Tho owners manual is of no help. The a/c has 4 modes of operation: Normal, money saver, fan, and dry.
By dry do the mean dehumidify or is it for air conditioning in dry (desert like) conditions?
An A/C is going to automatically dehumidify by the very nature of how it works. Some A/Cs have humidifiers as an addition to the unit. If yours has a humidifier, then maybe dry mode shuts it off.
Dont some Air unites create condensation? Maybe this will stop that from happening
If the a/c is cooling, condensation is going to happen. I’m with hajaro, the ‘dry’ setting turns off the humidifier. If there is no humidifier, it does nothing.
Is this a central system? If so, it is highly unlikely that that there is a humidifier associated with the A/C system. (I’ve never seen one)
If this a residential air conditioner it will, by design, try to maintain [around] 50% RH. A typical home would never need to subsequently add to humidity to a home where the A/C system workled to remove it. (as you noted, it is the principal job of an A/C system to dehumidify.)
I’m guessing that this is a window unit. If so, my guess is that “dry” uses a lower fan setting. This has the effect of longer run times and more dehumification before reaching the desired setpoint.
All air conditioners produce condensation. This will be relative to the humidity in the air, water vapor (humidity) that will condense to water (condensation) as it passes over your cold evaporator coil. (in your furnace)
So, a humid city like Chicago may produce more condensation than an arrid city like Las Vegas.
In any event, all [resindential] A/C systems will remove humidity, and thereby create condensation.
Although, oddly enough, the air that has just gone through the AC has a higher relative humidity than the air entering it. The AC cools the air, and if in doing so it takes the air below its dew point the AC also removes water. But since relative humidity strongly depends on temperature, the air has a higher relative humidity as it flows through the cold coil. That’s why the water is condensing out.
That “dry” control could mean something else.
Generally speaking, the way to make an air conditioner keep your room at 68 F while consuming the least electricity is to move a large volume of air through the AC and not make that air get much below 68 F. However, this means the relative humidity in the room will be high. If the AC could move all the room air through quickly and keep it right at 68, the room would actually stay at 100% RH, as long as the dew point outside the room was above 68 F (meaning as long as the outdoor air would be saturated at a temperature above 68 F).
If you wanted to make the room drier, you’d reduce the flow through the AC and cool the air to a lower temperature, say 50 F, which of course is at 100% RH at that temp. This would condense more water out of it. Then the air would be warmed by the walls of the room, and its RH would drop as it warmed up. An extreme example of this is infiltraiton of outdoor air in the winter, which is why houses get so dry in the winter. But this approach to air conditioning would also lower the energy efficiency, which may be worth doing if you mind the high humidity.
So, maybe the “dry” setting combines a lower temperature and a lower air flow.
I agree.
A lower fan speed will reduce total CFM, and produce lower discharge air temperatures. At roughly 50% RH the typical A/C system will produce an evaporator delta of around 20°----75° return air, and 55° supply air.
If you reduce the airflow via a lower fan speed, the discharge temperature will fall as the compressor is a single speed pump. (most of them anyway) The result is lower discharge air temperatures—around 50° or sometimes lower.
The result, however, is still longer run times to reach a desired setpoint. Many newer higher end digital thermostats read both temperature and humidity and will reduce air flow (with the resulting lower CFM, discharge air temp and longer run time) to lower humidity rather that reaching [temerature] setpoint [prematurely] with slightly higher humidity.
Based on my experience with digital thermostats and advanced [residential] air handlers/furnaces, I still would guess that “dry” is a lower CFM strategy. (for the reasons we’ve both outlned)
Most A/C units have 3 or 4 speed motors. Only 2 are ever used–low or medium low for heating purposes, and high speed for air conditioning.
In a window unit (which mostly only cool) it is factory wired for high speed in the cooling mode. The same is true of air handlers and furnaces; they are factory wired for high speed in cooling. The other motor leads for the other speeds (which won’t be used) are “parked” on “dumb terminals.” That means that leads can be switched if needed. (for various reasons)
If this “dry” setting is a low CFM strategy, one of the lower speed leads is not on a dumb terminal but a terminal that can be switched “on.”
So…setting to “dry” may disable the motor lead that goes to the high speed windings, and energize the terminal that has the motor lead serving the low or medium speed.
Try it. You may notice than in the nomal setting there is a certain amount of airflow, and with the dry setting a discernably lower amount of airflow. (that you can both feel and hear)
Nevermind.