In the summer in Taipei, my 2 room place is kept cool by this old second hand air conditioner my school gave me for free. It makes the air feel cold, clammy and unnatural, and I think it wastes a lot of electricity. My electric bill during the summer is always over NT$3000.
I’m thinking of getting a dehumidifier instead of getting a new AC. It’s the humidity I hate, not the heat. It’s not cheap, but it seems to me a good dehumidifier would pay for itself when I wasn’t running the old rickety machine very often. Can anybody who has used both and has done more Taiwanese summers than me help me out?
Nine Taipei summers. Two with neither, a few with AC only, and a few with both.
If I had to go with one or the other, cost aside, I’d choose the AC because it cools and sucks some of the humidity out of the air (if it’s a half-decent machine). While it does use a lot of electricity, you can at least turn it off when you’re not there. We got sick of the dehumidifier after a while because 1) you need to run it most of the time; 2) it’s good for only one room, and you need to keep that room pretty well sealed off or the humidity creeps back in; 3) following from number 2, it doesn’t do much good to run the humidifier with the windows open, so it’s just too unbearbly hot in the summer to use the dehum on its own; and 4) you have to empty the damn thing too often.
You can get an air conditioner that has a dehumidifier function. You can run the dehumidifier most of the time and only use the a/c when it’s really necessary. Personally I can’t imagine living (particularly sleeping) in Taipei from June to October without a/c. Especially if you are in the heart of the city somewhere.
You should also consider getting someone in to recondition your old ac. If its old, reconditioning will vastly improve its efficiency and reduce your power bills.
God, I’m so glad I live out of the city and need no more than an electric fan to keep cool.
A dehumidifier only really keeps the humidity down enough to prevent your stuff from getting moldy. It usually isn’t sufficient to get rid of the humid feeling. If it is somehow keeping the humidity low enough, you’re probably going to be emptying out the water every day.
Summer came with a vengeance. Any estimate what your July and August electricity bills will be?
I’ve heard estimates of about $3000 a month. Which means that since Taipower’s bills are for 2 months you will have to shell out $6k. That is a lot for cool air.
An A/C and a dehumidifier are not much different - the A/C will do exactly the same as a dehumidifier if you make the setting about 1 or 2 degrees below the ambient temperature and set the fan on low. (And you don’t need to empty it).
The dehumidifier may use a little less electricity. Don’t throw the A/C - nice to have when it is 37C and you can make an economic decision.
Dehumidifiers aren’t really a good substitute for A/C. The two that I have blow warm air, so it might dehumidify the room, but it will still be pretty hot. This works nicely in the winter though.
I’ve got a 2BR place, and I have 2 A/C machines running 24/7, on the dehumidify setting when I’m not there, and on full A/C in whichever room I happen to be in when I’m at home (The other room still gets the dehumidify function). My electricity bills are about NT$1800. When I wasn’t running them 24/7, my electricity bills were only about NT$400, if I remember correctly.
When I wasn’t running the A/C machines 24/7, then I had to empty the dehumidifiers every day, now I only have to empty them about twice a week.