How To Set Air Con To Dehumidify To Prevent Mold In Condo

[LittleEiffel]

Seems a silly question, but we are leaving to go to another posting for 6 months and our small condo will be vacant.

Would like to prevent mold forming.

A friend suggests we set the aircon on "dry" on a self timer for an hour or two each day which seems sensible.

Anyone else have to leave for months at a time and have an easy suggestion to program the aircon? do we need to "cool" or just "dry"?

We just have the standard Panasonic CS- C18 model aircon (non inverter - the cheaper older model). Also of course we would like to use as little power as possible.

Thanks in advance for any advice on this rather mundane topic.

Cheers.

[falang07]

If you want to dry only, I suppose just set to DRY and not to COOL, simple as that

[LittleEiffel]

Thanks for the reply.

I am still wondering about some basics like

How long I should program the unit to run each day? One hour? 4 hours ? More?

Mind you I don't want to run up a huge electric bill by overdoing it either.

Just figured there must be loads of guys like me who leave condos for months at a time who may do this to keep the unit dry....

Thanks again to the previous post

[Riley'sLife]

If the condo layout will allow it, I would use less costly natural cross-ventilation, perhaps aided by portable fans timed to operate for 30 minutes at 7pm and again at 7am to utilise the cooler air and ventilate the living space. You'll need to have the fans arranged correctly for both ingress and egress of the air, and of course have widows or other vents open. Keep all doors open - including wardrobes - to allow the air to circulate. Far cheaper than aircon, but only if your condo layout and security concerns don't over-rule the idea.

[trogers]

How small is your condo? Any exhaust fan or window in the bathroom? Source of humidity is usually from the bathroom as the next 6 months have little rain.

[Khun Jean]

If the condo layout will allow it, I would use less costly natural cross-ventilation, perhaps aided by portable fans timed to operate for 30 minutes at 7pm and again at 7am to utilise the cooler air and ventilate the living space. You'll need to have the fans arranged correctly for both ingress and egress of the air, and of course have widows or other vents open. Keep all doors open - including wardrobes - to allow the air to circulate. Far cheaper than aircon, but only if your condo layout and security concerns don't over-rule the idea.

I often have the feeling that around 6-7pm the air is very wet, more so then at noon, it probably starts to condensate. It is the time when i start closing the doors and windows and let the air run for a whilte. The cooler air is around 10pm until about 6-7 am.

[isawasnake]

I like the op's (friend's) idea. An hour sounds good to me, definitely on "dry". The compressor is still running, so it will cost you. Now on to when to set it? You'll probably get natural drying out in the daytime. I'd set it for nighttime maybe midnight to one am, maybe even a little later. Two hours would be better, up to you.