re: Any HVAC Professionals?

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I know humidity is bad down there but do you think you need that? What indoor humidity levels do you regularly see now?

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Good question and I’ll preface by saying I agree with every comment and recommendation you made. Here is my rationale.

My present single stage HVAC does a good of controlling humidity (single speed blower motor) keeping RH at 43-55%. But there are few days in South Louisiana during the year where outdoor humidity is not excessively high. During spring and fall transition periods you can have pleasant outdoor temps where the HVAC doesn’t need to run but we still have uncomfortably high humidities. So you either run the AC , keeping it cooler than we personally like it to remove humidity, or don’t run the AC to maintain a pleasant temperature but then deal with an uncomfortably high humidity. Ditto in winter when you are running heat, and not removing humidity, but still have a highly humid environment outside. And these transition seasons are often compounded by numerous rainy days. We average about 58-60 inches of rain annually. My wife also deals with chronic allergy/sinus infections, so humidity control/air filtration is an important consideration when I replace our HVAC system.

I’d say my HVAC does a good job of removing/controlling humidity 10 months out of the year b/c as you can surmise, we cool many more months than we heat. I will replace my current HVAC with a more efficient unit though I’m still undecided on a single stage, two-stage, or variable compressor speed (multistage) unit. Will definitely have a variable speed air handler. There are other issues I must resolve, not related to cost but more so with potential moisture/condensation issues, when considering the variable speed units which of course if set up properly do an excellent job of humidity control and stabilization, but still not 12 months out of the year.

I’ve done a good bit of reading, the HVAC-Talk forum being one, and a HVAC professional “Teddy Bear” who resides in south FL is a guru on this subject and he is a strong advocate of whole house dehumidification in hot humid climates. His answers/recommendation on home dehumification are thorough, very analytical, and he crunches the numbers for just about every answer he provides. There is also a forensic building inspector that does a weekly home improvement radio program on WWL radio, New Orleans, Paul LaGrange, whose job deals mostly with with humidity/moisture issues in residential and commercial properties in the New Orleans area and he is a strong advocate for whole house dehumidification systems in the humid Gulf South. He states these units solve many moisture issues in our area for residential home owners, but i don’t think they are that common in our area, but maybe more so since major flooding events that have occurred in our area the past few years.

They all pretty much say with whole-house dehumidification systems you can typically set your thermostat a little higher (energy savings) but still maintain a very nice human comfort level.

Now, I haven’t gotten cost estimates from a installer for a whole house dehumidification system but I have a pretty good idea of the cost of the equipment that would be required for my house. Watched several install videos and it’s not a complicated install, and my attic has all the needed infrastructure and space for an easy install. So unless the price is much higher than I am expecting, I’m inclined to do this. If much higher, well then I just might live with what I got.