wrote:
The weather on the Pacific Coast from Northern California to British
Columbia tends to be warm and dryish in the summer but cool and damp
in the winter. Depending upon where you are, there may be no need
for summer air conditioning / cooling. So while for much of the
continent, the season for dehumidifying is the summer, on the left
coast it is the winter.

Dehumidifiers produce heat, therefore their energy efficiency is
important in continental applications. However, on the left coast,
they are used mostly in the winter, so the heat they produce is
mostly a slightly more expensive form of something you're going to
do anyway: heat the air in the house.

On the other hand, we may allow our rooms to cool below 65 degrees.
I know that I do. But as I discovered yesterday when reading the
manual of a Classic ECD15E Dehumidifier purchased from Home Hardware,
operation of a dehumidifier at below 65 degrees is frowned upon, for
two reasons: efficiency goes in the sink (so to speak), and the
coils can freeze up, causing waste and damage.

Better quality dehumidifiers can handle the lower temps, but they will
cost a bit more. Look for units that are designed for basement use (even
though it is not likely you have a basement :-).


So much for the idea
of moving the unit from room to room, leaving it in an unoccupied
room. We could have lived with leaving it in the living room and
allowing the dry air to seep into less used corners of the house, but
the fan of the unit is too loud. Unfortunately, loud fans seem to be
a fact of life in Canadian appliances (gas fireplaces, fume hoods...).

So I took the unit back, and Home Hardware kindly refunded the
purchase price of $cdn190 plus taxes, which I thought rather a lot
considering its simplicity.

For west coast uses, energy efficiency isn't so important, but the
ability to operate (or at least the ability not to break down) at 65
degrees or less IS important. Those are two big differences from the
dehumidifiers used in "continental" climates.

Any suggestions? Canadian Tire has a line of six dehumidifiers, all
made by "Simplicity" (= Danby). I went out to Canadian Tire here,
and found that they did have a couple of these in stock, but they
were all in crates, no display. And no Efficiency Ratings for any of
them. That was at the beginning of the search, so perhaps I was
picky. Since then I've checked Future Shop (none), London Drugs (
none), Home Hardware (just the one mentioned, and a larger model of
the same), Zellers, Superstore (their online catalogues don't list
anything). Sears
http://search.sears.ca/sears/srch?se...se_n=1&se_p=15
lists no less than 15 units, but after looking at a couple, I see no
sign of low temperature operation, no mention of noise levels.

Going outside Canada, I saw a DeLonghi dehumidifier advertised as
offering operation down to 44 F. Not sure how I'd get one here.

So, does anybody manufacture a "Left Coast Friendly" dehumidifier,
and how can I get one in Canada? Our house is only 900 square feet,
so the smallest size will probably be appropriate.

Finally, wouldn't a dehumidifier be more efficient if it took the
warm moist air in at ceiling level, then expelled warm dry air at
floor level? That would recirculate the air for those of us with 8-
foot ceilings and thus no ceiling fans. Yet consumer dehumidifiers
are universally designed to sit on the floor. I'm not sure what I'm
suggesting, maybe a permanent installation in one room, or maybe
something that can be moved around like a pole lamp.

--
Joseph Meehan

Dia duit