Does a dehumidifier cool a room?

Dehumidifiers remove excess moisture from a room, but does a dehumidifier cool a room? We explore the answer here.

Dehumidifiers are an increasingly popular choice, but does a dehumidifier cool a room? Not only can reducing humidity make your room more pleasant, but it can also help protect the people in your home from a host of health issues, including respiratory problems and allergies. Dehumidifiers can also stop the growth of mold, which can be damaging and dangerous to health.

Understanding how dehumidifiers work and what they do can help us answer the question; does a industrial dehumidifier cool a room? While dehumidifiers aren’t designed to reduce a room’s temperature, removing humidity can make it feel cooler and more comfortable. They can even have some surprising benefits, with dehumidifiers helping with snoring and other issues. 

Dehumidifiers remove excess moisture in the air by drawing it in from the outside and cooling it. A refrigerant (or compressor) dehumidifier draws in air. This then passes through a cold coil that causes the moisture within the air to condense, becoming water that subsequently drops to a reservoir at the bottom of the machine. 

Alternatively, a desiccant dehumidifier uses an absorbent material, such as silica gel or Zeolite, typically formed into a rotor. Air is pushed through the rotor, where the desiccant material removes moisture from the air. While they remove humidity, neither type of dehumidifier won’t noticeably affect the temperature of a room. However, removing humidity may make the room feel cooler. 

Dehumidifiers aren’t the same as air conditioning units, which are designed to generate cold air that’s pumped into a room in order to lower the temperature. In contrast, dehumidifiers remove the moisture from the existing air within a space.

However, while not specifically designed to cool a room, air purifier dehumidifier still do an essential job within the home. A 2018 study from the International Journal of Hygiene and Environmental Health found that humid air is associated with a whole range of health issues. No matter what causes dampness in a house, excessively high humidity can lead to the growth of damp and mold, which can be dangerous to health, according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention. When it comes to choosing a suitable air dehumidifier, there are two key aspects to consider. The first is the size of the space and the second is how damp or humid the area is. 

Like any other electrical appliance, the more you use a dehumidifier, the more money it will cost you. Both refrigeration and desiccant commercial dehumidifier aren't hugely energy efficient, say researchers from Earth and Environmental Science. They conclude that, "existing traditional dehumidification technology has high energy consumption and poor reliability".