Large Tank IN a Basement-Ventilation Suggestoin Please oh brethern of the mamoth tank

Cap, thanks for the response.

I should have been more specific in my question, my tank room DOES have a cold air Return (and supply).

Another quick question:

I'm in a backsplit so their is also a door right beside the cold air return that leads to the basement. The furnace is just a the bottom of the stairs.

Is it better to leave the door open, and let the humid air go downstairs by itself (which doesn't sound like it would work very well because you said the humid air rises) or should I leave the door closed?

Thanks again.
 
Outtacash,

Kind of a double edged sword.

In winter, you would most likely be fine doing it either way but keeping the door open could possibly be of some benefit ( not a great amount, but some ).

If any air that is cooler than the air that is more or less at the top of your stairs happens to get into your house, it should go down the stairs until it hits a point of equillibrium of temperature. Whether it sinks all the way to the basement floor or not really doesn't matter. The cooler air will be less humid than the rest of the air in the basement and will therefore help to dry that air.

I would also put some kind of a closeable vent somewhere in the wall of your fish room that will allow air from the rest of your basement to enter the room . I would locate it as close to the floor as possible so that it would be drawing in the coolest air. In winter, I would close the register that feeds warm air from the furnace. When the furnace runs, the return will draw the warm moist air out of the room and, at the same time, fill the fish room with cooler air. That should help cut down on evaporation.

In summer, if you leave the dooor open, your coolest dryest air will sink into the basement. That is something that I would think that you would not want to happen. I would keep the door closed in summer.

I would also close the vent loocated in the wall of your fiish room and open the vent from the AC just to keep the fish room cooler and to reduce evaporation ( because of the cooler temperature ).

Hope I didn't confuse you.
 
Capncapo and all who have done the Mod:

How are things going first off

Second her are some pics of where I am and where I want to put the mod and the intakes to the utility room:

In the following pic teh cold air line is one the left. I need to do a take off I think in the furnace room and locate the vent at teh top of the wall. I really cannot do it in the ceiling now because of the way I had to frame it but at teh top of the wall will be nearly as high. I also want to place the vents in from the furnace room at teh bottom of this wall. I have an additional cold air inlet / make up air to prevent CO from coming down the flue that is code here in MI,
Picture098.jpg


This is the tank. The ceiling will be greenboarded before the rest of the soffit is built around the tank to ensure a tight seal in there and to protect the mechanicals from the air adn humidity. I want to put the air to let the colder air in the room at teh bottom of the wall on the left which means I need to re-insulate after I get the vent.
Picture099.jpg


This is a ceiling vent above and a few feet behind the tank to let in A/C in the summer and heat (as needed) in the winter
Picture100.jpg


This is a vent I added to help condition the air in the viewing room.
Picture101.jpg


This is a pic again if te furnace adn the seconday fresh air make up
Picture102.jpg


And this is my 290 CFM fan that will be on a temp/de-humidistat controller in the room behind the tank.
Picture080.jpg
 
Looking good Skippy!

Looks like you're following the plan perfectly. Very nice work.

I'd be more than happy to give you some constructive criticism but at this point I have none.

Keep up the good work and let me know if I can be of any help.
 
For some reason, I can not see Skippy's pictures. Any chance you can post them to your gallery?

I too live in SE Michigan, and have my 180 currently being built into the basement. My fishroom is also my mechanical room (furnace/AC (x 2) and water heater). I think I have the 90% efficient furnaces, becase the house is 2 years old and I have the black flexible ducts coming into my cold air returns from the outside (which are currently housing a yellow jacket hive).

Both of the cold air returns travel right across the top of my tank. So I can simply add a register to each of these?
 
I just wrote to capncapo but then decided to post here. I have a new furnace, a Lennox variable speed one, efficience in the 90s somewhere. There is an a/c system as well. When they installed the furnace they did something to the chimney that included a chimney liner. Not sure what else. This system is supposed to have the blower on 24/7 but the wife often sets it to auto. That cuts down on efficiency of the ac/furnace.

