Adding Humidistat to AC

Shaun asks,

Recently we purchased a new seasonal home in Sarasota, FL. We will not be there throught the summer. We are snowbirds. I called the HVAC company who installed the Carrier unit and told him I wanted a Humidistat installed. He suggested I upgrade the system to a variable speed air handler with a thermidistat. Cost $1950. I can get a Honeywell Humidistat installed for under $200.00..What would you do? Thanks Shaun Seymour

Our Answer

First of all, you need to understand that central air conditioners make lousy dehumidifiers. They are expensive to run and not an efficient way to remove moisture to from you home, which is important especially in a climate like Florida.
The best bet is to invest in a whole home dehumidifier, which is designed specificaly to do this. A whole home dehumidifier is a device that gets added on to your central HVAC system and runs automatically to remove moisture from the air. In fact, some of these units can take as much as 11 quarts of water a day from your home. You'll be running your AC less, too, so it has the potential to cut cooling costs.