Dehumidifier for 21bhs

[montedtrotter1]

Decided to create a new thread with key-word "dehumidifier" which can be used for future searches on the topic. Thanks to others that brought up the topic of very high humidity (inside travel trailer) in the summer in FL/GA and other high humid areas. Suggestions were made that a house hold compressor type dehumidifier could be used to keep humidity down and inside enviroment much more comfortable.

I have tried the small little chemical pots, then a small expensive non-compressor type dehumidifier and neither really helped much. As a result of comments on this forum regarding using a regular room household type dehumidifier, I tried one this weekend.

Past experience:
1. Humidity goes up every night inside trailer due to AC unit not running as much, as high as 85% on recent trips in early morning.
2. Talking with another camper with travel trailer, comments were they all do it and the only way to control humidity is to lower AC down to low 60's so AC runs more. We tried this and still had humidity in 80's and nearly frooze to death!

Recent Experiment this past weekend:
1. I had a small portable basement humidifier(GE) I was not using and decided to give it a try, picture attached.
2. It is on wheel and weights about 35-40 lbs, GE compressor type dehumidifier.
3. It fits perfectly in front of fuse box area (21BHS) and the slide closes nearly touching the unit when fully closed, holds it in place when travelling.
4. I set the humidity level at 50% and fan on low, much quieter than the AC unit so no sound issue.
5. The AC unit removes more humidity much quicker than the GE but the GE does remove humid air and blows out warm air heating the trailer.
6. The warm air keeps the AC unit running more frequently and the combination of the GE and AC units, we got 48-55% humidity at about 73-74 degrees. The GE will now make all summer trips!

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[idlerockfarm]

Thanks for the experiment!  I really wish I could get a small, compressor dehumidifier, but the size of the smaller units is just too large.  If I go south next summer, I will likely change my mind on that issue (even though I'm in a Quicksilver I want to not have cold dank air at night).

[david]

I know that this may be counter intuitive, but another approach is to place a small space heater at one end of your trailer as far from your sleeping area as possible. Then the extra heat will force the A/C to run longer and pull down the humidity more. You will need to experiment with heat settings vs A/C temp settings to get it right.

But your A/C will pull 12 amps or so and the heater will pull at least 6 amps, so make sure that you are connected to a 30 amp supply and not just a 15 amp household outlet with an adapter.

David

[montedtrotter1]

Along those lines,last year I did install the heater strip in our AC unit that allows it to become a heater during the winter, works very well. On a trip in July, we tried the suggestion of running the AC in the 60's and then cutting it off and then turning on the heater. My daughter thought I was crazy. This did not work but a separate heater might. But the GE takes water out of the air and blows warm (not hot) air at the same time. You can set it to the humidity level you want (35% lowest) and warm air only comes out when the compressor is running. Once it hits the humidity target the compressor stops but the fan keeps running but now the air is cool and not warm. It is placed near the center of the 21' trailer and again worked very well. I forgot to empty the tank prior to going to bed one night and it stopped running at about 4AM, The AC stopped running as much and the humidity was at 70% going up. I emptied the condensate tank (about 1.5 gallons) and got it back down to 50% humidity quickly. For us, 50% humidity is the sweet spot.
We did run the AC/GE/Microwave all at once for a few minutes and no problems but I did this only once fearing I was going to blow a fuse. I am sure we will fine tune this setup more on future trips but this forum is great for getting new ideas on how to solve some basic issues. Thanks again to Dave in Florida for telling me about it!

[daplumbr]

Here's another idea that works for us, but is admittedly a bit counter-intuitive. We find our 16 to be way too stuffy with windows and vents closed, no matter how much the AC or heater run. So, whenever we are in the camper we have the bath fan blowing out in its slowest setting and the living area vent open (fan off). That brings in a constant supply of fresh air and if it's warm outside, the AC runs more and dehumidifies well (even if it's fairly humid outside). My conclusion from our experiments so far is that just good old ventilation helps a lot with moisture control and the HVAC systems work best for us when there is fresh air coming in. 

[gbpack]

After struggling with the interior humidity since our first camping trip in January (and trying all the different combinations and approaches that have been mentioned in various threads on this forum), we finally broke down and bought a basement sized dehumidifier for our 21BHS. Boy, what a difference it makes! It's a smaller unit (30 pints a day) which is plenty larger for our unit and it takes a lot of moisture out of the air. It does blow out warm air when running, but that helps keep up the interior temperature on chilly nights. If it's warm outside and we need cooler temps inside, then we also run the AC with it. Either way, we are nice and dry inside now, especially at night when the outdoor humidity rises, and are sleeping much more comfortably. We have found that 45 or 50% humidity level works well. Also, we ended up placing our dehumidifier in front of the fuse panel as well (that's a good spot for it as it's centrally located and out of the way). We would highly recommend a smaller basement style dehumidifier to anyone that is bothered by the high humidity levels in their trailer!

[djsamuel]

[quote source="/post/24402/thread" author="@gbpack" timestamp="1473253537"]After struggling with the interior humidity since our first camping trip in January (and trying all the different combinations and approaches that have been mentioned in various threads on this forum), we finally broke down and bought a basement sized dehumidifier for our 21BHS. Boy, what a difference it makes! It's a smaller unit (30 pints a day) which is plenty larger for our unit and it takes a lot of moisture out of the air. It does blow out warm air when running, but that helps keep up the interior temperature on chilly nights. If it's warm outside and we need cooler temps inside, then we also run the AC with it. Either way, we are nice and dry inside now, especially at night when the outdoor humidity rises, and are sleeping much more comfortably. We have found that 45 or 50% humidity level works well. Also, we ended up placing our dehumidifier in from of the fuse panel as well (that's a good spot for it as it's centrally located and out of the way). We would highly recommend a smaller basement style dehumidifier to anyone that is bothered by the high humidity levels in their trailer!
[/quote]This is exactly what we do.  Works great.

[montedtrotter1]

Sorry for my confusion, I should have been thanking DOUG in Florida for the tip on dehumidifiers; not sure there is a Dave in Florida.
MonteD

[djsamuel]

[quote timestamp="1473723366" author="@montedtrotter1" source="/post/24585/thread"]Sorry for my confusion, I should have been thanking DOUG in Florida for the tip on dehumidifiers; not sure there is a Dave in Florida.
MonteD[/quote]No problem!  Just glad it worked for you too.

Doug

[ron]

Great ideas and thoughts. our home unit is rather large, but I'll take it anyways, rather than buy a second one to save a few pounds.  Very cool, now maybe I can sleep better, can't wait to give it a try.