I've heard of that kind of thing. The problem is that if you run the AC
enough to lower the humidity, it might get too cold in the house. Then, the
heat will have to run.

I don't know of SEER standards for dehumdifiers, but most of the ones I've
seen use piston compressors, and so would be less efficient.

Since it's humid in your area, should be at least a couple local HVAC
technicians who know this process.

--

Christopher A. Young
Do good work.
It's longer in the short run
but shorter in the long run.
..
..


"Jeff" wrote in message
...
hello:

I live in the mountains of Western North Carolina and the while the
temperature is exceptionally nice during the summer, nice enough to keep the
house open all of the time, we exerience high humidity levels (I would say
humidity averages 75% in our house for height of the summer season with
peaks at 85%+ on rainy days). This leads to a fairly damp environment and
introduces some mold & mildew problems.

Part of the remediation plan I wanted to put in place was to purchase new
thermostat/humidistat and leverage both to control the AC unit. Optimally,
I would set the humidity theshold via the humidistat and kick on the AC
whenever it exceeded that level.

Is it fairly straight forward to do what I am proposing and is there
anything I should be looking for in a thermostat/humidistat beyond a
humidify sensor?

Also, I do not have a dehumidifier in conjuction with my AC unit, I was just
going to leverage the heat pump process to remove humidity from the air. I
know humidifiers are not the most efficient devices in the world, but how do
they compare to typical heat pumps (I believe we are running a 12 SEER
unit).

Also, I'm open to other thoughts/suggestions on mold/mildew remediation.
The house isn't that old, but we do plan on having the duct system
inspected. Another thought was to install a whole house fan and tie it to a
humidistat. From a cost and ease of implementation perspective, the AC
solution definitely appears to be on the easier side, but as noted, we are
looking at other options.

Regards,

Jeff