As anything that is electrical gives off heat, dehumidifiers do provide
some excess heat to heat the room. Although DRY-AIR
Dehumidifiers recover and return heat to the pool, the room or
outside to the condenser, during winter months, the heat loss
of the building may be greater than the capacity of the unit
to heat the room properly.
It
is imperative that an auxiliary heating method
be designed into the supply duct of the air
delivery system. Electric Duct heaters,
gas or propane inline duct furnaces, hot
water coils, steam coils or geothermal can
be used effectively to maintain the proper
temperatures within this environment. For
example: 1KW of electric heat = 3413 BTU’s.
Therefore, if you have a 10 KW electric heat
installed in the dehumidifier, this gives
you 34,130 BTU’s of heat. However,
if the heat loss calculations for the room
are 125,000 BTU’s, then the 10KW heater
will not meet the heating requirements of
the pool room during “winter” months.
Many
companies today sell dehumidifiers that will “heat
the room” with an electric “strip” heat
built into the unit, because it is the lowest
cost of all systems. Some companies
will tell you that their unit gives off enough
heat to heat the room. In many cases, we
have found clients who cannot get the room
temperature to the required 82-86 Degrees
in winter months. They are experiencing condensation
on surfaces. This is primarily due to two
facts:
(1) Electric “strip heat” built in to a dehumidifier cannot keep up with heating requirements, and dehumidifiers typically do not give off enough heat to heat the total space.
( 2) When air temperature now falls below pool temperature, you are literally pulling the water out of the pool, creating a higher evaporation rate; subsequently you experience more condensation and higher humidity levels within the pool room environment.
Choose a method to heat the room by reviewing your local utility costs. Is gas or propane less expensive? Is electric expensive? Would it be more efficient to use a high temperature boiler with a hot water coil? Is geothermal the best way to go? And lastly, using pool water to heat the room is not recommended.
EPS is the home of DRY-AIR & VERI-DRY. We provide Design, Engineering, Consulting and Manufacturing for Residential and Commercial Indoor Swimming Pool Applications.
