Dehumidifier Question

[famous]

I have 7' x 7' x 7' room, currently running a 600W Digital MH, 5050btu Samsung A/C unit, 465cfm 6" inline fanfor exhaust/cooling light, and a small inline home depot style 4" intake for fresh air.

I'm pushing humidity of about 60-70, and i know thats a little high. In order to get it into the 40-50 range, i was thinkinga bout picking up a dehumidifier. What Pint size would i need? also, why ar e they all advertised as "low temp", where can i find one that isnt low temp? I've found some deals on Ebay, so thats what im talking about.

I'll eventually be hooking this up to a temp/humid CAP box.

Thanks!

 

[Guest]

I have 7' x 7' x 7' room, currently running a 600W Digital MH, 5050btu Samsung A/C unit, 465cfm 6" inline fanfor exhaust/cooling light, and a small inline home depot style 4" intake for fresh air.

I'm pushing humidity of about 60-70, and i know thats a little high. In order to get it into the 40-50 range, i was thinkinga bout picking up a dehumidifier. What Pint size would i need? also, why ar e they all advertised as "low temp", where can i find one that isnt low temp? I've found some deals on Ebay, so thats what im talking about.

I'll eventually be hooking this up to a temp/humid CAP box.

Thanks!

Nooo... you WANT low temp. Normal dehumidifiers will not operate in low temperatures, the newer low temp ones will. You want this. Because if you ever need it in a cold environment you will be thankful!

That's not a large room but I'd still get a large tank one because you'll have to empty it a lot if you don't. My basement has the same conditions you speak of, and I have 1 40-pint dehumidifier and it gets the humidity down to 40% no problem. So I'd say a 40 ping. If you have a drain in the room you can even attach a garden hose to the dehumidifer and drain it to the drain, much easier than emptying a tank every day.

I bought a refurbished 40-pint off ebay for $100... had it for a month now with no problems, looks brand new. Check for "RefurbKing", he's a seller on ebay, i think its a decent deal considering new ones are 200-400 dollars.

 

[EZB581]

Famous, the LG dehum I have came with fitting for draining into a separate container . It will fill up the small slidein bucket quickly! At 1st I drained into a 5 gl bucket but went to a larger 20 gl trash can & use the water on my plants.

 

[DIGITALHIPPY]

i had seen breand new 60 pint Lg's on discount/clearance at home de-pot for around 150$ in so-cal

 

[famous]

you can use the water it makes in your plants? how does that go? Currently my room is a stand a lone room in the garden, so i can easily run a water hose out side for the drainage, right into the soil.
So is that pint number just the size of hte drain container? do they all do the same amount of dehumidifying? i just need the smallest one with a hose output then.

 

[meduser180056]

Yah the water is real clean and good for plants. Close to 0PPMs.

Yes pint size is the drain container size, which won't matter if you use a hose.

No they don't all dehumidify the same. You need get one rated for you space. Some are more powerful than others for bigger spaces.

 

[Guest]

I have an 8 by 8 by 8 and use a 45 pint.

 

[Guest]

7x7x7' you shouldn't need anything too big. Your % is high but not too much for a smaller unit to handle. Also, they put off a lot of heat so a bigger one will seriously raise temps in a small room.

The tank size is irrelevant if you run a hose to a bucket like mentioned above. Sit it on something a touch higher than the bucket the hose is going to and you will only have to change the 5 gal bucket every 2 days maybe.

 

[famous]

if i was draining inside to reuse the water, i'd probablymake a 55 gallon resovior. how much heat do they really put out? maybe i'll invest in a larger intake fan first.

 

[Guest]

if i was draining inside to reuse the water, i'd probablymake a 55 gallon resovior. how much heat do they really put out? maybe i'll invest in a larger intake fan first.

Why?

7'x7'x7' room....how much humidity would a small unit move to that big barrel do you think?

Why use up the space. All that is needed is a square piece of plywood placed on top of a 5 gal bucket, place the dehu on top of that. Cut a hole for the hose to drain into...

You would have to mount the dehu pretty high to prevent overflow leaks out of the unit. At least 4' plus.

Unless you don't come to the room but once every 10 days I don't see your logic???

 

[famous]

Thats the problem, the room is actually located an hour from where i live, so it could be 10 days before i see the room. right now i have a 30 gallon res. to water the plants. i dont think i'd need to collect teh water, i'll just drain it outside.What would be better for the plants: a 30pint dehumidifier draining outside, or a 265CFM squirel cage fan hooked up so it draws fresh air in through a 6" intake, and exhausts it into the room.

 

[Guest]

I would start with moving more air out and see how it goes.

