How To Dehumidify A Room Without Electricity?

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Dehumidifying a home has to be one of those things that eat up your monthly income as it requires electricity, and this always adds to the bills on the counter.  Dehumidifying a room without using electricity is quite simple and way cheaper. It involves proper ventilation, the use of desiccants such as silica gel, the use of rechargeable dehumidifiers, baking soda, calcium chloride, drying your clothes with natural sources such as air drying them, or sun-drying them, and some other ways that will be discussed later on in this article.

You may be trying to cut down on your spending and looking into using dehumidifiers that don’t require electricity is a great idea. You have opened the right link as this article will show you different ways to dehumidify a room, helping you cut your budget for each month.

How To Dehumidify A Room Without Electricity?

Dehumidifiers have become important household equipment used in several homes today. They help to rid the air of moisture, making the air in your home dry and comfortable. Dehumidifiers also help to prevent illnesses that resort from the presence of excess humid air in a room.

Excess humidity in your home or space can lead to discomfort or even disfiguration of your home as molds tend to grow on the walls or the ceilings as a result. Excess humidity encourages the presence of harmful microbes or organisms as well as dust mites. Cohabiting with these organisms would eventually negatively affect your health, costing you your health, time, and money when you visit the doctor.

How To Dehumidify A Room Without Electricity

Health issues that arise from the presence of these organisms such as mold could include headaches, extreme tiredness, and some more. It is important to look out for signs of excess humidity in your home so you can avoid cohabiting with harmful organisms. The appropriate humidity level should be between 30%-50% and your humidity level can be checked using a home testing kit or a hygrometer

Signs That Your House Contain Excess Humidity

There are simple pointers that give away excess humidity in your home.

  • Water prints on the walls or ceiling: In cases like this, certain parts of the walls look like they have held water or still hold water underneath their paint or plaster.
  • Growth of mold: Molds begin to grow on walls or ceiling corners
  • Damp odors(musty): The room gives off a certain unpleasant smell of dampness.
  • Water-beaded or foggy windows: The windows have condensation on them. Your mirrors can’t escape this either.
  • Decomposing wood: If you have wood in the house, either stored for fire or it’s a part of the house, it starts to rot.

These few signs should give you a heads-up about the humidity level in your home.

Ways To Dehumidify A Room Without Electricity

There are different, yet simple ways by which you can dehumidify a room without the use of electricity.

Dehumidify A Room Without Electricity

Proper Ventilation

When you are buying a house, always make sure that each room has enough windows that are strategically placed to allow for cross ventilation. Having windows and doors is not enough to keep away excess humidity. You have to open them as often as possible too. The use of fans and extractors in excessively humid rooms is also a bright idea.

Avoid live Indoor Plants

It is advisable to avoid indoor plants as they give off humid air exchange, well, except they are plastic. If you have live indoor plants, swap them out with synthetic ones. This way, you get to keep a touch of nature indoors with you, however unreal. If you want live plants indoors, you can consider dehumidifying plants. They suck up moisture from the atmosphere.

The Use Of Calcium Chloride

Calcium chloride is a chemical compound that also serves as a dehumidifier. This powdered substance helps to suck up the moist air in the room. It is equally cheap and not toxic. Using this method requires regular monitoring and renewing as this is a temporary measure.

Dry Your Clothes Naturally

It would help to dry your clothes by putting them out in the sun or an open space with access to free-flowing fresh air. This is much better than using a dryer which contributes to a high level of humidity in a room by absorbing the moist air in the clothes and releasing it into the atmosphere. Sun-drying your clothes also helps you get rid of organisms that might be on your clothes. There are also condenser dryers which could serve as a better alternative than the dryer. This device keeps the moisture it gets in its internal storage space.

Spend Less Time In The Shower

If you sing in the bathroom, you should consider changing the location of your fantasy stage. The more time you run the shower, the more the humidity level of your bathroom increases. It is advisable to reduce the time you spend taking a shower as the bathroom is one of the most susceptible rooms to high humidity.

Fix Leaking Pipes

If you have water prints on your walls, then you most likely have a leaky pipe somewhere in the wall. Free-running water in the wall also plays a huge role in contributing to the humidity levels in a room. You should immediately resolve these leaking issues if you find your pipes guilty.

Carrying out regular checks on all pipes for leakages would do you more good than harm. This also goes for pipes that run under your house. These regular checks could save you the stress of trying to dehumidify the room.

Use Of Rechargeable dehumidifiers

These humidifiers are less expensive than electric humidifiers. They use batteries and less complicated mechanisms to function. Examples of affordable rechargeable dehumidifiers are Eva dry wireless dehumidifier, Afloia cordless rechargeable dehumidifier, and lockdown rechargeable dehumidifier among others. These humidifiers are not toxic and are pocket-friendly.

Rechargeable dehumidifiers

Solar Heater

This is a dehumidifier that requires solar energy to function. It is expensive but worth every penny you spend on it. This device sucks in fresh air from outside, warms it, dries it, and filters it before it sends the air into your house.

Frequently Asked Questions

How Do I Use Silica Gel To Dehumidify My Room?

The silica gel absorbs the moisture present in the air. It takes a few very simple steps to do this. All you have to do is put some silica gel in a bowl and place it in the affected corners of your room.

Likewise, you can put some silica gel in a jar, put the lid back on, and poke holes in the jar. All the work remains is to replace the gel every few weeks.

If your room is big, you can prepare more than one bowl or jar and place them at different strategic points in your room.

How Effective Is A Salt-based Dehumidifier?

A salt-based dehumidifier can only be effective in a small room or space like your closet. Rock salt (sodium chloride) or table salt is ideal for this process.

However, using a salt-based dehumidifier in a large room would not be cost-effective because that would mean getting enough of it to dehumidify a space. Only 1 lb of rock salt costs around 6 dollars, and you’ll need way more than a pound to dehumidify a large room.

What Products Can Absorb Moisture?

There are chemical compounds that help to absorb moisture. We have-

  • calcium chloride or rock salt,
  • silica gel,
  • baking soda,
  • charcoal,
  • non-dairy coffee cream, and
  • other salts.

They are also referred to as hygroscopic compounds. You would also find plants that can serve as dehumidifiers. These plants don’t need regular watering as they get all the water they need from the air.

How Long Do DIY Dehumidifiers Last For?

DIY dehumidifiers are not as effective as electronic dehumidifiers. Also, they are only effective for short-term use and small places. They are not long-lasting as they would be used up and need replacing.

Dehumidifiers such as rock salt would absorb water from the air and form crystals over time. In this crystal state, they cannot perform properly, so you have to change them every time they form crystals.

Likewise, baking soda will harden in a matter of days, and charcoal needs replacing in a few months. This shows how temporal DIY dehumidifiers are.

Are There Dehumidifying Indoor Plants?

Yes, there are. Plants such as Cactus, Palms, English ivy, Spider plants, Peace lilies, Boston fern, Tillandsia, Orchids, and so on absorb moisture from the air. These plants use moisture for their growth and development. So, you do not need to water them regularly. They can serve as natural dehumidifiers in your home.

Conclusion

There are simple ways to dehumidify a room and opening windows and doors often is one of the simplest ways to do this. Too much humid air can be hazardous to you and your household and so it is important to look out for signs that your house is too humid or test for humidity regularly, using a hygrometer.

Also, always be sure to regularly check for leaks and reduce your shower time. These measures also serve as preventive measures, saving you the stress of sourcing for dehumidifiers.

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