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I live in Wisconsin which gets very humid during the summer. Usually, during the summer, the temperatures drop at night to a comfortable level. However, the humidity is so high that it’s nowhere near comfortable. I have a 13 x 22 three season porch with windows on all sides. The room is West facing, so in the summer, it gets 8+ hours of direct sunlight to power a solar device. During the summer, I’d like to make this our bedroom. What I was thinking is to seal the room (close all windows) and use sun-blocking drapes. That should keep the temperature low. Then, I’d like to use a dehumidifier to reduce the humidity in this room. So the temp would be low and the humidity would be low. I’d like either a: Solar-powered dehumidifier DC-powered dehumidifier that I can connect to a solar panel A low-energy usage dehumidifier that I can connect to an inverter and a solar panel
Does anyone have any suggestions (or other ideas)?
Posts: 2 | From: Wisconsin | Registered: Dec 2004
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posted
Hi! Don't mean to sharpshoot your plan, but you're looking at moving into a room that is essentially a greenhouse. A room with that many windows is bound to be hot and humid. Just my $.02, but it seems like you'd expend more effort and energy trying to un-greenhouse that room that you would just choosing a room that's not in the sunlight, and not festooned with windows. Although sun-blocking drapes will cut down on the temperature, look at all the heat that'll build up between the windows and the curtains. A convection oven springs to mind....
Anyway, didn't mean to rain on your parade...just another point of view.
Posts: 5 | From: Hurlburt Field, FL | Registered: Dec 2004
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posted
I've already spent an entire summer monitoring the temps. The sun-blocking shade idea greatly reduces heat and prevents heat-build up (and actually on the side with Western exposure, we'll be using a film which prevents something like 70% of the sun's rays from coming in and will greatly reduce the heat). Anyway, the one thing we haven't been able to control is the humidity. So that's the last problem we have. We could easily do this in any other room of the house, but the idea is to live in there during the entire summer so that on cooler nights we have the breeze from all of the windows and during the hotter days/humid nights we just have to remove the moisture from the equation.
Posts: 2 | From: Wisconsin | Registered: Dec 2004
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posted
Hey, right on. Sounds like it'll be a pretty cozy room. Thanks for filling me in, I figured there was more to the equation that I was missing. As far as I know, there are a bunch of dehumidifiers on the market...we use one in a drying room for drying scuba gear and wetsuits and stuff. Next time I'm in there, I'll get the specs on it for ya. As far as using a solar panel and inverter, the people I've dealt with for solar power are: http://www.rvsolarelectric.com/ They know everything about putting together 110-volt systems using different types of panels, batteries, and power inverters.
Hope this helps...thanks for putting up with my ignorance...
Posts: 5 | From: Hurlburt Field, FL | Registered: Dec 2004
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