Wisconsin's weather gives us a little bit of everything... very dry, cold winters and very hot, humid summers. As a result, keeping the environment comfortable inside one's home can be a challenge. After only spending one summer in our new home, I could see that our basement was going to need some dehumidification, especially if I ever wanted to finish it. The pressure tank and all the pipes around the water softener were sweating so bad that there was a small pool of water on the floor. My wife mentioned that some of the items she had stuffed in boxes that are stored in the basement had mold on them. Not good.
Even though keeping the basement dry in the summer is my main concern, high humidity in any part of the house is rather annoying. As of last summer, we rarely had to turn the air conditioner on because our house managed to stay relatively cool, but by not turning on the air, we had to deal with high humidity. Knowing this, I began researching whole-home dehumidifiers. My reasoning is that since I know I need a dehumidifier to address some basement issues, I might as well get one with enough power to do to whole house if need be. Heck, maybe I won't even need the air conditioner!
Assuming the information I read online is correct, having a whole home dehumidifier as opposed to a smaller room dehumidifier sold at most stores will actually save money in the long run because it won't have to work as hard or as long. I guess my electrical bill will be the final verdict on whether or not that is true. None-the-less, since I want to dehumidify my entire basement (not just a portion of it) and potentially the upstairs, whole-home is where I need to be. Yike$.
In order to potentially dehumidify the entire house, a humidifier needs to be "ductable"... i.e., has to have the ability to be integrated into the HVAC ductwork in order to dry the air being circulated through the house. That's all fine and good, but what if the upstairs is nice and dry but the basement is still wet? How do you get the dehumidifier to focus on the zone that needs the most dehumidification? Well, for a bunch more money, some brands offer the ability to open and close dampers in the ductwork in order to focus on the zone that needs the most dehumidification. Aprilaire is one of the few manufacturers that has this ability.
Having recently installed an Aprilaire 500A humidifier and being reasonably pleased with it, I decided that I'd look into buying an Aprialaire dehumidifier as well, especially since it had the ability to add all sorts of bells and whistles (like the zone control) if I wanted it. The price, however, was a major stumbling block since the Aprilaire 1750 retails for around $1,250. Ouch. That isn't a bad price for a whole home dehumidifier, but it is a bad price if you're me!
Lucky for me, one of my favorite places to shop is eBay. Since it's winter and I don't actually need the dehumidifier now, now seems like a good time to start looking for the humidifier I want to show-up on eBay. Sure enough, Aprilaire themselves have been selling their refurbished models on eBay for a fraction of the cost of a new model. So, that's the route I went and for less than half of the cost of a new model, I got the Aprilaire 1750 shipped to my front door.
The unfortunate part of this blog post is that because it's winter and dehumidification is the last thing I need, I have no idea if my new dehumidifier works! It looks new and weighs a ton, but I'll have to post an update in a few months to let the world know if it was a good purchase or not.