Medicine Man
Premium Member
Sorry, here is he pictures 
Kalk Reactor still not connected yet.
Kalk Reactor still not connected yet.
Help With Hummidity Please
- Thread starter Medicine Man
- Start date
clutch
Premium Member
you have a high eff. furnace and your A>O smith tank is the same, no worries the burners are in a seals compartment should be ok. the motor is in behind a seald compartment too(weatherstrip should be there). If I'm corect on the it looks like iether you have a carrier/byant. I think in that case i would get some foil tape and tape all joints of the ductwork. Especially around the filter section to seal off. My concern for this is that the blower assembly will pull in the saturated air into the heat exchanger which may cause some scale and some premature corrosion.
With that being said in your case you have a A/C so your good to go as for dehumidication in the summer, As for the winter I would do a small cfm ceiling fan in the room and put an intake air hood outside into the room with a 4" hose spilling into a five gallon can. I f you know what i mean.. The outside air is cold so it will stay in the bucket until it is needed.(when placing the duct/hose stay 6 " from the bottom of the bucket) The little negative pressure in the room will pull air from the bucket and will replace the air which you are drawning out. This will always add fresh air to the building.
Now that being said I would say that thier is already a neg in your house cuz of that power venter HWT. TheY make a spill pan for this reason i'll try to find it for you so you have better idea. Hope this will help you. iS YOUR FURNACE A CARRIER WEATHERMAKER.
With that being said in your case you have a A/C so your good to go as for dehumidication in the summer, As for the winter I would do a small cfm ceiling fan in the room and put an intake air hood outside into the room with a 4" hose spilling into a five gallon can. I f you know what i mean.. The outside air is cold so it will stay in the bucket until it is needed.(when placing the duct/hose stay 6 " from the bottom of the bucket) The little negative pressure in the room will pull air from the bucket and will replace the air which you are drawning out. This will always add fresh air to the building.
Now that being said I would say that thier is already a neg in your house cuz of that power venter HWT. TheY make a spill pan for this reason i'll try to find it for you so you have better idea. Hope this will help you. iS YOUR FURNACE A CARRIER WEATHERMAKER.
clutch
Premium Member
As for the motor windings they are protected with a liquid glass coating which they shouldn't break down but in a real world as the saturated air hits the hot motor and evapourates what happens to the impuritiies of the air. You change the chemical composure of the air now by removing the h2o in the air. Is it acidic as the condensate in the furnace i dunno which makes me think about the windings. Your power ventor on your furnace should be enclosed like the HWT but the blower motor isn't cuz of heat issues so food for thought. I'm going to install a carrier furnace good luck.
jnarowe
New member
That looks like a fun install MM!!
Regardless of what Dave wrote, I would be very concerned about the unprotected sheet rock. I don't know how long you have had this running, but I can't see any way that you won't end up with mold/mildew on the sheet rock no matter how you deal with room humidity.
I also can't really figure out an "easy" solution because you have so much installed in the way. And based on my own experience of multiple tank room floods, you may run the risk of damaging your household equipment too. (not that you have made any of the mistakes I have!)
Regardless of what Dave wrote, I would be very concerned about the unprotected sheet rock. I don't know how long you have had this running, but I can't see any way that you won't end up with mold/mildew on the sheet rock no matter how you deal with room humidity.
I also can't really figure out an "easy" solution because you have so much installed in the way. And based on my own experience of multiple tank room floods, you may run the risk of damaging your household equipment too. (not that you have made any of the mistakes I have!)
Medicine Man
Premium Member
Just got a chance to read the replies since my last post. Long ER shifts
The install took a while. It seems like I would start making headway and then I would need a part that I would not have. You all know what I'm talking about. Still do not have my auto-topoff connected or the Kalk reactor.
Tomorrow I am going to go to Lowe's and HD to see what they have in the way of dehumidifiers. Waiting for it to start raining in the fish room! Any suggestions before I go shopping are welcome . I'll let you know what I come up with though. Thanks again everyone! Great ideas and advice :thumbsup:
The install took a while. It seems like I would start making headway and then I would need a part that I would not have. You all know what I'm talking about. Still do not have my auto-topoff connected or the Kalk reactor.
Tomorrow I am going to go to Lowe's and HD to see what they have in the way of dehumidifiers. Waiting for it to start raining in the fish room! Any suggestions before I go shopping are welcome
. I'll let you know what I come up with though. Thanks again everyone! Great ideas and advice :thumbsup:
yaktop
New member
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9585037#post9585037 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by reefkeeper2
This is how I resolved my humidity issue. It didn't eliminate it completely, but I only have to run a dehumidifier if there has been some sort of unusuall prolonged wet weather. I vented the skimmer.
funny, I got to see this guys tank yesterday. awesome setup. the funnel was interesting and the exhaust outside from the skimme would indeed minimize some moisture inside but more importantly its helping keeping his PH up since the make up air is also from outside where there's less CO2 buildup. I'm gonna try it since I could use a PH boost and better yet, cheap as hell to do.
kudos Paul, funny I came across this.
Medicine Man
Premium Member
Well, I was going to ask advice again. I purchased a 70 pint/day dehumidifier and put it into my fish room. Humidity problem is much better now but the heat that the dehumidifier puts off heated the room and tank water up to 81 degrees. The rest of the basement was only 74 degrees. Would an exhaust fan help now? Feel like I'm chasing my tail.
dsandfort
Premium Member
I'm lucky and don't have to use a dehumidifier. Surely there are others who have this expertise.
