My asthma hates wet, humid days. My asthma has been generally unhappy now on and off for a couple of months.
So I have bought a dehumidifier, which is working hard, and needs emptying every couple of days, but I am not convinced it is making headway.
How many dehumidifiers do people use in a mid sized house. I am using one, should I have three or four.
Should I be keeping the windows closed.
Sorry I don’t know about dehumidifiers but what I would say is that it is important you open windows every day. Without opening windows and getting fresh air around the home you run the risk of mould growing which can lead to all sorts of respiratory issues. Doesn’t have to be for hours but I open windows at least 1/2hr a day.
Hi Homely2
We have a 4bed bungalow. We use one dehumidifier in each bedroom where someone sleeps in, to counteract the condensation over the colder months.
You buy the dehumidifier dependant on room size and its tank size. So the bigger, more powerful ones have larger tanks but cost more and are suitable for larger areas.
We find them invaluable and they really keep the dampness/coldness out of the air and prevent condensation on windows etc. They are also really good if you have to dry clothes indoors over winter too.
We don’t tend to open windows when they are switched on as this kind of defeats the idea… you are trying to dehumidify the world!!😂 But we do open windows if necessary when they are not in use.
We have no damp in the house at all to my knowledge..🤷♂️ and it makes sleeping areas much more comfortable in winter.
Hope this helps.
👍😊
I only have 1.mines supposed to do whole house.i close windows,put toilet seats etc. Whn i use mine,the air feels better. I benefit most frm little air purifiers,one upstairs+ one down.my young grandsons asthma has been off past 2-3wks + I've problems too.weve had a LOT of rain in NW England,really since last summer.it doesn't help.Added bonus of dehumidifier is yr washing dries quickly
I use on in our bedroom. I put it on before I go to bed to nebulise, until the light goes green then I turn it off as I already have an air purifier and a fan running by night. I open the window in the morning. It has really helped to keep mould at bay in the bedroom and stopped the clothes feeling damp when I take them out. xx
I have a large dehumidifier for kitchen, which is for cooking, wet dogs and drying clothes which is set to keep humidity between 40 and 60%. Also have an air purifier in bedroom and living room. Windows open early morning till lunchtime then everything is switched on until dawn.
From Fri 20th Sept & the following days all that rain was pouring through a fault in my 1840s roof (now fixed, talk about closing the stable door....). It soaked down three floors at the front of my home. The first thing I did was order 2 £180 dehumidifiers. Two days in I rang my brother in law who knows about buildings, humidity etc for advice as I'd opened all doors and windows and had the heating & 3 dehumidifiers on full blast. He said imperative to close all the windows in the rooms where dehumidifiers are and seal the gaps under doors otherwise your money is wasted on dehumidifying the outside air not your ceilings walls carpets & room. My daughter also sent me a third one and the roofers lent me a fourth one, another daughter 150 miles away brought hers over for a day so that day 5 were running. 2 litre reservoirs in each & emptying them 3 times a day. Six litres each per day since Sunday 22 until a few days ago im down to 2 to 3 litres a day.
The modern ones have digital display, I began with 93% humidity, now down to 53 in the worst rooms
The advice to have windows open may be alright for some but most definitely not for everyone with asthma. Humidity/damp brings on my asthma closing airways, bringing on coughing the drop in night temperature for years used to bring on sore throat quickly followed by an infection. Warm dry sunny days are fine (apart from the dust and pollens🙄 coming in).
Opening windows to air out rooms is about more than just dehumidifying the room and dealing with condensation (I towel down windows to deal with that, though an open window will also help). The main reason I open a bedroom window on a daily basis is to air the bed. For the same reason all top sheets/duvet etc are thrown back and pillows are humped up to form a tunnel through which air can pass. Fresh air will also pass under the bed airing that area out (I certainly would never recommend a divan bed for an asthma sufferer nor would I recommend storing stuff under your bed - too much risk of that area becoming a dust trap) and, provided you have a slatted bed base, allow some air to reach the bottom of the mattress as well.
