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

Jeff wrote:

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.

(Wire circuit in parallel so either control keeps unit on until satisfied.)

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


You will need a somewhat "undersized" A/C unit so there is adequate
run-time without dropping the temperature too much before it reaches
your humidity setting.
- udarrell - Darrell

--
Crank Your Air-Conditioner Up To Specs
http://www.udarrell.com/air-conditio...city-seer.html

Jeff writes:

Also, I'm open to other thoughts/suggestions on mold/mildew remediation.

Most concerns about mold/mildew are neurotic fantasies.

Forget the humidistat. Relative humidity cannot be measured automatically,
accurately, quickly, *and* reliably enough by any reasonably priced device;
without all of these the control will be faulty and you will be worse off
than doing nothing.

Buy a programmable thermostat and program it to run at least an hour every
day. That should control humidity in any modern construction.

Richard J Kinch wrote:

...Relative humidity cannot be measured automatically, accurately, quickly,
*and* reliably enough by any reasonably priced device

Sure it can.

Nick

They ARE pricey, but look at this:


http://www.residential.carrier.com/r...SMSESSI ON=NO


"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

Jeff wrote:

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...

NREL's long term Ashville averages are

daily min avg max w

May 50.9 63.0 75.0 0.0095
June 58.3 69.4 80.4 0.0125
July 62.7 72.8 83.0 0.0144
August 61.9 72.0 82.1 0.0142
September 55.5 66.2 76.9 0.0118

Lovely weather for "thermal sailing," with no heat or AC. Open and close
some windows from time to time as the weather changes or use a whole house
fan and smart controls to charge and discharge the inherent thermal mass
and water absorbing materials of the house, and control the indoor temp
and humidity naturally, vs leaving the house open all of the time, like
a sailboat with nobody steering.

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?

You might slow the blower motor in dehum mode by putting a choke
in series and return it to normal speed when the output airstream
drops below 40 F.

Nick

Thanks for the pointers on the thermidistat. I was considering the
following from Home Dept:

http://www.homedepot.com/prel80HDUS/...hResults.js p

So do thermidistat's require a separate unit or are they easily connectable
to a heat pump to faciliate dehumidification of the air?

I'll ping the sales rep at HomeDepot, but that's typically hit or miss. I
expect I'll get a more knowledgable response from this group.




"Dr. Hardcrab" wrote in message
news:GFcXe.4967$nV1.1905@trnddc06...
They ARE pricey, but look at this:


http://www.residential.carrier.com/r...SMSESSI ON=NO


"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

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