My backyard leads to a large freshwater river out back.
This river stretches for miles before it finally reaches the ocean. The little lake house is located in a swamp essentially, so naturally we have lots of snakes and horrible alligators. Some of our neighbors purposefully avoid buying small dogs and cats as pets because of the danger with the alligators. Honestly, there are other things about this region that I dislike more than the dangerous wildlife all around. Aside from the ridiculous high un-even temperatures during August and September, it’s also humid to the degree that the air feels sticky when you’re outdoors. Many local others such as myself and others cannot deal with this humidity when it gets indoors. So many river dwellers are complacent with toxic mold in their houses, but not I. Not only do I tend to run our air conditioner consistently, but I have been using an additional, supplemental dehumidifier for years. Thankfully our bathroom has a floor drain so I easily can run the drain hose from the back of the dehumidifier onto the tiled bathroom floor. The unit plugs into the wall and pulls out 75 pints of water every 24 hours, which makes a huge difference on indoor humidity. But when our central Heating, Ventilation and A/C contractor told myself and others about a whole-lake house dehumidifier that easily links to our HVAC duct, I was intrigued. This amazing addition pulls additional moisture out of your indoor air as it recirculates through the heating and cooling system as usual. Best of all, I can turn off the air conditioner but leave the fan running inside the air handler running. This effectively turns our air conditioner into a brand new central dehumidifier without burning the electricity needed to cool the indoor air simultaneously.