Definitely keep the doors and windows closed while you are using the dehumidifier - otherwise, you are 'dehumidifying' the great outdoors, which is a bit like trying to sweep all the sand off the beach!
We have four - the most efficient one is permanently in our bedroom, and I have another one permanently in my office. The other two migrate around the house - in summer, we keep them in our guestroom and cellar which are the dampest rooms, and when it's misty/foggy or very rainy, we relocate them to whichever other rooms I want to use (because in very damp or foggy weather, I can't breathe properly in a room that doesn't have a dehumidifier running!)
If you want to get another one or two, I'd suggest looking for second-hand ones. We bought all ours from Ebay or Gumtree - two Meacos for £25 each, an electriq for £35 and the other was about the same price (think that's also electriq but can't remember). They make a huge difference to me - I come in feeling terrible, and a few minutes in a room with the door closed and the dehumidifier running and my lungs are breathing sighs of relief!
Hi, but do they make the rooms cold please x
No. They either have no effect on the temperature unless they make it warmer due to the heat coming from the machine. Sometimes, it feels like they are making the room colder because they are blowing air out, but it's just moving the air, not cooling it.
I have often wondered how best to manage dehumidifiers. Mould is a trigger for me and reason why my asthma started in my 30's when damp got into my home unexpectedly. I live in a two story house with south at rear and a couple of rooms not used. One en suite bathroom window is always open all year round and the main south facing ones opened every day. I do not dry clothes indoors. I am careful about steam generation/extraction in cooking. I air beds all day and make up in evening and use electric blankets. We have two large dehumidifiers. One is kept in a downstairs unused/unheated room, north facing and is 'on' all year round. The second one is started up about now when weather cools. It has been in various positions. Last year it was in a northfacing main bedroom but turned off at night. The motor turning on/off is a bother. Condensation used to be a big issue but gone once glass replaced with double glazing. I also wipe down shower cabinet after use and am thinking of getting a water vacuum gadget for that.
Assuming a consumer dehumidifier operates at 1.5 kW, one needs one of these per 1-2 room.
Can you put humidity gauges in key places in your house to see what is going on with the humdity build-up? Is there a basement? RH sensors are very cheap (less than 15-20 quid each). A good UK company for all things HVAC is "i-sells.co.uk". Could be a fault in the membrane in the basement, or a leaky pipe somewhere. In the cold months, the indoors is usually dryer than the outdoor air (assuming that the house is heated, ventilated, and has no internal leaks or damp places). E.g. when it's 10C outside, 20C inside (with the heat on), and I vent at 0.5 air exchangse per hr, the humidity stays at 45% without any dehumidification needed. If it's 0C outside and 20C inside, humidity is 25%. It's the summer when things are difficult (and I have to run an AC which also dehumidifies).
Re: keeping the window closed. I see it may sound like a good idea, but you still need the air to breathe, and the human body (the 100% humidity in the breath) is a the biggest source of humidity, not the cold outdoor air. CO2 meters are cheap, you can install one and see if CO2 goes up above 1000 ppm (if it does, there is an issue with ventilation). I have a 100 sq m flat, and a 1.5kW dehumididier/AC can keep with with ventilation of the place at 100 cubic meters per hr with no issues (in the summer). This is with 2 inhabitants. If we had more people, would have to ventilate at 2x the rate.
Thank you for all this advice. My asthma has been primarily driven by dust and pollen to this point.
However I seem to have added, damp and humidity, as a primary driver. So today, putting the washing outside is problematic for me, as it is damp outside.
However thanks to the advice, now coming inside is a refuge from the asthma, whereas before it was not.
Steriods!!!! - rant alert!
Has anyone else been struggling with their asthma recently?
Forstair runs out before I can get the next prescription. The next installment
