Can a Dehumidifier Act as an Air Conditioner? It Cannot!

Can I use a dehumidifier instead of an air conditioner?

These appliances perform different functions. A dehumidifier lowers the humidity and might make you “feel” cooler, but it does not lower the temperature. An air conditioner lowers the indoor temperature, but won’t lower the humidity substantially. Therefore, it is NOT ADVISABLE to use one in place of the other. Just buy a whole house dehumidifier and a whole-house air conditioner to improve your living conditions.

If you live close to the sea, you will need to use a dehumidifier because of the high humidity inside.

It removes excess humidity from your indoor air. On the other hand, the primary function of an air conditioner is to cool your indoor air.

Dehumidifier vs AC: What Should You Get?

What should you get between dehumidifier vs AC? This purely depends on where you live. But first, you have to understand that these are two different appliances.

Otherwise, if they did the same thing, we would not need to buy the two. We would just use one. However, sometimes, you might even find it necessary to run these two appliances together.

What does a dehumidifier do?

The right indoor humidity level is 30 to 50%. If it dips lower than that, you will need to crank up the humidifier. If it goes higher than that, you should run a dehumidifier.

A dehumidifier lowers the humidity in the air.

Well, some sources say that the humidity range should be 30 to 60%. If you live in a humid place such as Florida, Texas, or California, you need to lower the level of humidity in the house.

The best way to do that is to turn on the dehumidifier.

A dehumidifier can also help to prevent the escalation of dust mites, mold and mildew. The good thing is that even the dehumidifier water does not have to go to waste. You can use dehumidifier water to water your plants.

The dehumidifier works by sucking in the humid air, cooling it over the condenser pipes where the water condenses and is collected in a reservoir.

The dehumidifier fans then blow the dry air into the room. Just make sure that the dehumidifier coils are clean all the time.

What does an air conditioner do?

The right room temperature is 68 to 78 degrees Fahrenheit. If it is higher than that, you need to cool it down some.

The work of the air conditioner is to lower the temperature and make the living space comfortable enough for you. What happens is that the air conditioner takes in the hot air, cools it, and then whips it back into the room.

Image of air conditioner vs dehumidifier

The air conditioner will suck in the humid and hot air. It will then dump the excess moisture and heat outside the building and then it will whip the cooled and dryer air back inside the house.

From these explanations, you can see that the functions of the dehumidifier vs air conditioner do overlap at some point.

So, can a dehumidifier be used as an air conditioner? Not really. However, the air conditioner can be used as a dehumidifier.

The dehumidifier will not cool the air enough, since that is not its main function. However, it will definitely take out the excess moisture from the air, leaving it dryer, safer, and definitely allergen-free.

Using air conditioner as dehumidifier

In any resource for air conditioner vs dehumidifier, you will find people asking whether using air conditioner as dehumidifier is possible.

Well, indeed you can use an air conditioner as a dehumidifier. However, it will cool the air and remove ONLY some of the humidity. Again, humidity removal is not one of the primary functions of an air conditioner.

Therefore, it would be best to have both appliances running together, or you can use them intermittently.

The dehumidifier will remove moisture efficiently, but it won’t cool the room. On the other hand, an air conditioner will cool the air efficiently but will not remove moisture so well.

While this is not a catch 22 kinds of scenario, it pays to have both the air conditioner and the dehumidifying appliance at home.

Will a dehumidifier cool a room?

Yes, a dehumidifier is going to cool a room. The only catch is that it will not only do it as efficiently as an air conditioner would.

It will cool the room by removing the excess humidity. Of course, high humidity is one of the causes of extra heat in the room because it traps heat. For this reason, unless you use a dehumidifier in summer, your house can be uninhabitable.

While the dehumidifier has a cooling effect in the room, do not rely on it entirely. In fact, only use the unit when there is high humidity.

Once the optimum humidity has been reached, the dehumidifier will switch off automatically (it has a built-in humidistat) and so it won’t continue cooling the room anymore.

So, for a dehumidifier vs air conditioner for cooling a room, you should use an air conditioner if it is the heat that you want to get rid of.

How to dehumidify a room with air conditioner

All that you need to do is turn the air conditioner on. As it removes the heat from the air and circulates it back into the room, it will also remove some of the moisture. Therefore, it will help with the excess humidity, not fully, but you will certainly feel a difference.

Another popular question that people ask concerning using the air con to remove humidity is: Does an air conditioner remove humidity?

It does.

The air conditioner has refrigerant that absorbs warmth and moisture from your air. The excess condensation then collects in a pan, which you can then empty when it is full.

That is how an air conditioning unit is able to remove excess moisture from your indoor air.

Dehumidifier vs air conditioner power consumption

People ask: Is it cheaper to run a dehumidifier or an air conditioner? Research shows that a dehumidifier consumes less electricity than an air conditioner. For instance, a whole house dehumidifier will use less electricity than a whole house air conditioner.

Therefore, if you are choosing between the two where you feel that you can either live with the heat or the humidity, because of racking up your power bill, choose the dehumidifier.

A whole house dehumidifier will use 700 watts of power. Now, compare that to a whole house air conditioner that uses an average of 3000 watts of power in a day, say, when it runs for 9 hours.

You can see that there is no comparison at all, and the air con will rack up your power bill seriously.

How to use a dehumidifier to cool a room

Now that you have seen the crazy amount of power that a whole house air conditioner consumes, you know you should use a dehumidifier more often than the air con.

So, how do you use a dehumidifier to cool a room?

Well, you might find this not possible since dehumidifiers work well when the indoor temperature is not above 70.

Image of is a dehumidifier the same as an air conditioner

Therefore, you might find that the dehumidifier is not going to help when you need to cool the air in the room.

Of course, there will be a change in the coolness of the room and besides, dry air easier to cool than humid air.

Overall, you could say that an air conditioner has a better dehumidifying effect than a dehumidifier has a cooling effect.

Therefore, while you can use the air conditioner to cool the room, you might not find the dehumidifier very helpful for cooling your indoor air.

Conclusion

Can I use a dehumidifier instead of an air conditioner? The answer is no. These are two different items and they work differently. Therefore, you can never use them interchangeably.

It is best to buy the two of them. That way, you can use the dehumidifier when the humidity exceeds the required level and crank up the air con when the air is too hot.