Humidity issues SEALED ROOM! PLEASE HELP!

[gratefulart]

okay,

I run 8k sealed room, 2 long tables under 4 lights each. Room is about 12X20 or so. I have a 3 ton Excel ac system hung that cools efficiently. I also run 2 70 pint frigidaire dehuey's... All my plants in that room drink about 45 gal/ day. Right now, my ac and both dehueys drain into a trashcan that is inside the room (which may be my problem, not sure though)
I just moved a whole table in yesterday and watered everything. 45 gal. Both 70pints running and ac also. My room is hang around %70 RH!!! Maxed at %85 RH in the night! AAAAHHHH! I have a entire table of super think chunky nug in wk 4 that will get mold if i can't bring down the RH.

1. Should my 2 70pint dehuey's and my 3 ton ac be enough to hold down the RH around %40 or so for 8 lights in a sealed room?

2. Am i fucking up and or working against myself by leaving the waste water in the room?

3. If i drained excess water to outside the room, would my 2 dehueys work then with the ac? If not....

4. What brand and size dehuey should I run so that I'm not chasing the RH i want?

I about to go into town to the store and see what they say. I should be able to check responses later this afternoon. Right now I have my door to the room open trying to draw humidity out, but this is not ideal for the lights on or off.

 

[TheArchitect]

Get rid of the inefficient junk 70 pint dehumidifiers and get a Santa fe max dry dual xt.

 

[gratefulart]

Get rid of the inefficient junk 70 pint dehumidifiers and get a Santa fe max dry dual xt.

Damn those are pricey. over 2k! Do they have a drain system for continuous operation?

 

[Mikell]

I wouldn't do anything until you remove the collection reservoir from the room. Drains are easy to install, just watch for air locks. Adding brackets to raise the dehumidifier as high as your ceiling allows gains a little more efficiency.

Seems more like one or both of the dehums shit the bed, but that's just a guess. Some bargain models just don't keep up with anything, while I've seen quality 70 pints run with twice as many lights in sealed, watering coir 2 or three times a day. Might be wise to measure the volume each dehum is collecting.

 

[gratefulart]

I wouldn't do anything until you remove the collection reservoir from the room. Drains are easy to install, just watch for air locks. Adding brackets to raise the dehumidifier as high as your ceiling allows gains a little more efficiency.

Seems more like one or both of the dehums shit the bed, but that's just a guess. Some bargain models just don't keep up with anything, while I've seen quality 70 pints run with twice as many lights in sealed, watering coir 2 or three times a day. Might be wise to measure the volume each dehum is collecting.

Very interesting Mikell. Makes sense.

im going down to the store now to talk w guys about a drain design.

In regards to the dehueys crapping out. One is nearly brand new. All the filters are clean and hot air comes out.

Pryor to adding a tables worth of plants and turning on 4k more light in the room last night, they each had their own res to drain into. Been working fine w 4 lights and before that table when i had 7k in lights going. But I can safely estimate, based on the water in separate res's they used, that each 70pint dehuey was draining around 5-7 gal a day, posb more.... The water would stay in the room until I vacuumed it out 2x a day.

Do you have a brand of dehuey that you like a lot. 2k for Santa Fe is a bit out of my price range at the moment. I must take care of this now before my other table gets moldy.
Thanks for the time... I'll check back in soon

 

[gratefulart]

Anyone have expeirence with or opinion on the hydrofarm Active Air 180 pt commercial dehuey? I posb my have a line on a cheap new one.

Thanks

 

[symbiote420]

Without warm/hot air the process of dehumidification can't take place properly.... seems running an a/c to cool the room, which is necessary also is counterproductive. I just reconstructed my grow with a passive intake and removed my intake fan, thinking I should put my dehuey outside the room to avoid the heat and maybe the fresh air being pulled in will keep the humidity of the room in check, hopefully.

 

[TheArchitect]

Damn those are pricey. over 2k! Do they have a drain system for continuous operation?

It will pay for itself. Those two 70 pints pull around 16-1700 watts combined. And only pull round 70 pints combined at normal humidity and temperatures. Theyd be lucky to pull 140 pints at saturation, which is 80°f 80%rh.

The santa fe will pull ~9-950 watts. And it will pull 155 pints at aham standards which is 80°f 60%rh. At saturation it will pull more like 200+ pints.

You can get a condensate pump but it is set up for continuous drain.

8 pints in a gallon so 45 gallons of water a day of feed is 360 pints. Your ac will help with that while its on during the day.

 

[TheArchitect]

Anyone have expeirence with or opinion on the hydrofarm Active Air 180 pt commercial dehuey? I posb my have a line on a cheap new one.

