NEED HELP WITH DEHUMIDIFIER CHOICE! HYDRO GROW

[dragonbender]

Hello Everyone from Canada,

I am about to start building my sealed room. I have 90% of my equipment.

Basement Grow/ Sealed Room
4- 1000w HPS Lights
4- 6" air cooled hoods
1- 24k BTU Mini Split
4- 4x4 Flood Tables (each table with 9 Plants scrog 36 plant total)
1- cO2 tank

So here is my issue. Each Table will have a 60 Gal Res with lids. I understand there will be 240 Gal of water in the res. I also understand that I have to dehumidify ALL the water my plants transpire or drink. Knowing these facts can anyone suggest the size of a dehumidifier?

Humidity here is high in the summer and winter is usually dry. I am worried about lights off humidity levels. I was considering a Quest Dual 105, but i don't know if this will be sufficient for my application.

On a side note and question, can i leave the quest 105 outside my room and be just as efficient battling humidity levels?

 

[digging]

Look at dri-Eaz

https://www.drieaz.com/DEC_Content_000.aspx?pageID=1162&colID=1007

Their made for the fire flood restoration industry.

Won't go wrong with any of them.

 

[dragonbender]

Look at dri-Eaz

https://www.drieaz.com/DEC_Content_000.aspx?pageID=1162&colID=1007

Their made for the fire flood restoration industry.

Won't go wrong with any of them.

Hey thanks for the quick reply. Is there a specific model I should be looking at. From what I calculated I am going to need something big. I have a budget for the 2k area.

Thanks

 

[queequeg152]

if you are going to be running a dehumidifier for any appreciable period of tiime... months to years, you really need to consider a proper high efficiency "whole house" type dehumidifier.

check out aprilaire... honeywell... sante fe etc they are all basically the same model, just rebranded.

they are made by one company, but im sorry i cannot recall it right now.

they make one that is astonishingly efficient compared to your traditional dehumidifer... but they start at 1 grand. you will make the money back in savings after like 5 years if i recall correctly.


on the other hand... you could just eat the extra electricity cost and buy like 10 of the cheap 300ish units you see at home depot. they are made like shit... but they are so cheap it does not really matter.

its really up to you.

the problem with the mold remediation/ flood remediation units is they are geared for a very high capacity in a fairly small package, but typically they are not appreciably more efficient than a shittier home depot friedrich or something... but if space is at a premium they might be worth looking into. they are typically very expensive though.

 

[queequeg152]

oh and for the love of god. please size your ac unit appropriatly... do a manual J to hit your cooling demand as precisly as possible... this will allow your ac to run near continuously at near 100% capacity.

this is by FAR the best way to control humidity.... yes VRF minisplit systems can ramp up and down to deal with a varying load... but they remove the most moisture when they are running at full blast with low cfm's.

 

[dragonbender]

Hey guys, thanks for the replies. For my specific application can anyone recommend size of the unit? I was narrowing it down to three specific models.:

1. Quest Dual 100/155 105/155 pint
2. SantaFe Force 100pint
3. Dri-Eaz 1200 145 pint


I don't know if these units will be sufficient for night time and the amount of water in my room.

 

[dragonbender]

oh and for the love of god. please size your ac unit appropriatly... do a manual J to hit your cooling demand as precisly as possible... this will allow your ac to run near continuously at near 100% capacity.

this is by FAR the best way to control humidity.... yes VRF minisplit systems can ramp up and down to deal with a varying load... but they remove the most moisture when they are running at full blast with low cfm's.

well as for ac unit. Im thinking of 32k BTU unit. Overkill, but at least I wont be struggling to cool the place down.

 

[queequeg152]

well as for ac unit. Im thinking of 32k BTU unit. Overkill, but at least I wont be struggling to cool the place down.

lol... ok then. i guess you dont believe me?

 

[issack]

I have an 8k grow room and I'm running an 18000 BTU mini split. it's doing just fine. And a 70 pint dehumidifier that I got at home depot for like 250 bucks. No need to go any bigger. I have double what u have an 70pint is fine..

 

[troutman]

If you can save some of that condensed water for your plants.

It's basically distilled water and very clean.

 

[dragonbender]

If you can save some of that condensed water for your plants.

It's basically distilled water and very clean.

Exactly my plan my friend. Thanks for the suggestion. Can anyone tell me if I can place my Dehumidifier outside my grow? My plan was to have it sit outside the room with the duct going into the dehumidifier and then back into the room.

Im looking into the santa fe and quest dual 105.

Wanna keep heat down and smell out.

 

[OldPhart]

If you are going to go that big on the AC, do yourself a favor and make sure that it is an "inverter" style unit. basically it doesn't turn on/off like a normal A/C, as long as you are exceeding it's minimum capacity. It just turns it's capacity up/down to maintain the temp. Plus when it is dialing back from 100%, the efficiency goes way up, and it does a good job of removing the moisture. But you need to be careful about over sizing too much, if you go too large with the A/C, espically if it is not an inverter style, it will not run long enough to remove moisture, before it shuts off. Ideally you would want your A/C to run from the moment the lights come on, till an hour or so after they go out. Then you really need very little in the way of cooling/dehuey during lights out, and no additional dehuey during lights on. It has been a long time since I ran anything besides tents/boxes, but if I remember correctly, I only needed about 5000 btu/KW to take care of heat and moisture, without air cooled hoods.

OP

 

[dragonbender]

Hey Thanks for the reply. I think I am changing my stratyegy. Just purchased 4 of the spyder x plus led. I think these will run cooler. And yes ill make sure its a inverter style ac.