Can you leave a dehumidifier on 24/7

[BrainstormGreenNeedle]

I live in an old house that is not insulated in the loft. It can get cold easily.

I room has a damp problem. It's not very bad but still, it exists. I usually had my window open a lot but I don't know if that helped or not.

Recently I started using a dehumidifier. I closed the window and the bedroom door and for the past 2-3 days I am running it 24/7.

Already I definitely noticed a difference in the air quality. It seems much cleaner. The room smells better too.

Anyways I live at home with my aging mother who's in her 70s. She was walking by my room this morning and I left the door open by accident in my room. She found the machine running and that resulted in anger from her. Just spitting anger to me about running the machine, it's not good on the electricity and it's not good in case there's a fire, etc.

I think my plan was to run it 24/7 for the first week and then see if I can reduce usage and only use it at night time.

You can but it'll be very expensive.

Do you heat the house? IMO lack of adequate heating is reponsible for damp and condensation and you may as well spend the money on heat rather than running a dehumidifier.

Yes, you can run one 24/7. Mine has a nozzle where you can attach a pipe so that you don't need to keep emptying the tank, but you do need somewhere for it to drain to.

You should also be able to set the required humidity and it will automatically turn itself off when it reaches that level.

Leave it on all day for a few days. Get it down to a good level %

And then have it on for a bit each morning / evening. You won’t need it on 24/7 if you heat your home and open your windows a little bit each day.

You might need it on for longer during periods of drizzle or rain. Or even just low misty cloud.

And sometimes too low humidity can cause your nose and throat to get scratchy.

You need a good balance

I am not at home in the evenings so I don't know if the house is getting heated at all. I presume the heat goes on for an hour or two in the evenings but I don't know. Weekends, I do a fire.

Does it have the option to set the humidity level? I can set mine to eg 60% and leave it turned on all day but it will only actually run if the humidity level drops to below that. I suppose it’s on standby.

I already noticed a difference on my bedroom window over the past two mornings. The window is so much more clearer and hardly any condensation. I do have a tub of kitty litter on the window sill to soak up any moisture but I had that there last week too before the dehumidifier and there was still some moisture on the window. I think the two methods are working well.

No it doesn't have any settings or humidity level.

What will be the best thing to do when I leave for work?

Will I leave it on with the window closed?
Or turn it off and leave the window closed?
Or leave it off with the window a little open?

Drier air costs less to heat.

My mother has a clothes horse in the hall for drying clothes and I would love to leave the dehumidifier on 24/7 in the hall but she hates the machine.

If you are running it then you need to keep the window shut.

Ours costs far far less to run most of the time than having the heating on even for a short while.

I used to live in a place that was so damp the tank filled every day. We kept the dehumifier running every day.

However, it was my electricity bill and my choice. I suggest you work out exactly how much it costs to run each day, and give your mother that money.

I leave mine running 24/7, window closed. I did this after seeing someone else do it. Otherwise I feel like my clothes would never dry (they hang in this room).

I would also say - why is your mum spitting anger at you? Sounds a bit over the top - are you happy in this housing arrangement?

This is less true with an old and uninsulated house (ask me how I know…) It can be practically impossible to get the rooms warm enough to “dry out”

Yep was going to say this.

Running a dehumidifier in one room all the time costs a hell of a lot less than running the central heating.

I leave mine running 24/7. Never had an issue with it. I also dry clothes in that room.

We leave ours going through the winter (from about Oct to April) but it is the sensor type so it isn't "on" all the time. It fills up noticeably faster when the outside humidity is high (ours is in the hall so there are doors opening and closing) but the house does stay dryer for it. I did work out the running cost when we got it and it wasn't too bad, worth it for us.

I leave one running 24/7 in the room that has my clothes drying, not noticed it be particularly expensive. I also have one in my bedroom that I run all the time I am not in bed. Basement accommodation in a cold, wet location so I do worry about damp and mould.

OP I am just trying this - it may be a compromise to have this in your room all the time and then run the dehumidifier when
you are in there. My mum is also of the “switch sockets off at night” generation so y

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I've got moisture traps dotted around but they don't pull the moisture out of the atmosphere so not much use really. I could do with keeping mine on 24/7 but I'm so worried about the costs involved.

I tried them last winter and to be honest I didn't really like them. I currently have a tub of cat litter on the window sill and it's supposed to do the same thing.

What do you think I can do with my room and window when I go to work.

The weather app says humidity has been 94/95/96/97 for the past few days. My understanding is that if I open the window, the open window will let that in. I do usually like having an open window.

For the past few days I am definitely seeing a benefit to closing the window and running the dehumidifier.

I don't like closing the window and not having the dehumidifier running. I usually come back to a poor smell in my room that way.

So it's either leave the window open or close it and run the dehumidifier.

I'm kinda liking the second option. When I leave home I have to lock my bedroom or my mother is usually in there snooping and taking. So if I was to leave a machine running, she won't know. Unless if she hears it from the hall. But generally it's a low level humming sound.

Where does she think the moisture from the clothes goes ?

I really struggle with the MN obsession with heated airers. Why pump water into your house with all sorts of risks of mould and damp air, when you can dry the air out, any clothes with it, and make it easier to heat ?