Thanks

Junk.

Stick with thermastor products.

 

[nuggiespl]

How many fans do u have in ur room. Increased airflow should help, 70% rh wouldn't bother me that bad depending on temps. Search for vpd chart. Good Air circulation reduces mold issues tremendously, it feels like a hurricane in my room. Hope this helps

Nugs

 

[olekingkole]

The Santa Fe is nice, but you could probably solve your problem with one more 70 pint dehuey. That would be $300 vs. $2000. Another cheap solution would be to run an exhaust fan for a few minutes after the lights go off. Also, I agree with nuggiespiel about %70 plus lots of circulation.

 

[Granger2]

The best brand in the 2nd echelon of dehums is Friedrich. What are your settings? Do you have the Dehums set at like 50% 24-7? Is the AC running 24-7? Leaving the door open? What's the RH outside? What is the situation with your plant runoff? Is it sitting in the room? You need to make sure that there is no standing water in your room 1st off. -granger

 

[prune]

The Santa Fe is nice, but you could probably solve your problem with one more 70 pint dehuey. That would be $300 vs. $2000. Another cheap solution would be to run an exhaust fan for a few minutes after the lights go off. Also, I agree with nuggiespiel about %70 plus lots of circulation.

That's just throwing good money after bad, doubling down on a poor investment and one definition of insanity.:tip hat:

8k sealed room demands the efficiency of a low-grain dehumidifier, the amps burned by those three bargain bummers could be powering lights and earning money, not costing money.

Rough numbers show about 200g a week would need to pass through dehumidification in this situation, which would mean that the dual-dry would save a bit over $300 a month in utility bills. That's an annual 100% ROI if you run the numbers...

 

[gratefulart]

Wow. Thanks for all the answers and time spent on my situation fellas.

I will try to get to all the responses.

First off, to all who suggest that I get the standing water out of the room first, I would have to agree. This makes the most sense since I am fighting my dehumidification process by keeping the water in the room.

I just went to the grow store and home depot to get the supplies i need.

I am going to keep one 70 pint dehuey on each end of the room, raised up about 2.5-3 ft off the ground. They will gravity drain out the back to the center of my room to a condensate pump with a float switch (One dehuey draining to each side of the pump)
The condensate pump when filled will switch on and pump the water to a trash can on one end of the room. My 3 ton ac also drains into this trashcan as well. Inside the trashcan will be a 1/3 hp sump pump with a float switch from home depot. Once the trashcan is filled about 18 inches or so, the sump pump will switch on and pump the ac and dehuey water outside my flower room to my watering room.
There will be a top on the trashcan in the room to keep water from evaporating out as bad and the motor from the sump pump should be the only thing sticking out from the top of the trashcan. All parts should be automatic bc of the float switches in each pump.

In any instance, I need to get the water from my dehueys and ac out of the room not matter if I need a better dehumidifier or not. So I am going to take this step first in hopes that my two 70pt dehueys can still get the job done. Living in Colorado, too much humidity shouldn't be an issue. It has been raining for almost a week straight though.

Thanks again to all who chipped in and please continue to do so if anymore thoughts pop up. I'm gonna build this pump system and see how it goes. I'll also try to update my situation here soon.

Happy Growing

 

[Granger2]

Doesn't that mean that your still gonna have standing water in the room? The pumps won't keep your trash can dry. I don't think there's much less evaporation when that water is 2" deep than 2'. Still same surface area. Can't you just drain the dehums and AC directly outside thru the same openings that your pump lines go out? -granger

 

[the gnome]

The best brand in the 2nd echelon of dehums is Friedrich. What are your settings? Do you have the Dehums set at like 50% 24-7? Is the AC running 24-7? Leaving the door open? What's the RH outside? What is the situation with your plant runoff? Is it sitting in the room? You need to make sure that there is no standing water in your room 1st off. -granger

I'm with Granger, get a freidrich if your going with a noncommercial unit
the 50+70pt units come with built in drain pump,
internal bucket collection or gravity drain options
they also have a built in humidistat that's fairly accurate.
I have a $200 green air RH controller I bought for the dehueys but put it back in the box
because of the accuracy of the fried's humidistats

I run 2 50pt frieds in my 6000w grow and now upgraded to 8000w and the friedrichs hum along

of course the $2000 sante fe and those in the commercial/whole house dehuey range is a lot more efficient,
there's things to consider when making that decision.
there's a recent post on the smaller/the larger commercial dehueys
that is worth reading imo to see what might be best for you.
https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=305189