de-humidifier

[ree123]

PM me your ph. # and I'll give you a call soon. Do you text ? Maybe one day next week I can work out a visit time with you.
This week is full.

[finaddict]

If your ever down this way Rick, stop by. I am just down this hill from Drew.

[finaddict]

Update: Outside temp at 9:00 am was 29 degrees. Fish room air temp is 77 degrees with 35% humidity. I have 1 20 gallon tank with angels with no heater and water temp is 74 degrees. So far so good.

[davidtcb1]

Anyone use an air exchanger? Better than dehumidifiers? More expensive I'd say? Thoughts? Jon, I know I've talked to you about them before but not in depth. Just wanting the pros and cons for the future.

[jon carman]

They are great, but big investment and hard to install.

A dehumidifier is better for small rooms. I need one for my room, long term I should save money because dehumid are terrible for electric bill. So 1st thing I would do is cover everything, all tanks, and use backsplash. Then I would use dehum, then air exchanger as last resort.

[ree123]

My room is staying in the 80's but few tanks are covered.
The de-humidifier does seem to draw a lot of electricity. I think it is like running a 110 air conditioner unit all the time. No idea how much electricity it uses though.

I am not familiar with an air exchanger.

[plecoman]

Ok Rick, it's time to get out of the dark ages and post some pictures on here! LOL.............. It's very simple...

[paddysdaddy]

For big operations, an air exchanger is the only way to go. Mine is rated for 3,000 square feet and is in a 650 sq ft room. 4500 gallons, no tanks covered and it runs less than 20% of the time. Thanks to Craigs List and a road trip, this 1800$ machine was 100$. It is 1000 watts which seems like a lot until compared to multiple dehumidfiers, not to mention the short lifespan I experienced with DH's in much smaller applications. Not hard at all to install, two 8" ducts to the outside but would be more problematic if exterior wall was brick.

pic shows it over a frontosa tank (woo hoo I posted a pic)

Attachments:

[davidtcb1]

Thanks! Can you show a pic of how the ducts go outside?

[paddysdaddy]

Sorry, no pics handy but I'll try to explain...There are 4 10"x20" vents (2 in, 2 out), two on each side, one top, one bottom. The top vents are the ones to vent to the outside, left side air in, right side air out. The bottom vents (one left, one right) are where ROOM AIR goes out and FRESH air comes into the room, these are left open in my application, when attached to a central HVAC system, this is where the air exchanger(AE) is ducted into that system. The controller is a humidistat with a reostat and is nondescript about what % humidity the dial is at any given position. I've marked mine with pencil, 3 o'clock on the reostat is about 55% humidity, for instance. I've had a couple of controllers go bad and being vigilant to watch on ebay and amazon has allowed me to pay $6 to $22 rather than the usual $80-$100 each.
For the unfamiliar, an AE is two radiators with a fluid pump circulating the fluid between the radiators. A squirrel cage blower blows air ROOM AIR thru the first radiator and then to the outside, the blower also brings in new air FROM OUTSIDE thru the second radiator. The easiest explanation I've come up with is that it salvages temperature from your exiting interior air and transfers that temperature to the inbound fresh air. The concept and effectiveness is so simple that it really had me in disbelief for a long time. But it works and works fabulously!
If you are shopping for one, go north. These are quite common in WI, MN, Canada etc. There are plans to DIY these on the 'net but unless you have access to nearly-free parts, go with a used, name-brand unit.

[davidtcb1]

Great info. Thanks! What's a price tag new/used on one like yours?

[bnoel210]

He said $1800 earlier i think

[davidtcb1]

Ah, ok. Thanks Brian. I got a little lost lol.

[bnoel210]

Np

[paddysdaddy]

Finally got a fishroom video together, the air exchanger description starts at 5:50, this might provide some answers on how it works, how it's ducted etc..Any questions, please feel free to ask!