Humidity Questions

[Poseidon]

Okay, in my never ending quest to reduce power consumption, I am trying to reduce or eliminate the amount of time I actually HAVE to run the dehumidifier.

At my old house, I had a bathroom "fart fan" that ran 24/7 and it seemed to work ok, but I would like to refine that a bit at my new place. I have a couple of ideas:

Use a duct fan like this one, connected to a Dehumidistat like this and then outside via a louvered dryer vent. (I know that is a 6" fan, but for the difference in cost I would use it and reduce it to a 4" before the vent.)

This would, in theory anyway reduce humidity by removing air from the basement to be replaced by outside air, which in the winter time should work like a charm, however what about summer?

My other option is to use the same duct fan, but just tie it into the existing ductwork, and have it force basement air upstairs thru the existing ductwork. This would spread the high humidity air throughout the house, which again in winter with the furnace running, is not a bad idea, but what about summer? (There has to be a draw back to this too.)

3rd option is to cover the sump as tightly as possible, to reduce evaporation in the basement. This is not my favorite option, because I count on evap to add kalk to the tank, via an ATO.

Am I missing a fourth option?

Thanks!

 

[Poseidon]

OOps.... I have my links backwards....

 

[roshi719]

How humid does it get up there in the summer?

 

[BShells]

Are you trying to dehumidify the whole basement, or is there a seperate fish room?

 

[Poseidon]

roshi- In the hot months, 80-90% is common, with afternoon T-storms that make it worse.

BShells- It is the whole basement, no separate fish rooms. I would guess the basement to be about 700-800sq ft.

 

[Dihydrogen Monoxide]

You could cover the sump tightly then imput a Bathroom style fan blowing air into the sump (cooling and helping with pH, as well as maintaining evap) and have the air vent back outside through a dryer vent (if possible). Just remember to blow the outside air in and humid air from the sump out.

Just a thought!

 

[Poseidon]

So it would be forced air evaporation.... Hmm. BUT the downside, I would be forcing VERY cold air into the sealed container in the winter, and very humid air in the summer.

 

[roshi719]

I'm no expert, but I do know the fan requirements for putting a hot tub inside, as I sell them. Rule of thumb there is to exchange the air in the room every 3 minutes. That sounds like a bit much to me, so I modified the equation to replace all of the air in the basement every 15 minutes, and it calls for about a 300-350 CFM fan. I would say if you hooked at least a 250-300 CFM fan to run on a dehumidistat blowing the air outside that you should be pretty good. That is unless you have a strong aversion to running your air in the summer. I would guess that a dehumidifier may still be necesary in the warmer months even with the air running.

 

[Poseidon]

Well that is certainly more then I had to go on before. At least that gives me a rule of thumb to start with. I am concerned with how to keep cold air from coming in when the fan is not running though, I can't imagine a simple plastic louvered dryer vent is going to be that effective. (I don't want to replace electric costs with gas ones, for heat.)

 

[roshi719]

I have a stove vent that vents outside, and I have never really noticed much cold air coming in through that in the winter. I would call a heating air conditioning company and see if they have any suggestions on that one. Let me know what they say, as I plan on putting in an exhaust fan next year.

 

[Poseidon]

That sounds like a plan. I really want to get away from my 785W dehumidifier running 24/7!

 

[roshi719]

That sounds like a plan. I really want to get away from my 785W dehumidifier running 24/7!

Yikes!!!! Does that come with the option of buying stock in the electric company!!!

 

[Poseidon]

No, but I wish it did! That is over TWICE the wattage of my lights, and it was on almost all summer. Right now I have it unplugged, and I plug it in every few days for a day or two.... My ELECTRIC had been almost $300 a month, and I really REALLY need to drop that down.

 

[roshi719]

I hear ya on that one Bro! Right now I have over 2000 wats of lighting plugged in at my house and my biggest 'lectric bill this summer was almost $500. Oh well, I guess I'll just go home and frag some more corals to make up for it.

 

[Poseidon]

YIKES!

That is a LOT, I'll bet there have been a few law enforcement drive by observations! I know I had an officer look in my window a few Halloweens ago, the HALIDES were lighting up the yard.

 

[mikedelgado]

my canopy is sealed to my ceiling. I installed a fart fan in the section of ceiling that my canopy enclosed. I use a squirrel cage fan I got at wall mart inside of the canopy pointing at the water. It is a pretty powerful fan I have to point it just right or it will blow the water out of the tank.I tied the two of them together . hooked them to my aquacontroller to run if the water temp is over 77.6. this made a world of difference in my home. I live in central Texas and the humidity is murder here. In winter time it was worse cause no ac pulling out the moisture. In winter the windows would literally have water running down them. I have a 215 gal with 3 400w halides and 200w of t5 in fuge 10 hrs a day. I keep my ac at 77 , and no chiller. the hottest days of summer 100 plus outside sometimes my tank flirts with 84, then the controller turns off two of the halides. by that time they were almost ready to turn off anyway