fish room / home humidity ideas needed.

[mikesin]

Hello, I have a 75G DT in our first floor living room with a sump & refugium in the basement. We moved here 2+yrs ago and the house humidity is always 50% +. I don't know whats normal for this house but this seems just a bit to high. The room that houses the sump / refugium is an unfinished utility room a washer - dryer - furnace etc,. There is s 50 pint dehumidifier in this room that runs 24/7 365 days a year - its set at 50%. I am thinking that alot of our humidity is traveling up from the utility room in the basement to the upstairs.
So we are looking at ideas to 1. lower the humidity and 2. lower utility bills by not having the dehumidifier running 24/7.
We have looked into a whole house dehumidifier but were back to larger utility bills.
We have looked at fresh air exchangers BUT I don't quite understand why one would want to bring humid air from the outside in. Living in PA. we have lots of humid days and nights in the summer. Maybe in the winter this would work but I cant see it working in the summer.
We have had our furnace/AC checked for leaks and general condition that could be contributing to the humidity and it checks out ok.
We also have an attic fan that runs during the summer, its set at 95*, I plan on replacing the temperature controller with a humidity/temp controller.
Back to the fish room, I'm thinking of enclosing the sump / refugium stand area and plumbing fresh air in and humid air out thru 3" or "4" round duct work with small cfm fans to move air, Kind of a fresh are exchanger.
What are your thoughts? any ideas on what to use to enclose this area?

Thanks
mike

More photos in my album

 

[skinz78]

You may want to look into a Fujitsu ductless heat pump. I have one and I love it. They have a dehumidifycation setting and I think you would see a huge difference by using it. I'm not sure if you are eligible for any rebates on one but it is worth looking into. When I got mine it was almost free thanks to the rebates I got in on.

 

[swannyson7]

I'd say your best bet would be to run exhuast fans controlled by a humidistat. I use the CAP AIR-1 which has adjustable settings to kick on for both humidity levels and temperature levels and I'm running a 130 cfm exhaust fan. I've noticed a significant reduction in moisture problems in the house since installing the unit and no more mold on the windows!

 

[mikesin]

skinz78 - thanks - I'll check it out.
swannyson7 - did you enclose the sump? run duct work over the sump or just install the fan thru an exterior wall? how big is the room?

Thanks
mike

 

[Engloid]

No offense, but it sounds as if you are trying to solve a problem that you really don't know exists. If you don't have a problem, save your money for other things.

That said....

I have heard that a whole house dehumidifier can actually save money because it will allow you to keep the house drier, and it will FEEL cooler. In other words, if you currently keep the house at 72 in the summer, you may be able to change that to 75...and run your AC system less time.

I have a dehumidifier in my basement, where I have two 55g drums setup in a "mechanical room." The display is upstairs, and I plumbed it in with 1.5" pvc. The dehumidifier adds a lot of heat to the basement in the summer, and makes it unbearable in the summer. A dehumidifier is basically a small air conditioning unit. It blows air over a cold piece that causes moisture to condense. However, when they make the one cold part, it also creates a hot part. This is similar to having a window air conditioner. Think about how it blows cold inside, but hot outside. A dehumidifier typically doesn't have any way to blow the heat outside. So you are using a dehumidifier that creates heat, and then an air conditioner to counter that heat. This is a lot of energy spent.

I put a window air conditioner in and it solved several problems. I now can control temp down there better, and the AC unit also acts as a dehumidifier in the summer time....while blowing the heat outside. In the winter, I will turn off the air conditioner and run the dehumidifier...because I WANT to keep the heat inside in the winter.

Many window air conditioners will not advertise that they dehumidify, but they all will. If they create condensation, they are dehumidifying. The difference is in the electronics. If it has a dehumidify mode, the fan AND compressor will turn off and on periodically. In AC mode, the fan will usually run nonstop, and the compressor will turn off and on to regulate temperature. In "econo" mode, the fan will come on every 2-4 minutes to check room temp. If the compressor is needed, it will turn it on.

In short...a small window air conditioner may be your best bet to regulate temp, reduce humidity, and reduce energy costs. Oh, and if you get a 110v unit, you can easily put a plug-in timer on it so that it saves you even more energy by not running all day on whatever cycle you set it to.

 

[Reef Pets]

I see that yo live in PA. That humidity will become useful in a couple of weeks when you are running your furnace all of the time. The heat from the furnace will take the humidity from the air with no problem and the humidity will help with dry skin that the furnace tends to create.

