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humidity problems

M

mr_X

as most of you know, i have a 300+ gallon total volume, topless system in my basement, with roughly 1800 watts of light over it.

we are beginning to notice signs of trouble. mold on ALL window sills, and actual puddles of water on window sills...and this is the stuff we notice easily. i'm afraid to take a look inside the heating/air conditioning ducts.

Diana and i have recently realized that we both have a cough, and some yucky, dark mucous as well, and don't have an explanation for it.
i'm going to make an appointment with an ENT doc to double check, but i think it's from the humidity/mold in the house.

now, my questions-
what do you see in your houses?
what ventilation have you implemented?

i was thinking of using an in-line bathroom fan on a timer, set to run when the lights come on and a little while after they go off, and pipe it with 4" duct outside, from the tank room. do you think a simple bathroom exhaust fan will be sufficient? how many cfm should i shoot for? the tank room is roughly 15x20, and also has the washer, dryer, hot water heater, and house heater in it.

i also thought about using something like this-
http://www.nehydro.com/store/index....id=394&zenid=8cff7548dfdb89e43acb1521711dd65f
to monitor humidity, but the sales department explained that a timer would be better, due to the fact that most of the evap takes place during the photo period.

any help would be appreciated.
 
1

120gallons

I don't have any standing water or mold, but I did definately "notice" humidity and had doors swell, etc in my basement. I installed a dehumidistat which turns on a bathroom fan if humidity gets above a set point. I just installed it so cannot comment on results yet. But the humidistat and a good fan cost me less than $150. There's pictures on my blog.
 
M

mr_X

thanks for the reply. i wish you had more time with it to be able to comment on it's effectiveness. :-\
 
Hawkeye

Hawkeye

could you pick up one of those small portable de-humidifiers as a stop-gap until a more permanent solution could be attained?

I had mold on all of my window sills - but the problem in our case was the windows were bent/old/a mess when we bought the house. We replaced the windows and then had a cleaning crew come in and do the "vent cleaning" - with some kind of diluted bleach solution. I honestly don't know if it worked or helped...but I was a little unsure about the house so thought it best to do so.
 
Phyl

Phyl

Officer Emeritus
Officer Emeritus
We run the biggest dehumidifier we could find in our basement that drains to a sump hole so that it doesn't shut off. Before that I noticed that everything in the basement felt damp. Our tank is actually upstairs with the drain leading to downstairs and I don't have any noticable moisture upstairs. It keeps the basement noticably drier. I would start with that AND possible add the humidistat/fan config as well.

Once that is in place I would have the vent system professionally cleaned. Good luck getting it cleaned up.
 
J

JasonR

In the winter I run a Pellet stove on the one side of the basement. It takes all the Humidity out of all the air in the basement, In the summer time I run a large Dehumidifier and it also drains into the sump pit.
If the dehumidifier is not running the tile floor gets damp in the fish room area, with it on it is dry.Putting a top on the tanks will help
Jason
 
M

mr_X

thanks peeps. if i put tops on the tank and sump, now i am shopping for a chiller.
since this basement was never really 100% dry to begin with, i'm going to make a DIY humidex http://www.humidexhome.com/pub/Basement
but i'm going to beef it up to about a 360 cfm fan and use the combination humidity/temperature unit linked above.
if it works, this will end up costing me about 300 bucks, as opposed to the 1500+ dollar pricetag on the less powerful humidex.
 
Phyl

Phyl

Officer Emeritus
Officer Emeritus
What is a Humidex? I've read the website, but nowhere on there does it talk about how it works. Also, how do you plan on building a DIY version?
 
