Hi everyone,
I would greatly appreciate feedback on what is the best solution to treat/dehumidify fresh air being supplied by a fresh air duct. Please see below for more details. Thank you in advance for your time and expertise.
I live in sunny humid south Florida. I have a professionally installed standalone fresh air mechanical ventilation system to purge indoor pollutants. This fresh air system is not integrated into the air handler. It draws fresh air in from outside and directs it into my air handler closet. The system delivers approximately 60 CFM of fresh air on a fixed 3hours on/3 hours off schedule.
When the air handler is cooling while the fresh air fan is on, the humidity levels are well controlled in the 40-50 range. However when the air handler shuts off because the thermostat target temperature is reached (73-74F), the humidity levels will rise from 4-50 range to 55-59 range.
Fortunately the increased humidity is isolated to the hallway where the air handler closet is and not an issue throughout the house. I recently bought a portable 30 pint dehumidifier and placed it in this hallway. It does seem to be able to handle the humid air that lingers when the fresh air fan is on and the air handler isn’t cooling. Based on this experience I am thinking a dedicated whole house dehumidifier would be beneficial. Can you kindly recommend if any of the following solutions below are logical? open to other ideas as well.
1. Install a dedicated standalone dehumidifier in the hallway where the air handlers are located. In theory the separate dehumidifier duct work should pull in the humid air, dehumidify it and then release back to the hallway where the air handlers will eventually pick it up when the cooling call starts again.
2. Install and integrate a dehumidifier directly into the air handler supply
2. Place the portable dehumidifier in the air handler closet
Thank you!