Do I need to install a dehumidifier for a 800 gallon basement tank?

[sonofgaladriel]

Hi guys,
Some of you are aware that I'll be upgrading to a larger tank in the near future. It will either be a 600 gallon or an 860 gallon tank, depending on 8 foot or 10 foot length. It will be an open top design ie no canopy.
My concern, and an area I have no knowledge in whatsoever, is the humidity issue and how this much water/evaporation will affect my home/basement.
There have been no apparent problems with my 240 gallon open top cube, but I may be more than tripling that amount of water in my finished basement and I'm wondering if there will be issues.
Here is my room layout:
The room is 24 feet wide by 30 feet long with 12 foot ceilings. It is completely finished with home theatre and pool table ect..
There is an open stairway that leads to the main living level of the house.
Question: Prior to getting the new tank in place, should I install some sort of ventilation fan/dehumidifier in the wall above the tank vented to the outside? What size? Most efficient? Would this be enough?
Any other suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Sean

 

[clownnrnd]

Hopefully this thread takes off. I have a daylight basement w/ a 225gal. tank and am wondering the same thing. Sean, I noticed you have a similar system to what I am putting together. Are you doing anything to control humidity now?
Thanks,
Chad

 

[sonofgaladriel]

Nope, no humidity control for the 240. I do have a small oscillating fan that comes on when the halides do, but nothing other than that.
No problems noticed from the evaporation from the 240.

 

[bryanth73]

sean if the home is newer it would be almost imperitive to vent. they wrap the houses so tight now there is problems venting stale/ humid air to the outside. I know since I had a new home built and had to put in a 1600.00 air exchanger to rid the moisture problems in my house( works like a dream). Even if the house is older I would strongly recomend some way to vent the tank. A friend of mine has a whole house dehumidifier and the circut board corroded from the salt in the air burning out the unit so if you are doing one of those make sure the boards are epoxy coated .

 

[Bryan89]

Sean,

My 400 in the basement evaporates about 5-7 gallons a day at 78F tank temperature. I use fans to keep the 3 400W lights cool, which leads to most of the evaporation throughout the day. In fact, the tank gets cooler when the fans and lights all come on.

I have 400 cfm supply and exhaust fans (in one side of tank exhaust to outside on the other). My dehumidifier runs almost continually.

Since your tank will be twice the size of mine, I'd recommend a dehumidifier and a totally separate from the rest of the house room with green board or similar. I am already seeing signs of corrosion on my HVAC ducts in the unfinished parts of my basement.

HTH

Bryan

 

[bnlimit10]

Dehumidifier on a 800 gallon tank, its a definate need, my tank is about 600 gallons, and man the first week was hell, cause I failed to get a dehumidifier at first, once I installed it and got it setup the humidity problem disappeared. So yes get one.

 

[sonofgaladriel]

Thank you guys very much for the suggestion and advice. Can you guys recommend an appropriate dehumidifier for my needs? Are we talking one that is perhaps free standing or one that has to be installed in the wall.
Thanks
Sean

 

[Bryan89]

I use a freestanding.

 

[clownnrnd]

Sean I found one that is built by a company called Humidex. Web site is Humidexatlantic.com. They say their units go for around $1200-1500 shipped,installed and 1 year warranty. They claim to run on around 100w or so I think it was. I was looking at others that maybe only cost around $400 but consumed a min. of 350w.

I'm not real sure which is the way to go. I always hate seeing the power bill go up though. Just thought I'd share that if you had not seen that company.
Chad

 

[AcroSteve]

Your location could play a big part in this decision. You might not need one in Arizona, but definitely in Michigan.

Where are you located?

 

[waynesworld]

Location house type and hvac ventilation all plays a part in weather you need one I would get a small one at your hardware store and try it and if it runs all the time then you may want to look into a larger one or venting out of the house.

 

[sonofgaladriel]

I live in Kansas. It gets pretty hot and humid here in the summers. Its a new house, pretty tight and energy efficient (it is a custom home I was very involved in and built a large percentage of myself, not a spec home) with a very good air conditioner/heat pump system. The basement stays quite cool during the summer months.

clownnrnd- Thank you for that company's name. I'll try to find out some information from them. I'd definately invest in a system that uses less energy if that size system is really needed. Alot of my local reefers are telling me that a freestanding will probably suffice for the Spring/Summer months and according to them, the extra humidity will be welcome to the house during the winter months.
I think I'll pay for a professional HVAC company to come out and give me a consultation just to be sure. I think that will be money well spent.
Are the small 65 to 70 pint dehumidifier units any good? I've seen alot of them really cheap on Ebay.

 

[sonofgaladriel]

Just looked at humidexatlantic's site. That looks like the kind of system that will work well. The model sufficient for the room the tank will be in is $950 shipped with a $250 install. Not too bad.
I'll check with some local companies as well to see what they can offer too.
Thanks again everyone.

 

[Wade2185]

I just upgraded to a 600 gallon system in my basement. Right now I have my windows open a little and things are venting OK. My heating/AC guy recommended that I install and Air Exchange unit. What it does is bring in fresh air, heat it or cool it to room temperature and then suck out the old-humid air. It will run me about $1,000 - $1,500.

 

[waynesworld]

Well we used the small ones in SD where I use to live to get water out of basements a lot.

http://www.lowes.com/lowes/lkn?action=productDetail&productId=7670-46-AD70USS&lpage=none

The AC type is more to weather you have cold air return from the tank area this is good if you do then the air will run through the air conditioner more then if it uses the ac units that have only cold air return in the unit. Also the water amount does not drive the amount of evaporation the footprint and the amount of air over the top and the amount of flow to the sump. You can stop a lot by adding glass on top since you do not have a canopy this would also add a protective UV shield if a bulb cracks and stays on.

 

[eastcoaster1]

Will the tank be an open top design, or something that is built into the wall?
If it's built in to the wall, you could duct fresh air into the canopy/fish room and then use a inline fan (like this one http://www.steamsaun.com/fans-whisperline.htm ) to exhaust the hot and humid air. You can even wire the fan to a humidistat to have it automatically kick on when needed. Ducting fresh air directly in to the canopy prevents the fan from sucking out the air from your house...which should save on heating/cooling costs.
Panasonic fans seem to be well liked in terms of noise and energy efficiency.

 

[huskerreef]

i have a 1000 gallon lagoon in my basement 6'x12' and run a stand alone menards dehumidifier on the continuous run setting. humidity in my basement is 31%. my house is new. look in my gallery to see the type of lagoon. i add about 35 gallons a week.

 

[waynesworld]

That is were I got mine too.

 

[Jamesurq]

Is your whole basement finished/Air conditioned?

I ask because one potential solution would be to completely enclose the tank (in-wall) and pump air in from your unfinished basement and pump air OUT of the house.

IE: not pump your expensive air conditioned air or your outside HOT air.

I pump the air from my house's crawlspace into my garage tankroom and today at 95 degrees outside, the tank temperature is a solid 81 with only a single 20" box fan and no chiller.

 

[itz frank]

You guys want to talk about humidity. How about living in Miami, FL? We need dehumidifiers for our garages without anything going on in there. Solution = stay out of the garage. haha