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Dehumidifier as air source heat pump

Stephen Biddle over 6 years ago

Hi Guys - I want to check out my basic physics here. I live in house with porous solid brick walls. In the past I have taken the view that if I keep the house heated in winter (oil boiler) and ventilated then the ingress of moisture will evaporate and I am in eqiulibirum. I tried a dehumidifier last winter and it seems to me that this works better for empty rooms, that I don't need warm. It keeps the room dry and by extracting the latent heat of vapourisation from the humidity it is providing "free" heat.

Have I got this right or is it wishfull thinking?

Stephen

0 Alex Barrett over 6 years ago

I'm not sure how fast you are condensing water, but that will give you a figure for the heat benefit. A bigger factor in the perception of temperature will probably be the reduction in the humidity level. Russians always find our winters very cold, for this reason.
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0 Stephen Biddle over 6 years ago

I get about 2L in 48 hours so latent heat of vapourisation 2,260 kJ/kg x 2/(48x60x60) = 13 W not as exciting as I thought, maybe I can make some money selling distilled water. Maybe it has homeopathic properties.
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0 Alex Barrett over 6 years ago

So direct heat gain is trivial, but it feels warmer because of the reduced humidity. I would assume that dryer walls insulate better too?
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0 Stephen Biddle over 6 years ago

The most significant benefit is lack of mold.
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