Humid basement concerns

[dascharisma]

I am trying to figure out exactly how I will deal with the humidity in my fish room once I get my new tank running. I was reading the following thread http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&postid=10024201#post10024201 and I started to wonder about "make-up" air.

Originally I planned to simply run a fan in the window on a humidistat, but now I am wondering where the replacement air will come from, since my furnace is in the fishroom. Does anyone know anything about this?



Brad

 

[hopper75]

What about a dehumidifier? You can get a decent one for $100-$150.

 

[dascharisma]

I don't think a dehumidifier is going to do it. My concern is that it would heat up the room. With 700 gallons in total there will be plenty of humidity, and with a bunch of lights there will be plenty of heat. My goal is to get rid of the humidity without adding heat to the room.

Right now I have 2 dehumidifiers constantly running to keep up with the 200 gallons in my current system. I think that a window fan will use far less electricity and produce far less heat than dehumidifiers. My concern is a source for the air I will expel with a window fan.


Brad

 

[IowaKevinK]

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[Double-J]

Thats the same unit I use, Very well built and sold in Iowa (sort of sucks because of the tax) Although I believe I payed around 4-450 for it.

My suggestions (all four would be nice)

1) use a chiller! I use to be a big fan (pun intended) of blowing fans over the tank to cool it thru evaporation, the downside is evap and high humidity. Since going with a chiller I evap less than half and the humidity has gone down a bunch, It's not uncomfortable to be in my fish room and I can keep the door to my fish room shut all day (seperating the house from it) I don't really think it cost anymore to run than fans if you look at the big picture. my 1HP chiller costs ~$18 a month to run, take into account my old setup with the fans running 12hrs a day plus all the money it cost to make RO water to replace the evap. Just exhaus the chillers heat outside.

2) Use a HRV 24/7 that unit uses 62w based on my tests This way you can get some air back into the room wich won't match a 100% exchange with the chiller fan going but the chiller isn't always on so there shouldn't be any fear of the concern you had origianally. Also this is a good "natural" way to keep your PH up.

3) Use a bathroom fan hooked up to a Humidistat... hooked up to the ACIIIP. Yes another thing to vent out that you can't put back into your fish room, but your not going to be running it 24/7 so I don't seen any concern for "make up air"

4" Tap into your Cold air returns and your vents. This is probably the second most effective way to deal with the humidity and it's free (for the most part) I believe this will only work during the summer when your AC is on and the air can go thru the condenser to remove the humidity. But since the summer is the season that seems to suck the most in the entire humidity/heat thing this is when it will do it's job best. Also you can put flappers on the vents if you aren't using the so your not wasting heating/cooling.

I have all 4 of these things going on, It's nice to be able to take something off line if need be. Right now I don't have my HRV running but have my chiller, bathroom fan, and cold air returns/vents running. I've had no "make up air" problem atleast my CO detector hasn't gone off.

Humidity and heat are huge issues. but at least your going to have you fish room enlosed so it will be easy to deal with, well sort of