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...
daestrom wrote:

...if the basement or whereever has 100% RH at 50F, then your dehumidifier
is discharging it's heat at about 55F, not much use there.

I suggested moving some 55 F 100% RH air up from the basement floor to
the living space where the dehumidifier lives. Harvard Physicist Bill
Shurcliff suggests putting a window AC in a basement stairwell with
the warm side in the living space to air condition the basement and
heat the house in wintertime.


The outside half of a window AC might be a bit loud for putting in the
living space. And these units aren't really meant to condition the cold
side (normally the room, but in this case the basement) down below 55F. But
I suppose you might try reducing the air flow so the coil runs cooler. If
there's a lot of moisture, one might have problems with freeze-up though.

Besides, once you dry out the basement, you going to deliberately spray
water on the floor? Like to see what that does for mold/mildew levels.
Your scheme is just using heat at ~50F on the floor slab/ground to evaporate
water, then using a dehumidifer to condense the water putting the heat into
the living space. A far more effective method would be to use a heat pump
designed for the purpose and extract heat from the ground directly. Avoids
the mold/mildew, higher COP, and can be designed to supply a lot more heat.
Only down side is total cost (but I'm not sure it cost more $/BTU
delivered).

If your basement is damp in the winter time, *thats* a sign of a poorly
waterproofed/sealed basement foundation/floor. The only time you should
have trouble with damp basements is summer, when the warm moist air from
outside finds its way into the much cooler basement (RH goes up in the air
as its cooled, making things 'feel' damp/clammy), -or- when the foundation
is below the water table and not properly sealed. How does a 50F 100%RH
weather outside make a basement 'damp', unless the basement is even cooler??

Those in Pacific northwest obviously have a different issue, but for most of
us the dehumidifer gets shut off in the winter as there isn't enough
humidity in the air to condense (unless your dehumidifier works down in the
30F range)

daestrom