Dehumidifiers for managing mold?

Coming into winter and my bedroom gets pretty moldy.

Dehumidifiers have been effective against mold in a living room area for me previously, but sound was less of a concern there.

A bedroom dehumidifier, I think the compressor is what causes disturbance, but some newer models using "Thermo-electric peltier technology" are apparently quite silent.

Anyone use this type of appliance in their bedroom with success and minimal disturbance?

My bathroom could use some dehumidification also but I don't know how that would work (not an en suite, hall way between bathroom and bedroom).

10-10-20

Unless they have changed significantly in the last 5 years, Peltier dehumidifiers are pretty inefficient and pretty useless too.

The best option for a cooler room is a rotating desiccant drum dehumidifier as they overcome the problems which compressor based units have with cool/cold air.

Lumen

I have a desiccant humidifier in the bathroom and no way would try to sleep with it on in the same room, even on low.

Do you have a ventilation problem?

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118270402#Comment_118270402

Apartment is above a parking garage.

Rising damp.

Lumen

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118270426#Comment_118270426

Don't understand that.

What ventilation do you have in the room?

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118270444#Comment_118270444

There's a window I can open half an inch.

The parking garage beneath = cold and wet = the damp rises into my apartment and makes it cold and wet, and moist = mold.

Lumen

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118270579#Comment_118270579

Ok, that's not what's usually meant by "rising damp".

It is unlikely that the damp is coming from the basement. When cold air enters a heated building, the relative humidity of that air drops, and it cannot condense and feed mould.

For instance, if the basement air was 100% humid at 8C, when it comes in and is heated to 18C it will only be 54% humid, and won't form mould.

You need more outside air, not less.

Ventilation requirements are described here:

https://www.gov.ie/en/publication/62f06-technical-guidance-document-f-ventilation/

That said, if the cold air is coming through the building fabric (e.g. floor), or if it's just badly insulated or unevenly insulated with cold bridges, you may have cold surfaces which cause condensation when there is inadequate ventilation.

It is normal for mould to be fixed by some combination of ventilation, heating and air tightness, but since it seems like your bedroom doesn't have any proper ventilation that's the obvious place to start.

Do you own the apartment?

Proberly not enough insulation in walls ...when the walls get cold over winter and you have heat on in the appartment...the heat rushes to the cold wall and forms mould.only solution if you are renting is to ask landlord to insulate walls.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118270933#Comment_118270933

No I'm not the owner.

I don't think I've ever been in a bedroom that has anything other than a window for ventilation?

And the back wall is not adjacent to another apartment, but is exposed to the outside, which is the wall where the majority of the mold occurs.

So, the landlord would basically need to dry line the back wall or something?

The former tenant here seemed to think the primary issue was the apartment being located just above the parking garage and the cold etc was migrating up from there?

A dehumidifier would be a practical solution in this case or not at all?

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118270937#Comment_118270937

When I've experienced that in the past, such as areas I'd have to clean mold off every week or so due to condensation and mold, a dehumidifier has alleviated the issue.

It's also possible in this instance, the cold is migrating from underneath as the room is situated directly above the blocks parking garage?

But yes additionally the back wall is exposed to the outside so that's probably under-insulated also, but I don't see the landlord doing much there;

A dehumidifier would be effective or no in this situation?

Wildly Boaring

If you're renting talk to LL. But have done the below to good effect in an old mass concrete house.

Try to leave window cracked open at night or even leave door open to rest of house.

In the morning open the window wide. If at home leave open an hour otherwise get 10 mins anyway.

Then leave dehumidifier run all day in room.

Get rid of all current mould first. Wash with mould remover or bleach. Then paint affected areas with an anti mould paint. Think Aldi do a spray on.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118271162#Comment_118271162

Reason I can only open window a half inch is cause opening fully would allow people to climb in, and it's open to the street outside.

Wildly Boaring

You need to open more than that for 10 or 20.mins in the morning. Windows are designed the size they are to provide "purge" ventilation. Basically completely change the air in the room. Ridding room of the high moisture air from the night.

Cracking the window at night will help.

Dehumidifier all day does a good job them.

Thing about getting a dehumidifier, even the "silent" ones I find too noisey.

I'd need to get a strong rig and leave it in the hall between the bedroom and bathroom.

Are they strong enough to basically ensure all the air at the far end of the bedroom would be "treated", despite the unit itself essentially being in another room?

(with doors in between open, obviously).

Lumen

FWIW I've tried using my bathroom dehumidifier to defog single glazed windows in my bedroom and it didn't work, even on full blast for an hour. It works in my bathroom because the bathroom is so small.

I also tried leaving the bathroom door open and that did nothing.

This is a ventilation problem.

You could try cracking the other windows open and leaving the internal doors wide open. If you can a cross draught that will really help.

The minute you heat the appartment the hot moisture in the air from either the radiators or however you heat the appartment will rush to cling onto anything that is cold ..weather that be a wall or window....insulation is the only solution as far as I can see.you can try to balance the air in the room by releasing the heat by opening a window but that's just wasting heat.

loyatemu

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118271182#Comment_118271182

run the dehumidifier during the day to get the humidity down before you go to bed. It will increase again once you're in bed and breathing out moisture, but if the level is starting from a low base it will help - one person can only breathe out so much moisture in 8 hours.

Condensation is a combination of humidity in the air and cold surfaces (think breathing onto a mirror) so you need to a) keep the humidity down and b) try to prevent that end wall getting too cold by keeping the room warm overnight.

Also if your bed is up against that cold wall, consider moving it to another part of the room so your warm moist breath is not directly hitting that surface all night. And as others have said, crack the window open to allow drier air from outside into the room.

Emma2019

Wet clothes is a big one. If you dont have a drier to at least get the heavy wet off, consider a clothes horse in the same room as the dehumidifier, with the door closed if possible

Get another appartment !...looks like this won't be fixed soon .

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118288364#Comment_118288364

Que pasa.... ?

loyatemu

Dehumidifiers in Lidl today for €130 - just picked one up.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118295177#Comment_118295177

Know the brand/model?

I'd like to compare it to what amazon has on offer.

loyatemu

https://www.lidl.ie/p/happy-house-home-sweet-home/comfee-airdryer-16-dehumidifier/p18199

I had bought an Ecoair on Amazon a few weeks back but it was faulty when it arrived and had to send it back, then it was out of stock so went with the Lidl one - looks pretty much the same spec, it's sitting on my landing but not doing much as the humidity is <50% currently anyway (I've found Spring and Autumn are worse than Winter for condensation as the heating is on more often at this time of year which seems to dry the air out).