Anyway, my basment fishroom has a 150 sump and a 75 fuge. Humid. There is a door and walls in the room, but it is hardly "sealed". Was going to get an exhaust fan and vent out the window but now worry about negative pressure.

The ductwork has lines for supply and return (intake). I have a vent in the supply, but the intake is closed.

Would a register to allow air intake into the furnace/ac system be helpful or bad? I have the supply register open all the time. Would I keep the intake open all the time, assuming one would help?

What about the door to the room? The furnace is in the center of the basement, about 15 feet from the room. There is a gap under the door so air can get in. But it seems seasonally there is a difference about when I want the room more sealed and when I want it more open.

I'm confused, as this post can show. Basically, with my setup do I:

1) want an opening for air intake in the room;
2) do I want that opening taking in air year-round;
3) what do I do about fresh air flow into the room re: supply vent/door to room;
4) what are the negative pressure worries here, if any;
5) what about the blower/fan, should it go to auto?

Thanks everyone in advance. I need to get the humid air out soon!
 
Well, I am still trying to figure out all of this. There does not seem to me to be one single "Mod" discussed here.

Question: capncapo suggests most of the humidity in winter will go up the flue. Why is that? Wouldn't it ALL get recirculated throughout the house?

If the house is too humid in that event in winter, then what? Back to the exhaust fan out the side of the house?
 
I see. No fresh air intake on my furnace BUT very old house, not at all in need of one I am told.

So I should do the intake into the system from the fishroom and also have an exhaust fan for use in winter if I don't want all that humid air, if I understand right?

Gotta get a register that can close for that intake, like having a supply register!
 
thats right. I do have afresh air intake and a back up to prevent negative pressure (code now in new houses here in my area). I also have teh air vent over the tank and one in the viewing room as well. Plus I am being conservative on hte lighting and using 2-250 watt MH in the LAIII reflectors. This helps reduce heat from lights.
 
Skippy,

Still no pictures (maybe has something to do with the settings on my work computer). Anyway, no I am not having issues yet, but the system is not up yet. The carpenter is framing the tank in as I write this (at least he is suppose to be doing it today). I am just trying to anticipate issues, and engineer solutions while I still have some flexibility during construction.

This thread has be very helpful, and gets me started at least.

Capncapo, your consultation is very much appreciated!
 
I live near Ann Arbor if you ever want to come out and look at things :D that is not a problem. I will be home all weekend working on this.

If you PM your email addy I will send you a progressive set of photo's and answer any question you have about them.

The cold air return is a good idea in a basement anyway and this is sort of how the humidity is removed in the summer from your house because that air goes into the system (from the top where warm humid air is) and the humidity gets pulled out. I ahve learned a lot about basic HVAC theory while doing this project. Warm air cannot be destroyed per se just moved and it is moved into the A/C system where th ewater is pulled out and it is cooled down.

Also in the winter you will want some vents for heating near teh floor to keep air currents moving down there. Hope this helps you and PM me and I can send you pics.....

Mike
 
If I add a vent to the cold air return, will I get more moisture on the windows upstairs in the winter?
 
From the HVAC folks I have spoken to it is a real possibility. It all depends on how much and how dry the air is that it will mix with, and how well the burner "dries it up" as it were.

I plan on getting a supply register to use as the return vent, so that I can regulate the intake if need be.

I also realized that days like today, when it is cool enough to turn off the a/c and open the windows, with the furnace system off, are the worse for basement humidity and that a return vent will do nothing to help that. Seems in any event a dehumidistat/bathroom fan vented to outside is needed.
 
it is realistic to have a fan on a de-humidistat to aid in mitigating the moisture as an augmentation to the cold air return.
 
It's all getting expensive looking... what I wanted to avoid. May look into the dehumidifier option hoping for sales in this off-season...
 
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