On Wednesday, February 4, 2015 at 8:34:08 AM UTC-5, trader_4 wrote:
Note that this is an old thread, which has just been revived.
But yes, that's the heat I was referring to. How much is a little
depends on your perspective. It's not unusual for dehumidifiers
to cost $30 a month to run. Some folks probably have small electric
heaters that they use that use a similar amount. And that $30
produces the same amount of heat via the dehumidifier. Is it
going to significantly raise the temp of a house? No, but it's
still added heat.


Okay, I see your point, and agree. Note that I was in error saying a dehumidifier moves heat from the front to the back of the unit. It does, but it also dumps heat down the drain in the form of condensed water. Some of that water may absorb heat from the dehumidifier as it warms up after it comes off the coil, so it's probably not $30. Might be $29.50.

I would think a whole house AC with reheat would be more efficient than a normal AC plus a separate dehumidifier though.

IDK, but I say it's a moot point, because whenever I've had a humidity
issue in the house, putting on the AC, dropping the temperature 2F,
took care of it. In other words, the humidity only becomes a problem
when some AC is also desirable, or at least not objectionable.

An AC reduces humidity but doesn't control it. Whether that reduction is enough depends mostly on luck, a little bit on getting the size of the unit correct. You can control it with a humidistat and reheat, that's going to take more electricity use though.