I bought a dehumidifier to save on heating without risking mold last winter. Emptying the water compartment is super satisfying, and I'm still amazed by how much water this thing pulls that would otherwise seep into my wallpapers and such.
this post was submitted on 01 Feb 2025
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Do you have a recommendation?
I have a meaco dd8l.
I haven't tried any others, but I've had it for a few years.
Best purchase I've ever made.
Anyone living in a flat should get one.
Although, my parents bought one for their house and swear by it. So, I guess anyone living indoors should get one.
I can recommend the one I have but have no experience beyond that. It's a MeacoDry ABC 12l, which I bought because it was small and quiet and didn't draw too much power. I use it in the bathroom and to dry laundry, so we can trap and remove the moisture in one room and keep the other rooms dry. In the bathroom, it takes about 2-3h to dry it out. Laundry takes about 8-10h to fully dry. The device works through condensation of the air passing through it, so it works best in small rooms that are not too cold. So far, I'm very happy with it. The only thing I miss is an air filter, which some of the bigger models have.
Yeah I remember reading a negative review for a Raspberry Pi passive cooler case that was a complaining about the case getting hot sometimes. That's the one I got, because yeah guy, that's the thing doing what it's supposed to do.
My favorite ones are the ones from people who’s were the unfortunate victims of amazons garbage user interface
Saw a white led where you could buy in various color temperatures but you had to select and the default was 5000k/cool white (blue white). First review was a guy that expected amber/warm white/3000k and it was cool white. It said he had purchased the 5000k option. Sorry that amazons ux is absolute shit dude but I guess the cool white is what it’s supposed to be
Similarly the amount of “answered questions” that are just “I don’t know, why are you asking me??” Because amazon sends obnoxious unclear emails asking for product feedback to customers and then posts the answers with 0 moderation or review. So your grandma gets an email like “does your new toaster have smart capabilities that work with 2.4ghz wifi?” And she’s a trump person that can’t handle defying even the mildest authority figure so she answers, even if her reply is utterly useless
Elderly love talking to bots. It's precious if they weren't all scamming fucks
Oof, I get it, though.. The difference between warm white and cool white is enough to make me want to die. I personally have a soul and enjoy being alive, so I prefer warm white myself.
my home actually has adaptive lighting, highly recommend. Gradually changes from cool to warm through the day
https://github.com/basnijholt/adaptive-lighting
Need home assistant although some things like homekit can do adaptive lighting too, just not as feature rich. You also need bulbs that can do the full spectrum of white (or rgb) obviously
But the home assistant one can adjust based on sunlight, dim the lights concurrently in a specific room to help with sleep, and customize it (like most times the primary advantage of HA vs commercial options)
I ripped them a new one for an air conditioner I bought that made more heat than it did cool!
This happens to me in RimWorld when I put the AC unit in backwards. :(
That's why I laugh at the desktop AC units. You're just going to make the room hotter.
The average temperature of the room is irrelevant if the portion you're sitting in is being cooled, though.
Yes it's creating more heat, BUT it's creating that heat somewhere I'm not at, so it's doing it's job.
Do you also laugh at your refrigerator? 😉
I do actually, but it's more of a sad laughter because there's nothing inside
Example? I thought they were just a fan and sponge for evaporative cooling. So it makes the room moist and slightly cooler. Might work better in a dry country but I live in the UK.
That said I have thought of using a heat pump cooler for something like the desktop idea if the cooling can be directed at myself while the heating side is more dispersed. Alternatively though just pump water through some hose pipes and drape them over myself. Stick ice cubes into the water reservoir perhaps.
I'm not an expert on thermodynamics, but we do have a humidifier.
My laypersons understanding is that it works by booking water to steam and kinda hoping some of the steam is absorbed by the air to become humidity, rather than condensing to water vapour as it cools.
It tries to maximise the humidity by having this internal chamber to mix steam with air and catch condensation but of course some steam escapes.
That I'd to say, I think it's possible for some humidifiers to produce more humidity with less water given that inefficient humidifiers produce more steam as a waste product.
Some humidifiers use an oscillating diaphragm to mechanically aerosolize the water. No heat, No steam.
Others are just a huge wick and a fan, also known as swamp coolers. Aprilaire whole house humidifiers work this way. Those are quite effective as well, and no heat or steam.
Yeah this is the ultrasonic type. The diaphragm is basically a waterproof speaker fed with a signal in the 3-5 MHz range. I don't get how the fine liquid bubbles don't coalesce. Are they all similarly charge or something?
Where does this steam "waste product" go?
Ok Mr Snarky pants...
Where do you think it goes?
Into the air. Which results in the air having more water in it, ie. more humidity.
Steam is not humidity.
If there's no puddle forming around the humidifier, doesn't that mean all the water is dissolved in the air? Where else could it go?
The steam condenses into vapour when it comes into contact with the ceiling, walls, and windows.
For a cowboy from a place with no atmosphere you understand atmosphere pretty well... sus...
It depends a bit on what you want to optimize for, as there's drawbacks to all the major methods:
- Ultrasonic sprayers are decently efficient but spread any contaminants around your home, potentially still biologically active. Dissolved trace minerals will turn into fine dust, affecting cleaning needs.
- Boiling for humidification is energy intensive because of water's heat capacity.
- Air forced wicks are by default great habitat for mold and similar, so they need regular care and replacement.
You're right, a space heater using "too much" power would have been irrefutable.
Omg several years back so many people on UK sub reddits just didn't understand that 2kw of heating is the same regardless of what it comes out of and it was so frustrating. Pretty sure it was precovid, at least now there is a useful technology connections video to point people at.