Dehumidifiers take excessive moisture from the air in your basement, creating a conducive environment in your home. They make a positive impact on your environment throughout the seasons.
It’s ideal for your basement, which tends to be the dampest area in your home.
Aside from eliminating odor from your homes, they also prevent paint peeling, protect fabric and documents from mold.
Humidity makes a room damp, developing a musty smell, solved using a dehumidifier available in different sizes and capacities. Different models have additional requirements for drawing the water.
Some have buckets that need to be emptied daily; others have an attachment that you can hook for draining, and others have a pump to draw out water. It’s ideal to choose the best large dehumidifier for basement for satisfactory results. Experts recommend a dehumidifier with wheels for easy movement.
Ensure the filters are cleaned regularly for efficient performance and prolonged lifespan. There are numerous benefits you enjoy by installing a dehumidifier in your basement
Benefits of Dehumidifier
1. Eliminate Musty Smell in your Home
You want your home to be clean with a fresh smell. However, moisture in the atmosphere from your basement traps and holds odor. A dehumidifier drys out the air to get rid of the moldy scent. You may agree that the smell resulting from dampness can be uncomfortable and embarrassing in some situations. Water collected from a dehumidifier can be recycled and used to water your kitchen garden or fill the pool.
2. Prevent Allergies
Humidity can result in significant health repercussions to your family and loved ones who are constantly exposed to it. These health conditions include allergies, skin irritations, headaches, nausea, asthma, etc.
A dehumidifier relieves these allergens by drying out the air, which destroys their conducive environment to thrive. Installing a dehumidifier improves the air quality in your home, making it safe and comfortable for them. Depending on the dampness in your basement, choose a unit with the appropriate capacity.
For optimal protection of your family and loved ones, buy one with antimicrobial technology since it inhibits bacteria growth on the unit’s water collection bucket.
3. Avoid Costly Repairs
If leaks in your basement are a common occurrence, a dehumidifier ensures the area remains dry. Neglected dampness caused by humidity can damage property in your home. These damages include peeling wall paint, dripping floors, sweating walls, and mold spores on the wall.
It’s costly to maintain these issues; thus, investing in a dehumidifier becomes an immediate solution. Dampness makes it hard to heat the rooms to optimal temperatures putting a strain on your heating system, which can cause it to break down.
Ensure your unit is running regularly if your basement is always damp for effective and efficient drying with an appropriate amount of airflow.
4. Use it to Speed Up Drying
Due to advanced technology, dehumidifiers make your basement warmer and drier hence you can use them to dry your laundry indoors. These units are ideal, mainly if you have limited space.
If your walls are sweaty, they fasten their drying to ensure the paint doesn’t fall off. They are also advantageous when painting your home as they accelerate the drying of the paint.
5. Eliminate Condensation in your Home
When the humidity is too high and comes into contact with cold surfaces, mainly the windows, it condenses. As a result, water drips onto your sills which deteriorates the wood framing around your windows.
Remember, properties near your basement are prone to humidity, making it essential to take preventive measures rather than dealing with an existing problem. Aside from eliminating condensation, dehumidifiers prevent dampness, mildew, and mold from destroying your property.
6. Preserve Food
Once your basement is high in humidity, the air diffuses into other rooms in your home, creating a favorable environment for bacteria to grow and multiply. High humidity accelerates food spoilage.
A dehumidifier ensures your atmosphere is good to sustain food freshness for longer without developing mold or any other fungi.
How Dehumidifier Works
Let’s get into the more technical part of how a basement humidifier works.
Essentially, a dehumidifier works by drawing in warm air, sucking out all of the moisture and then releasing drier and cooler air back into the basement.
The excess moisture that is collected during this process is condensed via cooled coils within the humidifier and all excess water is simply stored in a separate tank that is attached to the humidifier and that you can empty after a few uses.
The result: Cooler AND drier air in your basement. Which is what we want.
Generally speaking, the goal is to reduce humidity by roughly 30 to 50 percent.
Most humidifiers these days come with screens that show you the exact level of humidity in your basement – so it’s quite easy to monitor.
Signs you may need a dehumidifier
These units work best in damp areas, thus ensure you buy the best large dehumidifier for basement. These signs are enough for you to consider purchasing a dehumidifier.
- If your family members have a long allergy season each year.
- If there is a persistent damp smell coming from your basement
- If you experience water leakage during heavy rains
- If you are allergic to dust mites
- If you notice muggy air as you enter your home, which indicates the presence of water vapor in the atmosphere.
- If your clothes smell damp even after been freshly washed.
A dehumidifier has established health benefits, including reducing allergens and pollutants by drying damp areas in your home. Its also said to ease breathing in asthmatic patients.
Despite its uses, it may not be suitable for everyone; hence it’s vital to identify some of its side effects.
Dehumidifiers are known to dry the air. If you live in a dry area, you might not need it. If the air becomes too dry, some health conditions such as pneumonia may worsen.
When using a dehumidifier, always remember to be mindful of your hydration. However, investing in a dehumidifier can save you money on heating and cooling and prevent future issues associated with humidity. You can purchase dehumidifiers from any home supply retailer. Ensure it has the right tank size and the range of moisture it can control.