Hey, there. Michael Church with CrawlSpace Ninja.
I got Brian here from Aprilaire again.
He's sitting down with me.
Today, we're going to be talking about how
humidity affects temperature, and also, how
much does it cost to run a dehumidifier, so
stay tuned.
Okay, Brian, first of all, I want to say I
like your, I don't know if that's on camera,
but that's a wonderful Crawl Space Ninja mug,
and you know, we're going to let you take
that with you.
Uh oh.
He needs to be dehumidified.
He's got some water on his shirt.
Anyway.
Let's get into our subject.
We're going to talk about, you know, I read
on your website, and it's a great website,
by the way.
Aprilaire.com. Is that right?
Yep. Aprilaire.com.
Now, of course, you can't purchase from the
website.
That's correct.
You will be sent to dealers or distributors
in their area, but why would you want to purchase
anywhere but CrawlSpaceNinja.com?
I have no idea.
But anyway.
We want to talk about a little bit about how
the humidity affects how I feel.
Sure.
Okay?
And not emotionally how I feel, but temperature-wise
how I feel.
So can you share that with us?
Absolutely.
When the humidity's in the air, we call that
a latent load.
So that's, basically, latent means hidden.
That's the hidden part of what's going on
inside of your house.
When you have moisture, it's a lot more uncomfortable.
The analogy I like to use is if you've ever
been to Phoenix, Arizona, or Palm Springs
in California, you'll notice that it can be
100 degrees outside and you can be out on
the golf course or swimming and it's extremely
comfortable because when you don't have that
extra moisture or humidity in the air, your
body's very efficient at evaporating and cooling
yourself.
But when you add all that extra moisture and
extra humidity, it becomes uncomfortable.
In essence, it feels like it's hotter and
more miserable than it actually is.
That's a good point.
That's a good point.
I use the opposite from whenever it's cold
here in Knoxville, it can be 30 degrees outside
or just under freezing, and then it feels
super cold.
It's like what we call bone-chilling cold,
but I had the pleasure to go out to Colorado
and stay a few days, and it was like negative
12 degrees and, don't get me wrong, it was
cold, but it didn't feel cold.
It was just amazing the temperature difference
and how humidity affect, you know, a 20% relative
humidity in Colorado versus and 80% relative
humidity here in Knoxville.
So that was a wonderful analogy.
You know, Michael, that's why you ever hear
the weather guy on TV when they tell you,
"Hey, it's 80 degrees outside, but it feels
like 88?"
That's why they tell you that.
That's the heat index.
It's the role the humidity plays on making
it feel hotter than it actually is.
That's great.
I hope that helps.
The other thing we want to talk about is I
get a question all the time.
Well, if I install the dehumidifier, how much
is that going to cost me every month on my
utility bills?
Do you mind sharing with that a little bit?
Absolutely.
So, obviously, depending on your kilowatt-hour
rate and your different jurisdictions, that
can change, but from what we found of a seasonal
average is when a person runs a dehumidifier,
it's going to be about a $10 to $15 cost per
month from what we've seen empirically for
a dehumidifier.
However, there's some benefits that now you
can raise your thermostat up.
So let's say you had it at 68 degrees in the
summer before your dehumidifier.
If you raise it up to, say, 74, it's a rule
of thumb that for every degree that you raise
your temperature, it's a 1% savings on your
energy bill.
So that's a 6% savings monthly that will offset
that $10 to $15.
So again, having a dehumidifier and having
that comfort and healthy area, now, is not
really going to cost you that much money month
over month.
That's right.
And $10 to $15 a month versus having a mold
problem inside your house is also-
Pretty expensive.
... a great benefit.
So we obviously don't want because a lot of
people forget ... The only reason why we fix
crawl spaces, ultimately, is because of structural
issues or to protect the home from structural
issues or to protect indoor air quality inside
of the home since 50% of the air in the crawl space
makes its way into the living space.
So if you can control humidity down there
and create a better indoor air quality environment,
there's hidden benefits there that could save
you hundreds if not thousands of dollars every
year.
The other thing that I'd like to ask you about
is, you know, is it also true that the AC
runs more efficient when the house humidity
is lower?
Is that also correct?
Absolutely because before we were talking
about the latent versus sensible loads.
Again, sensible is the straight temperature.
That's the temperature of dry air.
Latent is what happens when you have that
humidity in there.
It's much more difficult for an HVAC system
to cool because, guys, first it has to remove
that moisture from the air and then the temperature
is brought down.
Whereas when you have a drier air going into
the HVAC system, it's much easier and takes
less energy to just reduce that temperature.
That's right.
So that's another energy savings benefit.
That's correct.
Of course, the Aprilaire 1820, 1830, and 1850,
which we offer on the DIY page, they're all
Energy Star rated, so they're running at maximum
efficiency already.
Is that correct?
Yes.
The 1820 and 1830 are Energy Star rated.
The 1850 is not.
Oh.
Well, there you go.
I didn't know that.
However, again, we always talk about the energy
factor.
It's still designed to optimize and run efficiently,
so we always like to compare it to the Energy
Star portable that you might see at your big
box store.
From the research and data we've gathered,
you're going to save about $189 if you're
running our dehumidifiers when you compare
it to your typical portable because it's going
to run optimized.
It's going to run longer cycles, and it's
not going to have nearly the number of hard
compressor starts that you would get from
a big box store dehumidifier.
That's great.
So you're still going to get that energy savings
that you're looking for.
That's great.
Is that research you're talking about on your
website Aprilaire.com?
You can find it in all of our literature,
which again, you can find that on Aprilaire.com
as well.
Well, we'll put a link to that down below
so that way you got access to that.
Goes straight to the Aprilaire website or maybe I'll
even write a blog and kind of get that information
and put it on Crawl Space Ninja.
Anyway, really appreciate you coming, Brian,
and it's been a pleasure talking to you.
I hope you liked this video.
We're going to put some links down below to
all these topics.
We've already done a couple of other videos
about the different remotes and the comparisons
between the three Aprilaire models that we
offer on the DIY page.
We're going to put those links down below
as well.
My name is Michael Church with Brian Canfield
from Aprilaire.
We hope you make it a happy and blessed day
and thanks for watching.
We'll see you later.