My dehumifier is an absolute necessity and I couldn't imagine going through another winter without it. After tank #3 or #4 .... my walls literally rotted out on me. You may think your forced air furnace will rip out that humidity .... I lived in denial for a long time saying that there was -no way- I could possibly need a dehumifier, but I was wrong.

I had to replace my window frames, most of drywall around my windows, and even some sealed units (windows) had failed and accumulated several inches of water. I could have kept minnows in my windows.

Yes, living in Edmonton or Calgary, I guarantee you will get some VERY strange looks if/when you go plunk down $200 to $350 on a dehumidifier. You typically don't need one living out here. But trust me. After about the tenth time I cleaned black mold off my walls .... I said no way can this continue. That investment is one of the best I ever made.

I also use mine to dry wetted carpets (now how on earth could that ever happen) ... ? :roll:

I suppose if you kept your forced air furnace on 100% of the time it might help. I tried that for a month, until I saw my hydro bill ( :shock: ) and that summer fan went right off after that month let me tell you!

So, dehumidifier, yes, wouldn't live without it. Saves my walls, saves my wooden window frames, saves me from black/toxic mold.

I personally wouldn't use the dehumidifier water. I don't even water my plants with it. It's going to contain anything that's in your air (probably not so bad, but still), and plus, I have no idea if the aluminium condensers leech anything into the water. Heavy metals, etc. I personally would not drink water out of an aluminium container -- and anything I wouldn't trust to drink, I don't trust to put in my tanks. It's probably harmless, but if you stop to think about it, you probably end up investing thousands upon thousands of dollars into your livestock. Why risk all that (notwithstanding why risk the healthy of anything alive that depends on you for their health), just to potentially save on a couple bucks worth of water? Not worth it. It could be harmless, but what if it isn't? If you discover it's not harmless, the damage will already be done. No thanks!

Another fact is dehumidifiers are not very energy efficient, while an HRV uses little energy and saves heat.

Another good house dryer, :D , is my woodstove.

Tony,

Is yours a stand alone unit? How much? Model? I just want something that works...

Thanks,

Des

Even factoring in your jungle of Orchids, and other plants, it sounds like there is something seriously wrong with your house. It sounds like the normal ventilation does not work. In Calgary, most people use humidifiers in the winter. It is not unusual for a humidifier to crank a couple of gallons of water into the house in a winter's day. I would be very surprised to see the evaporation from a few aquaria would exceed a couple of gallons. Are your soffit and attic vents plugged I wonder? :?: Deb is right, she has far more water sitting in her house than you do. If anyone should have a problem it should be her. :o

You know.....crow doesn't really taste that bad....... :lol: :lol:

I think Santa's little surprise pushed me over the saturation point... :shock:

Got a little unit today that does 2000 sq.ft. at "pretty wet". Do you leave it on 24/7 guys??

There goes my nice supple skin........ :(

Hey Deb,

We run it when we aren't home because it's noisy.... And when we're sleeping....it's surprising how much it takes out...

Des

How much aprox would it add to one's elec. bill?
I am thinking of this in advance cause when I have all the tanks in the
basement in one room, that room is going to be a sauna so having one of these going might be a good idea.

To be honest, I don't notice it on my bill. It must have an impact, but .... if I was to hazard a guess I'd think it's similar to running one of those window-unit air-conditioners.

I don't run mine except when it's very cold outside. With the weather we've had since November, I haven't needed to use it at all this fall/winter (except to dry up carpet when I do another basement flooding). It took out 12 gallons of water from my carpet last week (I left my RO unit on, not noticing that the waste water line had been knocked out of the washing-machine drain line... :oops: )

It really is more of a localized effect. My house still sits at an overall 60-70% humidity even when that thing is cranked.

Well, good to know I can shut it off....it's got one of my lungs in there I think... :lol:

8 cups in 4 hours........
:shock:

I used to have 65 aquariums set up in one area, plus a few others around the house, Only two were covered and with a simple vent into my furnace area I was able to vent most of the humidity away and maintain too little humidity for my orchids, I had to add a humidifier. NOTE.. that was a vent.. no fan just the simple vent.