Dehumidifier overkill?

I lived full time in my trailer by myself. I bought a 25 pint unit from Lowe's. I had to empty it 2 times a day, which was about 10 pints each time. When I took daily showers I opened and ran the bathroom exhaust fan. I didn't cook, except for the microwave, so didn't create much moisture by cooking meals. Moisture did collect on the bedroom windows at night while I slept but cleared up as the day went on. A person exhales up to 3 pints of water vapor while sleeping not to mention what is lost through the skin. The dehumidifier did not run constantly, but will shut off when the reservoir fills. You can connect a hose to some. I never did but was thinking about running a piece of tubing through the floor under the sink next to the low point drain lines, but would need to insulate it so it wouldn't plug with ice. But I could handle dumping it a couple times a day into the kitchen sink or tub.

I realize this thread is addressing long term solutions to humidity control inside an RV, but when caught unexpectedly short term in high humidity situations ... here's what we had to do once in moderate outside temperatures while camping on hookups: We ran the the air conditioner to remove the humidity, and at the same time ran the propane furnace to keep from freezing inside the coach. It worked well as a temporary solution.

I have a dumb question and I swear I'm not trolling.

Coming from the arid west, I don't understand what the issue is. I know from experience that I hate humidity combined with heat (yes, I'm talking to you Florida and Texas), but I don't understand the issue in the winter when it's cold.

We have condensation on our windows sometimes in the morning, but it always goes away once we get up and warm the place up.

How is the humidity affecting you all so much that you need dehumidifiers? What are the symptoms of heavy humidity in your RVs?

dedmiston wrote:
I have a dumb question and I swear I'm not trolling.

Coming from the arid west, I don't understand what the issue is. I know from experience that I hate humidity combined with heat (yes, I'm talking to you Florida and Texas), but I don't understand the issue in the winter when it's cold.

We have condensation on our windows sometimes in the morning, but it always goes away once we get up and warm the place up.

How is the humidity affecting you all so much that you need dehumidifiers? What are the symptoms of heavy humidity in your RVs?

first symptom is fogged windows. If you are in an area with moderate relative humidity, the window fogging may not be an issue. It may go away rather quickly once the inside temp rises. But get to a place where outside humidity is near 100% in the winter coupled with what humans add to the atmosphere inside and any use of stove/oven, and it becomes more than fogged windows, heavy fog on the windows, water at the bottom of the window. And it hangs around a long time, even all day without either ventilation or a dehumidifier. That's when our dehumidifier comes out.

We have places we go where it can get below freezing at night and no window fogging, very low RH, other places where it's in the 50's at night and we have condensation problems.

ktmrfs wrote:

dedmiston wrote:
I have a dumb question and I swear I'm not trolling.

Coming from the arid west, I don't understand what the issue is. I know from experience that I hate humidity combined with heat (yes, I'm talking to you Florida and Texas), but I don't understand the issue in the winter when it's cold.

We have condensation on our windows sometimes in the morning, but it always goes away once we get up and warm the place up.

How is the humidity affecting you all so much that you need dehumidifiers? What are the symptoms of heavy humidity in your RVs?

first symptom is fogged windows. If you are in an area with moderate relative humidity, the window fogging may not be an issue. It may go away rather quickly once the inside temp rises. But get to a place where outside humidity is near 100% in the winter coupled with what humans add to the atmosphere inside and any use of stove/oven, and it becomes more than fogged windows, heavy fog on the windows, water at the bottom of the window. And it hangs around a long time, even all day without either ventilation or a dehumidifier. That's when our dehumidifier comes out.

We have places we go where it can get below freezing at night and no window fogging, very low RH, other places where it's in the 50's at night and we have condensation problems.

Fog on the inside windows even if it hangs around all day is not a big issue in cold outdoor temps. With single pane windows it IS to be expected and will happen anytime the outside temps are colder than the inside temps and you have high enough humidity inside to condense.

What does become a problem is if the humidity level inside is so great that the ceiling and walls start condensing the moisture, then you have an issue.

I would recommend getting a indoor thermometer with humidity reading before applying a dehumidifier.

Cold air naturally cannot hold as much moisture as hot air does and in the winter it gets very difficult to keep ENOUGH moisture in your indoors.



HERE for $7

Generally you want 35%-45% RH indoors. Too little (under 35%) and you dry out your sinuses, dust (dust mites) gets airborne faster also and plain does not feel comfortable.

Too much humidity (over 45%) and now mold growth becomes a real issue, sinuses can have issues and you get a sickly too hot/smothered feeling..

35%-45% humidity WILL show up on single pane windows as fog or even condensation beads..

Now if you are talking doublepane windows condensing then you may have a problem to be concerned about.

Burning LP creates even more condensation.
Our sweat problem was so bad the walls would sweat and drip especially when temps went to single digit....wife was cooking especially where heating water for cooking purposes was required....or a quick shower.
The really bad part was closet walls stayed wet and I had to keep the bedroom mattress pulled away from the walls or it stayed soaked around the edges.

My above reply describes the trailer. I would add it had 12 windows plus the door and was a aluminum framed sidewalls/roof trusses.
Two dehumidifiers cured the sweating walls/wet closets. I made inside storm windows from 1/8" Lexan plus installed mobile home skirting.

A better insulated model with fewer/smaller size windows would have worked better.

JIMNLIN wrote:
Burning LP creates even more condensation.
Our sweat problem was so bad the walls would sweat and drip especially when temps went to single digit....wife was cooking especially where heating water for cooking purposes was required....or a quick shower.
The really bad part was closet walls stayed wet and I had to keep the bedroom mattress pulled away from the walls or it stayed soaked around the edges.

My above reply describes the trailer. I would add it had 12 windows plus the door and was a aluminum framed sidewalls/roof trusses.
Two dehumidifiers cured the sweating walls/wet closets. I made inside storm windows from 1/8" Lexan plus installed mobile home skirting.

A better insulated model with fewer/smaller size windows would have worked better.

yes, the stove/oven will put almost 1 gallon of water in the air for every gallon of propane burned. Add to that the moisture in anything your cooking.

Now the HWH and furnace are not an issue for moisture since the combustion products are vented outside.

As far as monitoring humidity level, the dehumidifier I purchased could be set to shut off when the percentage level was reached. It could be set as low as 35%. It also had a setting for fan speed.

ktmrfs wrote:

JIMNLIN wrote:
Burning LP creates even more condensation.
Our sweat problem was so bad the walls would sweat and drip especially when temps went to single digit....wife was cooking especially where heating water for cooking purposes was required....or a quick shower.
The really bad part was closet walls stayed wet and I had to keep the bedroom mattress pulled away from the walls or it stayed soaked around the edges.

My above reply describes the trailer. I would add it had 12 windows plus the door and was a aluminum framed sidewalls/roof trusses.
Two dehumidifiers cured the sweating walls/wet closets. I made inside storm windows from 1/8" Lexan plus installed mobile home skirting.

A better insulated model with fewer/smaller size windows would have worked better.

yes, the stove/oven will put almost 1 gallon of water in the air for every gallon of propane burned. Add to that the moisture in anything your cooking.

Now the HWH and furnace are not an issue for moisture since the combustion products are vented outside.

I assume all RVs have the same setup ours does - an exhuast fan for the cooktop and oven that vents to the outside. Just turn it on while cooking or baking, which keeps excess moisture from either process pretty much out of the interior.

When showering, we also keep the shower ceiling fan turned on so as to keep moisture from the showering to a minimum.

I let the windows sweat. If the walls are wet, get the dehumidifier if a bit of venting will not help.
Especially use the bathroom and kitchen vent when hot water is involved.