Over on my previously article about “What temperature do you set your air conditioner to” someone asked me the following question:

Can someone in the know please tell me how to combat high humidity in the home. It is Jan 2011 with all this rain and humidity here in Melbourne the tiled floor in the home and the painted garage floors have taken on a film of dampness and I’m worried about it being a slipping hazard let alone any other damage that all this dampness can cause. Obviously running my evaporative AC system would increase the problem, any solutions would be appreciated.

I reckon that the best bet for removing humidity from a house that doesn’t have a dehumidifier built into the air conditioner would be a separate dehumidifier. They recommend dehumidifiers for basements here in Canada, but they also work well in other humid environments.

Dehumidifiers are available in various sizes:

• single room units
• apartment size units
• small home units
• large home units

I found a few places in Australia that sell dehumidifiers with prices ranging from $120 for a unit for a closet to $1200 for a unit for a large house (140 square metres):

• Moisture Cure
• Stretch Now
• Damp Solutions Australia

The dehumidifiers are available as portable units and as whole-house dehumidifiers depending on your needs. The portable units are easy to use since they don’t need to be installed by a contractor, but you need to be aware of the size of it as some are not as portable as the name would suggest. The whole house units generally need to be installed by a specialist contractor.