Whole House Humidifier or Dehumidifier - GA (Air Conditioner, heating, installing)

[blakeas]

Wondering if anyone as advice about installing one of these. Since I live in the south (atlanta, ga) - would i Need a humidifier or dehumidifier?

[scuba steve]

Dehumidifier, if your air conditioner isn't capable of handling it on its own. For example, it's oversized and doesn't run long enough to pull the moisture out of the air before the air is cooled down.

[K'ledgeBldr]

As far as additional equipment- just a humidifier.
I prefer the units that are "hard-piped" into the forced air system. As I have mentioned in a previous post-
http://www.city-data.com/forum/17409113-post2.html
Since everyone has A/C in ATL and runs it from Apr. to Oct. (the humidity season), that's your dehumidifier.
Humidifiers are great for the heating season- it's generally tends to alleviate static shock and can also decrease your heating demand- warm moist air tends to feel warming to the skin.

[spacelord75]

I would tend to agree with K'ledgeBldr...I live in Atlanta and last Fall I was curious about humidity levels in various parts of my house (especially my crawl space since I had just had it encapsulated) bought one of those simple thermometer/humidistat digital devices and kept in different rooms of our house all winter...wow, I was shocked at how dry it was. During the worst part of winter, we were at 16% humidity consistently and you could really feel it! Even running one of those little cheap humidifiers in the same room, the humidity only rose to around 22% max. I am curious to see how it is during the summer months with the A/C running, but like others have said, that acts as your dehumidifier. Right now my house humidity is sitting at 35-40%.