@LisPi i lived in an apartment that just had a box that would like start whirring once in a while and then stop, and it collected the water in a container, that was pretty nice. dunno how much energy it required, but i want something like that.
the a/c here, being an ac, i'm pretty sure just cools the air to dew point, dumps the water and the heat outside, and returns the air into the apartment, so in winter that isn't really an option as it gets very cold very quickly
hmm.. is that why shopping malls always have such intense looking ventilation systems?