In article ,
Tim Watts writes:
On 28/02/18 23:30, Andrew Gabriel wrote:

Dessicant based dehumidifier - mine can run at 300W or 600W and it's a
double win - bit of warmth and the air is dried out.

Seen enough of those at Repair Cafes that I would never leave one
running unattended.

Number 1 failure mode is the dessicant disk jams so it's no longer
rotating, and the heater then heats one spot continuously, and it
burns it.

Also seen one where the mica element supports in the fan heater part
had fallen to pieces and the element wire coils had dropped out in
clump against the dessicant disk, burning it.


Thanks for that - I was a bit cautious about the heater in them as I
know it runs hot.

I rigged my shed unit so it's only allowed to run when someone is home
and "awake" (controlled through ZWave) (at home + awake is a notional
thing based on based times of day mostly)

How flammable is the desiccant disc, do you reckon?

I've no idea. It looks like a cardboard honeycomb, but I think it
must be more fire resistant than cardboard, although it did char.

Oh well - oil filled rad or intrinsically safe heater bar for the OP
then, unless he can run his at safe times.

The shed I did for someone uses an old oil filled radiator.
It's rated 1kW, but mostly it runs with a half-wave rectifying
diode to halve the power output.

--
Andrew Gabriel
[email address is not usable -- followup in the newsgroup]