The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Community => Coffee Lounge => Topic started by: PK on January 10, 2020, 09:01:19 am
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We have a room where traces of mould from time to time appear and the occasional whiff of damp. It does not appear to be rising damp but rather because it is a cold room with solid walls. Anyway, a rather smart domestic scale electric de-humidifier came our way and this is set at 55% humidity. Over a 24 hour period empty out up to a litre of water each day. Does that sound a lot or is that what I might expect?
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A litre a day isn't unusual- of course it all depends on the size of your unit, the humidity in the room and the source of the damp. The room should dry out completely in a week or so and the machine switch itself off. If you continuously get a litre a day there is a structural problem which could be anything like a failed damp course, poor pointing, leaking pipework or a leaking gutter.
We have stone walls here and 3 dehumidifiers. Two small units are used rarely (when 70% is reached) and one larger unit, which can theoretically take out 5 litres a day, is left on at 40% in a large bathroom which then doubles as a drying room.
Problem with dehumidifiers is they ice up if the room is too cold and then run with no effect, so worth watching for that if the room is unheated PK, otherwise you will simply be wasting electricity.
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No thats about the same as me. I do find that after having it running for a few weeks it stablaises a bit and I usually manually turn on the dehumidifier for a few hours if it reaches 60%. Beofore it was around 70%.
Make sure you keep the door into the room closed :)
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We have soil under the wooden floor boards and the builder told me that a dehumidifier would just pull water from the ground indefinitely.
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Thanks all for those helpful replies.