Dehumidifier with a Humidistat
 

I have learned a lot of good things on this site, one of which is the use of a humidistat on your air conditioner to control humidity, especially when you are away from home for long periods. Before reading about them on this site, I had never heard of a humidistat, and now that I've done some Googling on the subject, I think I understand how they work and what they do. Now I'm wondering if anyone has tried hooking up a humidistat to a dehumidifier instead of the A/C in TV. Here in the northcountry I have a dehumidifier in my basement which does a great job of removing excess moisture from the air. And my research on humidistats mentioned using them to control both humidifiers and dehumidifiers. I'm just wondering if a dehumidifier hooked up to a humidistat would be a workable solution for limiting humidity in Central Florida homes, and if anyone has tried it. It's seems to me that it would be a lot cheaper to run a dehumidifier than the A/C while you are away.

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Most, if not all dehumidifiers have a built-in humidistat that turns the unit off when the air is sufficiently dry. I think that a decent sized dehumidifier (about 40 or 50 pints per day) would be more than adequate to keep the humidity down in a house that's vacant, as long as the windows are closed. The problem would be in its location. Since you need a drain, the shower would be about the only place you could put it, but air circulation may not be adequate to dry the whole house. The bathroom air would dry quickly and the dehumidifier would probably turn off before the air in the rest of the house is dry enough.

Thanks for the reply. I know my dehumidifier has settings, so I guess they set the level at which the humidistat turns it on and off. Your point about using the bath drain is a good one. I guess you could elevate the dehumidifier elsewhere in the house and run a hose to the bathroom, but that could be a problem too, depending on how it was elevated. Running the A/C for a few weeks while nobody's home seems like a big waste of energy, not to mention the cost.

I had thought about elevating it and using the kitchen sink. But, the one we have in our house in Indiana seems to want to move around and that could lead to disaster if it were on the kitchen counter. Maybe some compromise like setting the thermostat at about 85 and running the dehumidifier in the bathroom would be OK.