I am looking for opinions on compressor vs dessicant. Living in Sydney, looking for one that will work best all year round instead of just summer or winter. I think my place is damp all year round :(
Reading articles on the internet opinions look varied. Referring to Ausclimate's website, it looks like compressor types work best for Sydney, but keen to get people's thoughts.
Many thanks for your time and feedback!
Heating the air in a sealed room will lower the humidity. However if the room is not sealed the warmer air will capture extra moisture and the humidity will skyrocket when the air cools down.
Depends where and what you're trying to protect.
I'm not sure of how low desiccant will drag the humidity and how quickly. In my office / workplace I use a compressor because I want to maintain a set level of humidity - do not want certain things collecting moisture or drying out. In the garage I have a couple of small buckets of desiccant and they seem to do "enough" to keep the place mold free.
The main aim is to prevent mould growth on belongings, furniture, walls and ceiling. Have noticed quite a lot of mould lately, not sure if it's due to winter or I haven't looked hard at other times.
Perhaps try DampRid. My garage got a good deal of mold - it's under heavy tree cover and doesn't get much sun. I cleaned it up and put a couple of DampRids in and the problem has not returned.
Compressor if you intend to run it when you need it and don't care too much about noise.
Dessicant for 24/7 running and need lower noise (ie intent to run it in ensuite bathroom next to your bed).
Sydney's not that cold (we're talking interior temperatures so sub 15 degrees inside my apartment has never been an issue so ignore articles about how one technology is better than the other for cold weather)
DampRid is super super slow compared to electric versions above. They're like 0.5L containers and can take a while to fill. The compressor Delonghi DDS30COMBI I recently got does up to 30L per 24hrs on highest setting with continuous draining (water tank needs emptying a few times per day). My main bathroom gets to 80% humity and higher and I quickly need to get it down to the 50-60% range. With DampRid it would not get there in 2 days (I have no windows and fan ventilation is ceiling is not properly installed).
The issue of heating up a room in summer as you dehumidify afttects both technologies but more so for compressor. I never run them on max power setting and dont have an issue. I do have a very well insulated place so air con is something I run maybe 10-20 times per year at the most (a few hrs at a time). If your place is really warm in summer and needs aircon constantly maybe compressor is not the way to go….
Dessicant for Sydney. It depends on the indoor temperature vs relative humidity. Dessicant if the humidity is high but the temperature is below 25 degrees. The dessicant dehumidifier does heat up the room by a couple degrees so in Summer, I'd use the air con instead.