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Has anyone used a dehumidifier on their boat?


ALAN DENMAN

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 Hi someone gave me a gift of a very good dehumidifier when I first bought my boat. I have never tried it because I was concerned about its electricity usage as I am a constant cruiser. It says its output is 180 Watts,  would this be a very large draw on my batteries? And  anyone else used a dehumidifier on their boat? 

Edited by ALAN DENMAN
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180 watts will draw about 18 amps from your battery, which will quickly flatten your batteries unless the engine is run.

So I would only use it whilst cruising or when you can hook up to a land line.

If you live on your boat though, I don't understand why you would need a dehumidifier. I have always found that that using the stove (coal, wood or oil drip fed) keeps humidity at bay.

I am not a cc'er and use a dehumidifier in winter to keep the boat dry whilst it is connected to a land line.

EDIT

Misread humidifier as dehumidifier. As already recommended if you want to increase humidity leave a bowl of water lying around.

Edited by cuthound
Not reading original post properly
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I'm still finding my way through the wonderful world of electrics, but:-

        if it's 12v that's 15Ah, which would get a full capacity 110Ah battery to 50% DoD in about 4 hours;

        if it's 240v, that's about 18Ah, allowing for the inverter, which gets the 110Ah to 50% in 3 hours;

        if you're plugged into a shore-line then the batteries should be unaffected.

More knowledgeable others will be along later or, more accurately, before me!!

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5 minutes ago, Col_T said:

I'm still finding my way through the wonderful world of electrics, but:-

        if it's 12v that's 15Ah, which would get a full capacity 110Ah battery to 50% DoD in about 4 hours;

        if it's 240v, that's about 18Ah, allowing for the inverter, which gets the 110Ah to 50% in 3 hours;

        if you're plugged into a shore-line then the batteries should be unaffected.

More knowledgeable others will be along later or, more accurately, before me!!

Looks like you are currently lost!

180w is around 15A at 12v, perhaps 18A taking into account inverter losses. Well at 90% efficiency it's 16.6A but 18A is a good rule of thumb. So about 3 hours to 50% DoD for a 110AH battery

and no before you protest, that's not what you said!

Anyway I don't think it's a good idea to run a dehumidifier in the winter unless on shore power. If you are a live-aboard with a stove or other decent heating system, you shouldn't need a dehumidifier anyway because the outside air, when heated to room temperature, will have a pretty low relative humidity already.

dehumidifiers are good for unheated / unoccupied boats on shore power.

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Agreed, don't run one unless on shore power as they are power hungry...

A luxury which I do run in winter even though I have a decent heating system and a stove - amazing how much moisture you get just from actually living onboard.

Edited by Paringa
Change of word from condensation to moisture
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3 hours ago, Paringa said:

Agreed, don't run one unless on shore power as they are power hungry...

A luxury which I do run in winter even though I have a decent heating system and a stove - amazing how much moisture you get just from actually living onboard.

You do obviously create moisture from just being on board. However one should bear in mind that a modest amount of ventilation will expel some warm moist air and introduce cold and probably moist air. But when the cold moist air is heated to room temperature, the relative humidity drops right off as it heats, probably to below the point where a dehumidifier will remove any more. Except perhaps at night in the bedroom whenthe temperature falls and there is a lot of heavy breathing.

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I cant see the point of a de-hum on your average boat for any number of reasons.

Adequate heating and ventilation should do the trick.

If both are in place and you're still 'damp' a dehumidifier wont fix the problem.

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For a liveaboard boat in constant use I can understand a dehumidifier may not be required .

But for boats that are used only at weekends, and possibly even just visited an not moved,  a dehumidifier does have a benefit . The possible downside being 240V mains power required.

Desiccant type dehumidifiers are possibly best choice as they are able to work at slightly lower temperatures than the compressor type. 

I have used moisture traps for some years over the winter and only last winter bought a desiccant dehumidifier. The relatively mild winter conditions seeming to promote condensation that the moisture traps could not control.

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