Exaust fan recomendations and lighting ?

[ckoral]

another victim of humidity here. Tagging along.

 

[jakano]

I found a way to lower my humidity in my basement on the cheap. I took out on the my basement windows (they are removable) and n its place stuck one of those window fans with two small individual fans in it, and set it on exhaust. This fan is rated at 1000 cfm so it really exhausts some air. I doubt I am getting the full amount its rated for due to restrictions but its working very well. Here is a link if anyone is interested.

http://www.lowes.com/lowes/lkn?action=productDetail&productId=146389-53573-MWF20E-1&lpage=none

 

[Dejavu]

spazz, What unit do you recommend?

 

[wmilas]

I have a heat exchanger for my house (Lennox). I LOVE it. I did something different for the fishroom though. IT's a HRV Heat recovery unit) without the heat recovery as this way I can vent heat out in the winner, and NOT keep it in, like my lennox HRV is geared to.

I installed 2 6" flex insulated runs to the outside wall and bored through the brick and put a dryer vent. I put a Fantec fan (as pictured above) in the fishroom. It pulls and exhausts air out. As Spazz states in a fishroom thats sealed, you'll soon have a vacuum. I took another 6" flex an Y'ed it off the 8" that my HRV pulls fresh air in from the outside. I put a fantech fan rated at the same rate as the outake on the intake so it should make up air should be about equal with the exhaust. The whole thing is going to be rigged to a controller that will turn it on based on the temp outside, in the room, and the humidity outside and inside. And no, I haven't found the controller yet... I'll make it if I have to

 

[Scott M]

Fantechs are incredible and I think Lumenarc makes a reflector with a vent built in.

 

[ckoral]

My reef room is the storage room in the back area of a nice finished basement. It has an airgap in the unfinished ceiling and an airgap between the studded wall and concrete that buts up to this room.

I'm considering conditioning this room as I am having moisture issues in the winter. Fantech looks like a good solution. I feel a little uncomfortable cutting holes through my house to the outside. Can someone show me some pictures of what they did so that I can get some ideas. Aslo can someone tell me if they think it is important to have an air tight room?

(sorry, I don't mean to be highjacking this thread)
pictures or video would be great! Other thread links also.

 

[8BALL_99]

I use two Fantech 6" inline fans in my Equipment room.. One is turned so it exhausts the other is turned as a intake. I run mine on a thermostat in the winter. This is how I cool the room in the winter.. In the summer the room has its own AC. Here is what they look like in the room and attic. I don't have a picture from outside the house handy. But I'll post one later.

 

[ckoral]

Thanks for the pictures and info about how you use it. Can you provide more information on the inline thermostats? Are the holes 4" to the outside?

This is great, the more picture postings the more ideas we can pull together for our own systems!

 

[stunreefer]

Great thread...perfect timing!

I have been trying to figuire this out for my new system too. I want something real smiple, but I think an "exchanger" like spazz mentioned is the way to go. I would have to mount mine right behind the tank. Im in Michigan so it has to be winterproof (one side will be inside, the other will be outside). I was thinking of building a frame to replace the window with, and mounting an exchanger in the frame....but what kind?

Here is a pic of my old stand (where the tank will sit), and you can barely see the windows above I will utilize.

Anyt thoughts/suggestions is greatly appreciated, sorry for the highjack!

 

[ckoral]

heat exhangers are expensive and take up a lot of space right? Can they be DIY'd?

 

[8BALL_99]

I used an Air exchanger for about 6 months. It didn't move enough air for me. But my use is a little different.. I don't really want to recover the heat from the air. Even in the winter time with all my lights on my room gets very hot. The Air exchanger just kept to much of the heat and had a much lower cfm then my 6" fans.. In fact I still have my Air exchanger sitting in storage LoL.
I have a thermostat and a humistat. I ended up not using the humistat since in the summer the AC lowers the humidity enough for me. In the summer it works better just to go by temp. My thermostat is just a good old 5 dollar El cheapo. All I did was use a 24v Transformer and a relay with a 24v coil. I played around with the thermostat and a multi meter and figured out what connections did what.. I wired it so when you have the thermostat set to cool and the temp drops below the set point it trips the relay that powers the fans. I can also just set the fan to run if I need to exhaust a smell. IE when I clean my skimmer cups lol. Sounds like a lot to it. But its really not. I used 24v just cause that's the standard voltage for HVAC controls. The relay, Transformer and fans are all in the attic.. The only thing that goes in the room is a small low voltage wire and the thermostat on the wall that it connects to.
Here is the thermostat I used.. I just used this type cause it was 4.99 and its mechanical. Its pretty hard to find one that's not digital now..

 

[ckoral]

Thats a good idea. My room gets pretty warm. I bet the inflow and outflow of air to the outside world along with the dehumidifier I run would do the trick for me. I wonder if I need to plug any airgaps to the rest of my house.

 

[8BALL_99]

I used the exact same Inline fans with the same vents with the same length of hose connecting them. As long as you match them like this they should push pull the same amount. Or at least Very close.

 

[Mr. Brooks]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12187917#post12187917 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Angela Short
Oh no, I have been into reefin since 04' and have a current 270 on a stand now :lol:. The new house broke ground 7 weeks ago and its 100% done on the exterior and only lacks insulation, sheet rock and all the slower stuff on the inside. We have had good weather in Tn and lots of unbuisy tradesmen with the depressed housing market so they were wanting to get paid so the house flew up!

This is a pic of my current set up 2 years ago...

The weird wood panel is what a 24 tall tank would have looked like in the last pic. My dad made the stand/canopy for a 24 tall and I changed the tank to a 31 tall last min after he had already made the sides to make the top and bottom look connected. I just had that up there to show someone ordering a 24 tall the difference a 31 looks against a 24 tall.

Wow! This pic make's me stoked to be setting up a 30" tall tank. The 24" piece looks so small in comparrison! Luckily I'm 6'2" So it shouldn't be too hard to reach into the tank.

 

[8BALL_99]

Here is a picture of the inline fan input/output. This is on the side of the house beside my shop. You can also use roof vents if you wanted. Sorry it took so long. Its been dark by the time Ive made it home the past couple of days

 

[psteeleb]

I went with a rather inexpensive attic fan hooked up to a 24" sq air conditioning return vent. It has a built in temperature controller and the whole thing cost less then $100, but made a box to house it and I installed it myself. Sorry I can't post pictures from work but I think I have a few on my build log. Basically it's right over my light rack and when it heats up to the set temperature, it turns on and sucks the hot air out and into the attic.

HTH

 

[8BALL_99]

You need to exhaust the air outside your house.. Its a bad idea to exhaust hot humid air into your Attic! You just need to add a roof vent to the outside.

 

[mx36]

Any updates on the house or aquarium?

 

[edandsandy]

Just found this thread, lots of great information here.
Just curious on what you decided to do.