Controlling Humidity

[Charlie's Angel]

This might be the wrong forum, but I just put in a 375 with total volume of 550. The sump and refugium are not in a seperate fish room, but are in the storage area of the basement. I am in St. Louis (pretty humid here) and looking for some advice on how to control the humidity. I was looking at a Santa Fe Humidifier, but spoke with a rep at Sylvane and they recommended a HI-E Dry 100 Humidifier. This helps control humidity in houses with indoor pools, hot tubs, etc. Any idea or suggestions?

Thanks

[kevinpo]

Dehumidifiers work very well but be sure to have the auto drain feature hooked up. It can be a pain to have the empty the drawer twice a day.

Regards,
Kevin

[Charlie's Angel]

Yes...I will have that setup. Any recommendations on a dehumidifier?

[mattyice]

by far the best dehumidifier you can buy for a situation like that is the Aprilaire Model 1700, i personally have one in my basement and it takes out about 11G's per day, its really easy to setup if you can find a heating and cooling contractor local to you that will just sell you the unit, all you do is plug it in, pipe the drain on it into a floor drain, and turn it to whatever setting you need, the one we have is hooked up to our duct system but im going to be adding another one once i get my new tank setup

[Charlie's Angel]

Why would this be better than the HI-E Dry 100? Or is it just a coin toss?

Thanks for the advice, I am trying to determine which is best.

[mattyice]

well being in the heating and cooling industry myself i guarentee that the aprilaire pulls out more moisture in the air then a normal dehumidifier can

[danskim]

Is the Aprilaire 1700 installed outside?

[Charlie's Angel]

Good question...I am looking for something that I can plug in and go. I am going to call Sylvane as they sell this one as well as the HI-E 100. I will let you know what they say.

[Charlie's Angel]

Just spoke with Aprilaire and the 1700FS is a stand alone system you can plug into your basement. This is a newer model and they told me it can be bought online at www.iaqsource.com.

Still trying to decide between the two. Leaning towards the HI-E because it is geared towards indoor places with decent size water surface.

[Sullivmw]

Do either of the units produce much heat? I have a small unit bought at Lowes and I was amazed on how much heat the unit would give off. I would love to find a better unit that would pull more moisture, but produce less heat.

[danskim]

The 1700, not 1700FS, appears to be a ducted unit that plugs into a home's central air. It's also more expensive because it works for the whole house.
The 1700FS is just a localized dehumidifier.
When I asked a similar question not long ago, people recommended ERVs, energy recovery ventilators.

[Charlie's Angel]

I was recommended a dehumidifier over an ERV with my location in St. Louis. Don't know if that is correct. Not sure how much heat they will produce, but it will be some. I am not too concerned with that, as mine is in the basement. Currently, I have a small localized humidifier from Lowes as well and it doesn't generate too much heat.

[TIMMYE]

You could also look at the Santa Fe dehumidifiers. They remove more moisture water then then the Aprilaire.

[danskim]

Yes, I was looking at the Rx.
Timmye, do you think an ERV or dehumidifier would be better for temperate weather in Maryland?

[mattyice]

is this for a tank room or for your house? they both do completely different things thats why i ask, a dehumidifier is just going to physically pull humidity out of the air and send it down the drain in water form, an ERV is just going to exchange the stale air inside with fresh air from the outside, they are used in new homes because they are built so tight that the cleaning solutions and other products that create noxious fumes are dangerous to our health (why do you think kids are more sick and have more allergies nowadays) and a tightly built house keeps that all in

also the Santa Fe dehumidifiers cant pull out as much unless you are talking about the crawl space santa fe one

as for which one i would personally choose here in ohio (if this was going to be a tank room only unit) i would go with the ERV, exhaust fan, and dehumidifier for these reasons

-summer is high heat and high humidity - the same conditions that would be in the tank room, this is where the dehumidifier would do its job while the exhaust fan pulls the salty stale air out and the ERV does the same thing and bring in fresh air
-winter, turn off the dehumidifier and just run the ERV and if you have to, the exhaust fan - the winter is low humidity and cold temps, perfect for exchanging air in a tank room

I actually am going to most likely use at least the dehumidifier and exhaust fan from aprilaire because i get amazing deals on them and i feel they are the best products for indoor air quality

[danskim]

Oh yeah I forgot to mention. I don't and will not have a tank room, so I am contemplating a localized dehumidifier and an ERV.
ERV would be good for overall air quality in the house and helping the humidity somewhat in the basement where the tank will be.
But dehumidifier is better at what it does although probably louder and less energy efficient.

[Charlie's Angel]

I do not have a sealed in tank room. All equipment is in the back storage area of the basement. My basement is about 2,000 SQ feet and this is why I was looking at the HI-E Dry 100. It is a commercial dehumidier that pulls water from larger areas that have indoor water surface as well. I have also looked at the Santa Fe, but I don't think it will be as effective in such a large space.

It sounds like everyone is recommending and ERV, plus a dehumidifier. I have an older house (48 years old) and not sure about indoor air quality. All I know right know is that the basement feels humid, while the rest of the house feels fine. My thought was that if I pulled the humidity out of the basement, the rest of the house would be fine. Seems like I need an HVAC professional to come talk with me and look at my situation. There is one in my area that is a fellow reef keeper and he is going to give me a call this weekend and hopefully stop by. I will wait to talk with him.

Thanks everyone.

[mattyice]

Danskim you can pipe in the dehumidifier to run both in the basement and the house I can give you an example later tonight of how I'm going to change it in my house