M

mr_X

they have pictures of all in one versions on that link somewhere, but it's actually just a low cfm, inline fan in the basement piped outside, and a series of registers throughout the house to allow the whole house to breathe. since this house is old, and the doors aren't flush with the floors, i don't think i need registers. meanwhile, they charge upwards of 1500 dollars for this.

what i have purchased is an inline fan from home depot(27.95). it's actually a flow booster(250cfm). and some flexible 6" pipe(8.00), along with a no-backdraft exhaust port(7.99) which i'll mount to a window in the tank room. i'll run the flexible pipe to just above the tank, which is only 6 feet from the window. i'll need to buy some wire, to attach the fan to the power source, via the humidity sensor, and of course the humidity sensor, but i think i can well beat the humidex people.

yesterday, i ran a regular table top fan in that window all day, and i noticed alot less moisture on the windows upstairs. now, i had the tank room door shut, but i can't do this for long because the cat litter box is also in the tank room. poor little guys bladders were bursting yesterday ;D

if this doesn't work, i'm going with a HRV....these are alittle pricey though, but then again, this isn't a poor man's hobby :-\
http://oee.nrcan.gc.ca/residential/personal/new-homes/r-2000/standard/how-hrv-works.cfm?attr=4
so, i think if i use a larger, more efficient fan, the problem should be solved.
 
P

PaulM

Phyl said:
What is a Humidex? I've read the website, but nowhere on there does it talk about how it works. Also, how do you plan on building a DIY version?
Click to expand...

I actually installed a humidex in my basement as opposed to running a dehumidifier. It costs almost next to nothing to run and works quite well. It does a good job of circulating the air in the house. I do not have any of my fish equipment in my basement (Yet) but the humidity was quite high down there when I bought the house about a year ago. I was able to get mine for free (Dad works for a building magazine) but it is a rather simple design and I would recommend the DIY version
 
M

mr_X

ok. i'll give you guys an update.
i went with a simple DIY exhaust fan and it works perfectly.
home depot had a 250cfm in-line fan for $24.95, 8 feet of flexible duct, a vent, a square to round adapter, a 15 foot cord, and some of that foil tape pictured.
the total for this was 70 bucks.
i've been running it full time, with no ill effects. i can't hear it run, i have to put my hand on the pipe to feel the vibration. all mold has stopped, and the window sills are dry.
f3-1.jpg

f2-1.jpg

f1-1.jpg
 
Phyl

Phyl

Officer Emeritus
Officer Emeritus
Could you take a picture of the other end of that pipe? I'd like to see the details of that wooden shelf up there and what the other side looks like!

Thanks for the update.
 
M

mr_X

umm..sure...
the wooden shelf is nothing more than a place to put my ballasts. i have a seperate breaker dedicated to those.

as i said, i just threw this together, to see if it would work, before i spent money on a more drastic measure.
what you saw was as far as i've gotten. if i wanted to make it pretty i would have made a turn at the end and put a nice intake register there, but i don't see it, nor does anyone else.

now i have a fan at one end of the tank, which pushes air in that direction...heat rises, so i had hoped to catch alot of it with the duct. it worked as planned.
end.jpg

hawaii.jpg

airflow.jpg


hope that helps your curiousity ;)
 
P

paintman27

2 quick question......
Are you planning on running exhaust fan 24/7 or just when your lites are on?

If you are going to run fan 24/7 should'nt you have a way for fresh air to circulate back into the fish room?
 
M

mr_X

1. 24/7 is working well now. this house is almost 70 years old. there's plenty of ventilation IMO.
meanwhile, i'm going to test the air inside the house for Formaldehyde, Nitrogen Dioxide, Carbon Monoxide and Carbon Dioxide. also mold, yeast, fungus, and bacteria, just to be safe.
it's a 70 dollar test kit. money well spent for anyone's home ;)
 
Phyl

Phyl

Officer Emeritus
Officer Emeritus
Sounds like a great test kit, especially for the older homes (but with all the water most of us run, lots of those would be great to test for no matter how old the house).

Any links to the test?
 
L

Lord Viper

I had the humidex people come to my home for the basement. I listen and looked at the system and it looks like you could build it yourself and vent the doors leading to the basement. If you can build these fish tanks im sure you can build this thing.
 
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