 

[Murfman]

This is what you need; Panasonic FV-04VE1 | Energy Recovery Ventilators | Westside Wholesale

 

[mikesin]

Thanks for all of thr replies. Humidity in the house during the winter or heating season is a nice thing, problem is the house humidity is still in the 50's and water condensates on our windows which drives me crazy. water literally runs off the glass onto the wood sills. We replaced all of our windows this summer and had to replace 1/2 of the sills because of rot. I'm thinking the humidity may be worse now that the house is s a bit tighter. I'm not sure how much the aquarium is contributing to our humidity, maybe this house had a humidity issue before we purchased, and from the looks of the window sills I'd say yes. The basement is partially finished, no standing water or mold that is visible, 3/4 of the basement is carpeted and its never wet.
Murfman - I understand how you solved you problem with an AC unit, but our basement doesn't get hot at all n the summer.
I do like the idea of an ERV - I just don't understand how it removes/transfers outside humidity.
Again, thanks for all of the replies

 

[toddanddaneen]

I do heating and cooling for a living you may want to check that your ac unit is properly sized for your home. Some people say big is better is just not the case. If your unit is too large it will not run long enough to pull the humidity out. Also the way pulling hot humid air in helps just makes your unit run longer to pull the humidity out trick is getting the right amount of air in. Is it just certain areas of your home or the whole
house. Pm me the tonnage of yourunit and square footage of your home ill run some quick numbers. Todd

 

[nixer]

50% humidity isnt real bad. there are many other things that would cause the windows to fog up like that.
do you have an attic fan?
do you have vents in your sofit?
do you know if they insulated around the windows when they replaced them?

 

[kuyatwo]

The amount you are collecting in your humidifier how close is it relating to what your tank is evaporating

Is see you are have bio balls is water slowly running over them and is exposed to air on the way down if so that could be why you are getting alot of evaporation.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[mikesin]

Thanks Nixer, we do have an attic fan that has a hum/temp controller, vents and unblocked sofit. And yes, I the window were insulated. to be clear, the new windows have NOT condensate as of yet, however, winter hasn't hit yet. OHHHH did I just say the W word (

 

[nixer]

Thanks Nixer, we do have an attic fan that has a hum/temp controller, vents and unblocked sofit. And yes, I the window were insulated. to be clear, the new windows have NOT condensate as of yet, however, winter hasn't hit yet. OHHHH did I just say the W word (

you might be ok then. as typically in winter time houses become dryer due to heat.
i think the big reason why its so high right now is that your sump is by the furnace and typically furnace rooms dont usually have very good ventilation, but the old windows themselves surely didnt insulate well either.

 

[embro]

Remember that humidity is closely related to your house capacity of retaining heat/cold.
A well insulated house will prevent more humidity from the outside and also keep more humidity inside.
If your house is from 1990 or older, there is not much you can do, the construction standards were very low compared to newer homes.
I see that you seem to have an oil furnace, if it is an air unit, you can add an inline dehumidifier/heat recovery these unit are usually very effective because of the amount of air passing thru them.

My home have this problem, I will install one of these next year, cost is around 500-1000.

Hope this helps.

 

[skinz78]

Welcome to Reef2Reef!

Remember that humidity is closely related to your house capacity of retaining heat/cold.
A well insulated house will prevent more humidity from the outside and also keep more humidity inside.
If your house is from 1990 or older, there is not much you can do, the construction standards were very low compared to newer homes.
I see that you seem to have an oil furnace, if it is an air unit, you can add an inline dehumidifier/heat recovery these unit are usually very effective because of the amount of air passing thru them.

My home have this problem, I will install one of these next year, cost is around 500-1000.

Hope this helps.

 

[embro]

Thank you Skinz78!

 

[Hahnmeister]

I would go for the enclosed fish room myself... line the walls with FRP and caulk it up tight. Keeping the aquarium air from mixing with the main house air solves soooo many problems. This will keep the aquarium heat in during winter, and prevent it from taxing a dehidifier/airconditioner in summer. The enclosed humid room will mean less evap as welll. If you need to vent the fish room, do it with the outside air so it wont burden the house. If you run a couple ducts (one fan blowing in, one blowing out) with the outside to the fish room... pretty much all of your needs can be met. For all intensive purposes, the ideal fish room should be thought of as a seperate building from the house... a welll insulated building with skylights...lol.