I have difficulty falling asleep at night because of the high humidity. My apartment has no central HVAC and running my bedroom’s AC is noisy and can run cold air over my throat which leaves me sore. Running an AC outside my bedroom is only partly effective enough in lowering humidity.
Can you tell me about dehumidifers? How quiet are they?
Are there other means of reducing or dealing with high humidity when trying to sleep?
Dehumidifiers will reduce the humidity but also increase the temperature. Probably not what you want.
Can’t you run the bedroom AC at a lower power? Or point the output away from the bed?
Also, where are you? The type of appliances available are different for every country.
Canada. It’s not like I have to deal with high heat and humidity most of the year but I’d like this August not to be too sucky.
The AC is still rather noisy when running at the slowest setting. Trying to point the output away doesn’t work all that well.
I guess there’s no such thing as a giant dessicant pack that will suck the humidity out of the room and into a receptable?
Turn off the AC, open the windows, turn on some fans, and take a cold shower just before bedtime.
If you don’t want to use the AC, a good fan (along with open windows) may at least help you feel more comfortable, by helping your perspiration to evaporate.
As far as I know, there isn’t such a thing as the desiccant pack you describe (at least, not to reduce humidity in a room in the way you want).
Besides the A/C option a fan blowing on me really helps in those conditions. If you have a forced how air system you might try turning on the fan to the furnace. This will circulate air inside the house which may help balance humidity and temperature. Finally with your a/c sensitivity, perhaps running it outside your room WITH a fan exchanging air blowing the cooler drier air into your room may help.
Another thought turn on the A/C during the day, not only cooling the air but also drying it. I would suggest running it for the day, as it will pull moisture from the surroundings such as walls, mattress, furniture which takes time but will lead to a dryer enviroment. Even if you have to sleep with it off the air may be cooler and dryer for much of the night - unlike other options this one would require you to seal up your room and prevent air circulation.
You mentioned a dehumidifier, well that is a a/c, so the same noise of a compressor running, just it doesn’t cool, it heats instead (this is the practical answer) . It can make it more comfortable, but again warmer.
Move your bed to where it’s not blowing right on you. Temporarily camp out in the living room. There is really no cure for humidity except a/c. If you open windows and have fans you will be bringing in the night moisture it would be worse.IMO. Pray for autumn.
Opening the windows is one of the worst things you can do. It just lets in all that heat and humidity. You should keep them closed – day and night when it’s really humid out. Keep your curtains and blinds shut as well. Yeah, it won’t be all that fun, but it’ll keep things cool. Run the AC all day as much as you can stand, and if you don’t like running it at night, blast your fans.
(Now, I can sleep through I war, but I still sympathize, because I remember what it was like growing up without AC. So hang in there. Pittsburgh is fucking hell in the summer. My sister and I would put our mattresses down in the living room all summer long when we were growing up – do you have an air mattress that you could use?)
If you don’t want to run it at night, I’d suggest shutting the doors to your bedroom and running the AC before you go to bed. Long enough that when you do go to bed, it says dry and cool for long enough for you to fall asleep. Without knowing anything about your room or your AC situation, I’d guess at least an hour.
If won’t take long to figure out how long it needs, and then you’ll get in the habit of turning it on at the same time each night.
It it has the ability to cycle itself on and off based on the temp of the room, you could turn it on earlier, let it run longer and it would do a better job as long as the door is closed. In that case, you’ll be able to bring the humidity down further while not bring the temperature down to 50.
If this is a window AC or a portable unit with an exhaust tube that goes out a window, make sure it’s sealed up, otherwise some of that humidity is just coming right back in.
Portable dehumidifiers work well, but they put out a fair amount of heat. They pull in humid air and push out warm, dry air. The dry air would mean your sweat would cool you off better, but the added heat might make you more uncomfortable. I’m not sure which would win out. It’s an interesting thermodynamics question.
If you’re considering buying something, buy a portable AC. Similar in size to a portable dehumidifier, it’s a standlone AC that you position in your room and put a hose out the window where the hot air escapes. That way you could cool the room and not have the air blow over you.
Another option might be to point a fan at the window AC. This may cause the cooled air from the AC to disburse evenly throughout the room rather than come out in a stream which blows over your face.
When I had my first summer here in my house, with my first miserable humid night, I went to the basement and dragged up the 200lb (possibly exaggerated. It was hot) dehumidifier. It did NOT help the situation. As others said it merely filled my bedroom with hot air.
So don’t do that.