Cooling living area

Member since 12 February 2018

PetermetMember14 October 2020 05:43:37

My wife is finding the warmth and humidity of South Bali (Sanur) to be a bit much at the moment. The large living area has a staircase to the upper level which is also very open. As such an AC unit is neither practical nor affordable for thew open nature. We are currently using a ceiling fan overhead with a stand fan to the side.

The only other thing I can think of is a dehumidifier – removing the moisture for the air should make it more bearable. The unit could be set to put the dry air near my wife and would be a lot more economical to run.

I have also seen evaporative units being sold here (swamp coolers) but surely these would make matters worse not better.

Any advice on dehumidifiers or other alternatives would be welcome.

ladivo779 Guest

ladivo779Guest14 October 2020 06:10:41

I am not so sure that using a dehumidifier would make much difference because as you say the heat and humidity from upstairs is not blocked from coming downstairs. When we lived in a villa (also in Sanur) our living room was not air-conditioned, only the bedrooms were which i think is fairly common.

I do remember seeing and experiencing a stand alone airconditioning unit at the KL Bird Park in Malaysia on the balcony of the Hornbill restaurant, that was completely outdoors and blew out really strong cold air. It was very refreshing.

Apart from that, perhaps get a couple of standup fans in addition to the ceiling fan. As for normal split aircons, you'd probably need a couple of 2.5hp units to make downstairs cool and that means a decent sized electricity bill.

gcfitzy Member

Member since 06 September 2020

gcfitzyMember15 October 2020 11:37:55

Hi, just a heads up on dehumidifiers... I also live in Sanur, and rely heavily on my bali purchased. ( there are lots of different sizes/bigger capacities ) to reduce the humidity for acoustic guitars.. I have them in a cupboard and it works brilliantly.. not the same application as yours , but they do indeed suck the moisture out of the air...good luck..big plants might also create a feeling of cooler..

ladivo779 Guest

ladivo779Guest16 October 2020 00:08:19

gcfitzy wrote:
Hi, just a heads up on dehumidifiers... I also live in Sanur, and rely heavily on my bali purchased. ( there are lots of different sizes/bigger capacities ) to reduce the humidity for acoustic guitars.. I have them in a cupboard and it works brilliantly.. not the same application as yours , but they do indeed suck the moisture out of the air...good luck..big plants might also create a feeling of cooler..

That's very true. Dehumidifiers reduce the humidity by removing some of the moisture from the air. Placing a dehumidifier in a cupboard would definitely work. In fact I keep all my camera and video gear in a specialized controlled dry box which is essentially a dehumidifier too.

If the downstairs of your house is not closed off to upstairs, then as long as the upper level can be closed off to outside you could place dehumidifiers on both levels which should work to some extent. Since you mentioned also that your living room is pretty large then I guess a large capacity one or more than one would do it.