dehumidifier

[BillT]

I am looking for a dehumidifier for my fish room.
I have checked out consumer reports and looked at local craig's list items with limited success.
I may have to get one from a store, but according to CR this is the season when they would be selling them cheap.

I think I want a large one. CR defines large as able to dry out a wet basement.
In the winter either the humidity builds up so I get condensation on cold water pipes and makes a mess or I run my ventilation fan and then use more electricity to heat the tanks. I figure it will save me money.

Any thoughts?

[Mugwump]

Here's what Aron uses...
http://www.mugwump-fish-world.com/index.php?topic=84.0

I do something similar. Just a fan exhausting slowly....cheaper than a dehumidifier by far...A dehumidifier pulls like an air conditioner...$$$$'s

[BillT]

Here's what Aron uses...
http://www.mugwump-fish-world.com/index.php?topic=84.0

I do something similar. Just a fan exhausting slowly....cheaper than a dehumidifier by far...A dehumidifier pulls like an air conditioner...$$$$'s

I now use antic fan, which isn't too slow, but I have it run by a timer, so I can easily vary it between running 100% of the time in the summer to keep things cool and 25% or less time in the winter to remove humidity and keep things dry. This also takes out the heat which the tank heaters then replace.

The wife complains about the electric bill and blames it on the garage (fish room location), so I have several approaches:
1) replace as many lights as possible with LED strings (will save fluorescent bulb replacement costs
2) try removing humidity by another means (dehumidifier)
3) come up with a good lid design that will keep in humidity and work with my various set-ups. This should reduce the amount of humidity to be removed by whatever method.

Update:
Got a Craig's list response about a dehumidifier that is at least the same make as one consumer reports likes. It was "almost new" and about 1/2 the price I would have expected for a new one.

features I want:
? less noise
? able to plumb water output to drain
? large capacity
? good controls (turn off when it reaches humidity set-point
? energy efficient (for a dehumidifier)

In my searches, I also found a dehumidifier that uses a peltier device rather than a compressor. Unfortunately it was rather small. Peltiers are a solid state cooling device that don't have the large start-up current of a compressor and should also produce less electrical noise. They are used in the small refrigeration devices you can get power from your car cigarette lighter plug.

It seems that a well designed dehumidifier should be able to reuse some of the energy it uses in cooling to remove the water from the air by using its heat radiator to dump that heat back into the room and reheat the air. This would of course reduce heat loss.  I don't know if they do that yet though.

[LizStreithorst]

I need to do something with my fish room.  I'm going to try turning on the fan in the AC window unit.  As it is, I have unaccptable amounts of water dripping from everywhere.  I love how it feels all warm and moist down there, but I can't deal with floods from the ceiling.  It simply won't do.

[BillT]

Can also result in fungus, which is unhealthy for humans.

[LizStreithorst]

I need to do something with my fish room.  I'm going to try turning on the fan in the AC window unit.  As it is, I have unaccptable amounts of water dripping from everywhere.  I love how it feels all warm and moist down there, but I can't deal with floods from the ceiling.  It simply won't do.

My carpenter/fish friend/good man buddy, Bud Boozer showed up last Wed and loaned me the dehumidifier he was using in his basement fish room.  (The lucky dog got it for free).  His is a small unit.  It's a White Westinghouse 25 which I guess means that it can remove 25 pints of water daily.  He says that using it has cut down his electric bill.  His wife was bitching about it before, she is no longer bitching after.  During the warmer months he didn't have to turn on heaters in his tanks.  That's good for me because I have high temperature loving fish.

I believe that I have fallen in love with this one: http://www.abt.com/product/55089/Frigidaire-FAD704DUD.html.  I know that it uses a lot of juice, but if it heats my fish room while it takes out moisture, where is the loss?  You can set it to the humidity level you want and it will run enough to take it there.  I'll use exhause fans in the summer.

Please tell me if my reasoning is flawed.  I'm not in the mood to put $207. on my credit card.  I'll kick my own arese to Timbucku if I buy the thing and later find that there was a better option.

[Mugwump]

Nice unit,,remember venting back to your fishroom is defeating the purpose of running one....all that exhaust is moisture.....you'll be just recycling the same moisture around and back into the room, etc....the electric co wins...

[LizStreithorst]

Please 'splain to me better, Mug.  What venting back?  The moisture laden air goes out the drain hose.  Dry warm air is circulated throughout the fish room.  Win/win! 

I can be thick sometimes.  Please tell me better what you see that I don't.  The fish room is well insulated but the only other heating I have in the room is an oil filled electric heater and the heaters in the tanks.

[Mugwump]

Please 'splain to me better, Mug.  What venting back?  The moisture laden air goes out the drain hose.  Dry warm air is circulated throughout the fish room.  Win/win! 

I can be thick sometimes.  Please tell me better what you see that I don't.  The fish room is well insulated but the only other heating I have in the room is an oil filled electric heater and the heaters in the tanks.

No dehumidifier is 100% efficient...the vent on the units front returns air with much, much less moist air than it took out....mine has a separate 'dryer' type hose that vents out the window exhausting heat and excess moisture,,,besides my drain hose to the floor drain....I see that the unit that you're looking at doesn't have the separate exhaust port...disregard my comment above..

[Frank The Plumber]

I use a unit made by Soleus Air, it uses like 3.5 amps or something. It makes heat and adds to the room temp which is OK because it just takes less for the room heater to do it. Every tank is covered too. I pull out about 3 gallons per day. Not too bad. 150 sq feet of room with 2000 gallons of water at 80 F.

[LizStreithorst]

The one that I'm looking at has similar specs to yours.  Mine will only cost $207. with free shipping.   Yours costs a good bit more even at Walmart.

It sounds to me like I've decided.  Now all I need to do is bite the bullet and buy the dang thing.

[Frank The Plumber]

Look at the fleet farm stores like Blaine's they might have something agricultural that is better.

[BillT]

I also ended up getting a SoleusAir Dehumidifier for $208 from Amazon (I get free 2 day shipping with them because I have Amazon Prime).
It is very quite, has a hose connection for running the water to a drain and is supposed to be able to do 70 pints/day. .
I also got a good humidity sensor so I would have an independent test of its effectiveness. On the whole I think it is working well and am glad I got it. One might say I am giving thanks for it.

When I was ventilating the garage, the humidity was at about 50-60%. When the ventilation was off for a few hours the humidity would go up over 60%. With the ventilation off and the dehumidifier running I could drive the humidity down to 45-50%. Not that much lower, but enough to really reduce the amount of condensation I got on some cold water lines. An additional advantage is that the room temperature (heated only by the tanks, and now the dehumidifier) went up from the 60's (˚F) to to high 70's or 80's. I have two semi-attached rooms. One is 15 x 25 (625 sq. ft.), with a few large uncovered tanks, but three water systems for the tanks that make a bunch of humidity, and a ceiling fan to keep the air moving. The other fish housing area is about 15 x 20 (300 sq. ft.) in a larger room with about about 30 poorly covered tanks (no separate water systems).
The dehumidifier is in the first room near the door between the two rooms. It has a greater effect on the first room than the second.

One of my next projects is to make better covers for all that tanks that need them. This should cut down on a lot of humidity. I have added up the area I have to cover and it will come to 3.5: 4'x8' sheets of plastic or 2.5: 4'x10' sheets. Not cheep.