Air Conditioner use with Air Exchanger

[Financial Threedom]

So glad I was finally able to register after trying for months!

I would like to hear everyone's opinion on these two questions.

I recently purchased a portable air conditioner (unmustachian) however, I bought it used (mustachian) and we are only going to use it on the hottest days (mustachian) such as the last few days where we have had record breaking heat here in Eastern Canada.  Also, I made the purchase because we now have a newborn, who is unable to control his body temperature, so we though he may require some help with the AC.  I have everything set up now and I am wondering about my air exchanger that I have.  Should it be turned off so it stops bringing in the hot/humid air, so this will maximize the efficiency of the  AC?  Or should it be left on, as a few family members have suggested?  I think shutting it down makes more sense.  I will note that I open all windows usually around 8:00 PM when things start to cool down, close most when I go to bed,  and also leave them open until 9:30 AM or so when it starts to heat up, (I've noticed in my neighborhood very few houses open their windows at night, but that is another topic) so Im sure the house is getting enough air exchanged that way. 

Part 2:

Ive only had this AC unit for 3 days, and the first 2 days I used it, I had to empty the water every 20 mins or the unit would stop (the AC stops working when it reaches capacity).  Then magically today, it has been running all day and we have not emptied it ay all and barley any water has come out.  Yet according to my hygrometer, the humidity has fallen steadily again today in the house.  This means either a) the dehumidifier portion of the AC was not working correctly at first/over working and creating too much water, thus needing to be emptied very often or b) now the dehumidifier is not working correctly (despite the drop in humidity in the house which would seem to be quite a coincidence)

Any thoughts from anyone familiar with ACs would be much appreciated.  Thanks!

[lizzigee]

Not sure about AC units but we have a portable dehumidifier (weather here always high humidity, whether summer or winter). We don;t run it very often but when we do, for the first couple of days of use, it also fills up very quickly, and apparently the reason is that it draws moisture out of your actual building structure, soft furnishings, clothes in wardrobes etc, not just the air.  After the excess moisture in these is gone, then it only has to dehumidify the air, so you won't need to empty it so often. HTH

[Rural]

No clue on the air exchanger, so I'll leave that to others to advise you.

I do have a theory on the dehumidifying, though. This is assuming that the AC has kept the temperature down -- if the temp has gone up, well, warmer air can hold more water, thus the decreasing relative humidity (think of it as a measure of saturation).

If the temp has remained constant or near-constant, though, you may be seeing something similar to what we saw here last week as we got our new house climate controlled for the first time. The walls and floor had soaked in the moisture, so for a while we were seesawing a bit, dropping the air humidity until the bucket filled up, and then (if we weren't around to empty it right away), the humidity would go back up as the moisture leached out of the walls. This was exacerbated because we have poured concrete walls and floor, but any building material can store some moisture.

[gooki]

If you are opening windows at least once a day/night then you can turn of the air exchanger while running AC to gain a little efficiency.

[Financial Threedom]

No clue on the air exchanger, so I'll leave that to others to advise you.

I do have a theory on the dehumidifying, though. This is assuming that the AC has kept the temperature down -- if the temp has gone up, well, warmer air can hold more water, thus the decreasing relative humidity (think of it as a measure of saturation).

If the temp has remained constant or near-constant, though, you may be seeing something similar to what we saw here last week as we got our new house climate controlled for the first time. The walls and floor had soaked in the moisture, so for a while we were seesawing a bit, dropping the air humidity until the bucket filled up, and then (if we weren't around to empty it right away), the humidity would go back up as the moisture leached out of the walls. This was exacerbated because we have poured concrete walls and floor, but any building material can store some moisture.

The air temp remained steady/cool.  The machine ran all yesterday and I opened the plug twice and only a very small stream of water came out each time.  I would estimate it to be about .01% of the total amount from yesterday.

[daddycute]

gooki is right, if you open your windows from time to time there is no need to turn on the air exchanger all the time.
That is what I do to lessen electricity bills overalll. :)