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I am measuring RH using the dry bulb / wet bulb method and I feel very confident with it.

So, sometime in April, I put the humidifier away and enjoyed a few weeks of natural 40% RH in my basement. And then, the humidity started to rise, so I ceased gluing anything. It pretty quickly went up to around 60%. I have some assembly I need to get done, soon, I hope. so I acquired a cheapo little brown "Edison 15" dehumidier, set it on full blast, and waited to see what would happen.

My basement shop is 12' x 12', enclosed, and has a vapor barrier on one wall.

Well, the dehumidifier brought RH down to 55%.

So I got out my little gray electric space heater, and set it across the room from the dehumidifier, and set it on "low." After a few hours, the room warmed up to 70 degrees F, and the RH was down to 40%.

Are there better ways to do this? It feels like it might be risky and/or inefficient to run these two appliances this way, constantly, for the next six months or so. do I want to get a much larger dehumidifier that I can run on a lower setting?

what do y'all do? what would you recommend?

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"...you have to get over your strict adherence to your largely imagined notion of absolute perfection..."

Thanks, I will try cleaning this one. It is old.

Pulling maybe a quart per day.

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"...you have to get over your strict adherence to your largely imagined notion of absolute perfection..."

Mine easily pulls two gallons a day (I'm in Florida).

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Old growth, shmold growth!

2 gallons a day seems a fair amount for that sized room...but overkill can't hurt at all when it comes to dehumidifiers. Circualtion is important when dehumidifying. I keep a floor fan on at all times in my shop because the fan in the dehumidifier isn't enough to really circulate the air very well. Since I started with the fan it seems the humidity cycles are less dynamic.

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I read Emerson on the can. A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds...true...but a consistent reading of Emerson has its uses nevertheless.

StuMusic

I waited for the r/h to get down to 45, internet source, and braced the top. 2 hrs later the r/h was 75. Do you think the glue was dry enough by then? I didn't realize r/h changed so quickly.

Thanks everybody. The coils didn't look too dirty. I wiped them off with a paper towel and didn't remove too much dirt, at all. But this morning I took the whole dehumidifier apart. There is a grill thingee inbetween the fan and the coils, and it was covered with a pretty thick wall of dust. so I removed that with a vacuum hose, and attachment.

but now, after running the dehumidifier all day, it still doesn't seem to be working much better, if at all. my shop is stable at about 45% RH, which is ok, I guess.

but I have been building all winter at around 40%. I was hoping to get down around there.

this is a borrowed unit. I am shopping for a new-or-used one.

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"...you have to get over your strict adherence to your largely imagined notion of absolute perfection..."