A Few Questions About DEHUMIDIFIERS... ???
We live in an apartment and for reasons to long to go into cannot have air conditioning. All we have are fans which do an OK job of moving the air around. Better than nothing I guess. Now... If we were to add a DEHUMIDIFIER to the mix, would that help us feel any cooler? Sometimes, especially at night the humidity outside is like 80, 90% or even higher. We have the windows open and although the air is a little cooler at night it is just so damn sticky. What if we got a dehumidifier or two, closed the windows and let the fans run. Would it FEEL cooler? Also... do dehumidifiers have any COOLING capability at all?
Answer:
Dehumidifiers blow out hot air. They will most definitely warm your apartment. Whether or not it will actually feel cooler I couldn't say, but I think it would be a big waste of money (for the dehumidifiers and the electricity to operate them). If you can't have a window AC unit for some reason, there are units that do not need a window - like these http://www.compactappliance.com/xq/JSP.jump/itemType.CATEGORY/itemID.... You will need a way to exhaust the hot air. If that is still not possible, my guess is you're SOL as far as I know. but they do make units designed for vertically-mounted windows (like casement windows). You could probably kludge one of those into a patio door, basically resting it on the floor and filling in the space above it. Of course, you could do the same with a horizontal model; it's not going to be ideal. Better to just buy a portable a/c that sits on the floor and has a hose to vent the hot air outside. There's gotta be some way for you to get a hole for a small hose to go outside... You are correct, dehumidifying the air will make the air movement more effective in cooling you off. The one thing a Dehumifier does that a window AC does not, it exhausts the hot air back into the room. If you just use a window AC unit, it will dehumidify the air, and cool it off too.