It does seem to me that you now have a catch22. Your dehumidifier is reducing humidity but producing heat. If you exhaust the heat to the outdoors, you need to replace the air with outside makeup air that is high in humidity and will make the dehumidifier work to remove it thus producing more heat. It kind of sounds like there needs to be an air conditioning unit involved here.
BUT...81 degrees is not so bad and something you can live with if it gets no worse.
It does seem to me that you now have a catch22. Your dehumidifier is reducing humidity but producing heat. If you exhaust the heat to the outdoors, you need to replace the air with outside makeup air that is high in humidity and will make the dehumidifier work to remove it thus producing more heat. It kind of sounds like there needs to be an air conditioning unit involved here.
BUT...81 degrees is not so bad and something you can live with if it gets no worse.
scarter
New member
I run 82-84 with a fully stocked 200gl sps/lps tank. its not the temp that gets you, its the sudden change in temp. just keep in mind that if you do run a tank in the 80's there is less room for error. in other words if you get 4deg hot on a tank that runs at 78, you will be ok, if you run at 83 and get 4deg over your talking about 87 which is about where the sps start to melt..
Medicine Man
Premium Member
What do you think about installing something like a return air grate into the wall to where it pulls air conditioned air from the basement into the fish room? Just an idea.
8BALL_99
New member
Well there is a small problem with that.. If you install a Air Return into the room there is a chance that you will push humid air out and into the rest of the basement. If the room is staying pretty Dry now then it shouldn't be a big deal. Something to keep an eye on though. See your Dehumidifier has a humistat. Kicks on at the set humitity level.. Well if your blowing AC in the room. Your AC is a Dehumidifer also, so the air will be dry. It could cause the moist air to be pushed out of that room into the rest of the house.. At the same time your Dehumidifer wouldn't run as much. You want your Dehumidifer to be dealing with the humitity from the fish room not your Central AC. I promise you though you will need some kind of cooling in that room. My Equipment room gets up to the mid 80s with an outside temp of 70 if I dont run either my Window AC or my Exhaust/intake fans. And thats without a Dehumidifer pumping out hot air like you have.
With your setup it really is a catch 22.. When I did my Equipment room I made it separate from the rest of the house. Insulated walls, has its own AC in the wall and has vent fans for the winter. You dont' really have that option.. lol I guess non of that helped it just pointed out more problems... Is there a way to mount a window AC in the room.. I know its a basement but is the entire room under ground.. A window AC would Both cool the room and take out the humidity.. Would fix both problems with one 150 dollar peice of Equipment.
With your setup it really is a catch 22.. When I did my Equipment room I made it separate from the rest of the house. Insulated walls, has its own AC in the wall and has vent fans for the winter. You dont' really have that option.. lol I guess non of that helped it just pointed out more problems... Is there a way to mount a window AC in the room.. I know its a basement but is the entire room under ground.. A window AC would Both cool the room and take out the humidity.. Would fix both problems with one 150 dollar peice of Equipment.
mcrist
Premium Member
I don’t think just an air conditioner will be sufficient. Yes it will reduce the humidity when you have it running in the summer, but what about the colder months. Most air conditioners won’t even work when the outside air is too cold, they just freeze up. Of course that’s assuming you do get colder months.
Since it is in the basement how warm/cold does it get throughout the year? I have a similar setup and my basement never gets above 70 degrees even with the dehumidifier running. Now my tank temperature is lower than yours but I don’t think 81 degrees is in the danger zone.
Medicine Man
Premium Member
I have a standalone portable AC that only uses a 4" hose to output hot air through a small opening in a window but my fish room is underground. I could cut an opening toward the ceiling that is above ground and run the hose to that but then what would I do in the winter?
Anyone ever try to cut a vent into their cold air return for their HVAC unit? There was a thread on here that talked about using the home AC unit to pull the humidity out of the air.
I tried this with mixed results though. I have a vent installed that use to blow air out but from what I am reading, I need another to pull air in? My sump room is next to my utilities which is mostly electric but my furnace has a gas back up for heating.
Would it be beneficial to partition the sump room from the furnace?
I have always tried to keep himidity at 40-45%. I am in the middle of an upgrade now so I have 2 basement sumps running. Humidity hit 61% and I noticed water droplets on my copper pipes. I have been running the dehumidifier non-stop and it is back to 45% but the electrical bill won't be pretty.
I tried this with mixed results though. I have a vent installed that use to blow air out but from what I am reading, I need another to pull air in? My sump room is next to my utilities which is mostly electric but my furnace has a gas back up for heating.
Would it be beneficial to partition the sump room from the furnace?
I have always tried to keep himidity at 40-45%. I am in the middle of an upgrade now so I have 2 basement sumps running. Humidity hit 61% and I noticed water droplets on my copper pipes. I have been running the dehumidifier non-stop and it is back to 45% but the electrical bill won't be pretty.
skippyreef
New member
I use a CAP 1 humidistat / thermostat on a pnasonic whicper quiet fan. I have not had issues and I have 400 gallons down in the basement. All the humid air is exhausted out of the house and replaced with dry air from the rest of the house.
8BALL_99
New member
The problem with that skippy is when you Exhaust air outside Makeup air gets pulled in from outside.. Where he lives the humidity outside is just as bad as his fish room. So he would still have the same amount of moisture he would just be moving from the fish room to the rest of the house..
Medicine Man, Well the AC would work in the summer. Do you think with the Dehumidifer running in the winter it would still get to hot in your basement?
Medicine Man, Well the AC would work in the summer. Do you think with the Dehumidifer running in the winter it would still get to hot in your basement?
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