Can anyone please share their experience with the Wave or Humidex home moisture removal appliances?

Question

I have a lot of moisture in my house year round, in fact, unlike most homes, it is far worse in the winter. I am considering the Wave (also known as Humidex) moisture removal appliance as an alternative to constantly running dehumidefiers. I would very much appreciate anyone's shared experience (positive or negative) with these machines. Thanks!

Answer 1

I don't have first hand experience with the system, but i was looking into the system tonight.  I didn't like what i saw from their website.  It seems like their selling you a big fan to remove air from you basement or crawlspace and replace it with air from you living space above.  Then they depend on air coming into your house through windows and doors to replace that air.  Which begs the question, wouldn't you get the same benefit by opening a window down there, or putting a fan?

If you have moisture in your WHOLE house I'm sure a heating and ventilation technician would tell you to first look for any sources of water vapor in your house that aren't vented properly (clothes drier, any source of combustion releases water vapor like a gas stove, furnace, non-electric water heater, etc.).  Then they might tell you the envelope on your house is too tight and the volume of air in your house doesn't change over enough.  Installing and air handling system helps with that.  You said your problem is worse in the winter, which coincides with the problems i've mentioned.  Your walls are colder in the winter, so more water will condense on them.  

The Humidex seems to be an air exchanger like what you need, but I wouldn't want to dump all that warm and moist air from my house into my basement or crawlspace. If your basement walls are below the dew point temperature of the air then water WILL condense.  At that point you'll be making your moisture problem worse.  I would think buying an air handler with heat exchanger (it uses the temperature of the air pulled from your house to pretreat the air drawn from outside) installed on the ground floor or above would be better.

I should probaly say here that i'm not an HVAC expert.  Just a fellow home owner, and a slight skeptic.

Good luck.