 

[Rosy Cheeks]

I have 7' x 7' x 7' room, currently running a 600W Digital MH, 5050btu Samsung A/C unit, 465cfm 6" inline fanfor exhaust/cooling light, and a small inline home depot style 4" intake for fresh air.

I'm pushing humidity of about 60-70, and i know thats a little high.

I don't get it. I'm running 9400 BTU/h on 2 X 600w on a similar surface. The A/C pulls 1.1 L (0.3 gallons) of water per hour from the growroom, humidity never goes above 40%. Concidering your stats, you should achieve a similar result.

Or are those 60-70% night stats, when the A/C isn't running?

 

[Sauron The Blue]

rosy - when i added my ac my humidity went UP from 40 to 60-70%, it rarely gets down to 60 now unless they get watered early and there is no standing water/rez's in the grow room.

i believe if you had two identical rooms one holding a 600 and the other holding 2 600's and using the same size plant canopy I would think the humidity would be less in the room with 2 600's rather than the room with one.

 

[Rosy Cheeks]

i believe if you had two identical rooms one holding a 600 and the other holding 2 600's and using the same size plant canopy I would think the humidity would be less in the room with 2 600's rather than the room with one.

Believing is fine Sauron, understanding is even better.

A few things need to be concidered. HID light bulbs produce infrared radiation that transforms into heat. The growroom with higher light wattage should therfore generate more heat and be warmer (although outdoor temps must also be accounted for). As temperatures rises, water molecules react. As each molecule absorbs heat, it gets more energetic, and eventually has so much energy that it breaks the hydrogen bonds holding it to the other water molecules. It then leaves the liquid water, and floats off on its own in the air, as a molecule of water vapor.

Therefore, as temperature rises, so does air humidity. This is only true if there is a water source to 'saturate' the air with (which is why air humidity is very high in the tropics, but low in deserts), but there are water sources in a growroom. Water's present in mediums and reservoirs, and as temps rise, so does plant transpiration (which is why growrooms with much vegetal mass generally are more humid).

So, between two identical growrooms, one with a 600w light, and the other with two, the second should have a higher air humidity.

Nevertheless, the HID bulb produces 'dry heat', and as humidity rises with the hot air, an efficient exhaust will also evacuate more water, so you can't say that humidity will rise in a direct relation to the bulb light wattage, but it will rise.

Since mine and famous' growroom aren't identical, other factors are at play here. That's what I was getting at.

I'm not trying to reproach you brother, just trying to get the facts straight.

 

[Sauron The Blue]

Believing is fine Sauron, understanding is even better.

I don't get it.

your tellin me brotha!?

A few things need to be concidered.

a bit more than "a few" things need to be considered here imo, as the exhaust/intake of the room, the ac or the lighting system can change any of these environmental paramaters quite a bit.. watering times, medium selection, room size, res size, it goes on and on.

Since mine and famous' growroom aren't identical, other factors are at play here. That's what I was getting at.

600w, 5k-ac, 60-70% humidity
1200w, 5k-ac, 40% humidity
4800w, 10k-ac, 60-70% humidity

3 grow rooms, what is your incoming air temp/humidity? What is your intake cfm and exhaust cfm? Is your ac split window or portable? Is your light cooled? does it draw its air from the grow room?

the same size canopy, without additional sources of water...running more light, its not going to make the humidity go up to the point you would notice it. not in a room that size. maybe growing in a crammed closet you would see it, but not in a room that big.

either dial in the ac, and dehumidify it if needed, or ditch the ac and get a larger fan and try to grow in a wind tunnel. that should make the intake temp and exhaust temp/humidity pretty close to the same, and if that happens then your grow room should be in that ballpark as well.



fyi...
reproach meaning to find fault?
"get the facts straight" meaning to seperate truth from false?
in the same basket to me, but all in good fun nonetheless

 

[Guest]

Can someone recommend a quiet 50 pint with auto restart and drain?

 

[famous]

If i have only a 4" intake, with a weak homedepot inline fan, and a 465cfm ecoplus inline fan pulling though a scrubber, though a light, and then exhausting outdoors, should i be sucking more air out, or sucking more air in?
i'm not using CO2, so dont i need more fresh air int he box?

 

[The Dopest]

ok another question, same size room basically. 7x7 with high 60s humidity etc. would it be better to run a 65-70 pint model than a 35-50 pint? considering the larger model puts off a lil more heat, wont it run alot shorter than a smaller model actually being a better option? i know NF said larger = more heat but would it actually be that much more heat, that its better to have a small unit?

i gotta do somethin today folks is why i ask, its gettin serious in one of my spots and i would love some input. thanks IC community!

 

[Guest]

Man with a room that size I'd go with 45 pint,my flowerroom is 8 by 8 and it takes about 15 hours to fill and pull a little over 2 gallons out