system and it is set at high.

it seems it got moe humid after the adjustment was made from medium

to high. could that be the issue???

My Lennox, when I had the fan speed higher, would slow the fan down

very slow when it goes into a dehumidifing mode. I have my fan set to

run as slow as possible at all times, this will remove the most

humidity.

I also set the fan to " on " so that it never shuts off. This will

quickly dry the coils once the heat pump shuts off and will keep mold

and bacteria from growing on the coils. Plus, if you have a good air

filter in your system, it will filter the air moreso and at the slow

speeds, you can hardly even hear it.

You said your den does not cool correctly? Too cold or too hot? What

is your floor plan and where does the den fit in? My basement was too

cool and at first I even had to seal up some of the vents since they

leaked too much cold air in the summer. This summer, with that pipe

from the ceiling in our upstairs hallway to the basement I mentioned

earlier, has cured our cold basement since that is the hotest air in

the house and it keeps the basement very close to the upstairs

temperature. Plus it is a way to get our air exchanger's fresh air

into the basement since it was not getting any with the vents all being

closed in the summertime.

Fletch

[Guest guest]

> I WILL NEVER BUY A 3 SPEED SYSTEM AGAIN. I NEED LOTS OF AIR AND THIS

THING IS SELF-DEFEATING.

Hi Mccallalton,

This board will need much more information on your setup and what

exactly your problems are to give any meaningful advice if that is what

you would like.

I do not follow why you think a three speed would be any different than

a single speed system. Most newer air handlers I have seen can put out

higher cfms than older units. The three speed would simply allow you

to choose slower speeds. If you have your old owners manual you would

know the exact cfms it puts out and then you could compare it to your

new system's three speeds of cfm output. I would almost bet it puts

out as much if not more. Unless your new air handler is much smaller.

High fan speed will run the compressor less since rooms will cool to

the desired temperature sooner. Low fan speeds will run the compressor

longer and remove much more moisture from the air in the process.

If you provide more information, maybe someone here could see what is

going on.

Best wishes,

Fletch

[Guest guest]

-Im tired of it all too. a few months ago my daughter rented a home

in the country, I wasn't up to going and mold proofing it for them

but I wish I had. I've been there a few times and instantly get hit

when I walk threw the front door by both smells and although his

colone is very strong I knew 'IT 'was there too. the back part of

the house is a little better.when I bent over to help my grandson in

the kitchen I smelt it very strong and knew it was bad under the

house. we walked on to the back porch and my daughter asked why I

always have to come back here when I come there and I told them. my

daughter had been haveing some back pain and they both were suffering

some headackes.theri bedroom being in that old part of the home. he

said he had felt pretty bad lately with a cold or something. the

landlord had put a tinroof on it, wonder why! and sideing and

paneling. needless to say they are moveing again. talked to them

earlier and told them to move theri bed to the back porch at least

until they get moved.they realize now that no matter how old a home

is, it doesn't mean 'that' smell is just a old house smell it means

theres mold there. I AM SO SICK OF

MOLD!!!!

-- In ,

Leigh McCall-Alton <mccallalton@...> wrote:

>

> this disease never ends. and the thing is, medical doctors don't

believe us even when we have proof with the blood tests, etc. i am

tired from tired of being sick.

>

> bbw <barb1283@...> wrote: Yes, I hate the noise. It's like

having a truck

> running in my house all the time. Sometimes I

> just have to turn it off no matter what the

> humidity is to give my ears a rest from the

> racket. Yes, it's awful. I will get a whole

> house dehumidifier for next summer. No use now

> this late in summer to go through the expense but

> will get one installed before it gets humid next

> spring.

>

> --- Leigh McCall-Alton <mccallalton@...>

> wrote:

>

> > I have 3 gauges of varying quality and they are

> > all within a degree or two.

> >

>

>

>

>

>

>

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