High Humidity At Night - DIY (Do It Yourself) Solution?

joe macclennan

Well-Known Member
No the draft inducer motor you took from that furnace is less then capable at best is would be rated at about 60 cfm ,but more likely in the 40 t0 50 cfm range ,

you have tried many things to control your humidity ,it seems like you might want to think about moving your location if you cant get the humidity under control with all you have done .

I would be concerned about the calcium chloride you are using , Im not sure but I would have concerns about the gases it may release effects on your grow, that is some pretty powerful stuff, I would say you would have the same results with cat litter or speedy dry .

you might want to rethink your apporch on using a A/c unit as a dehumidifier , you are certainly correct the 2 systems do act Alike ,but you have to understand the specifics of removing Humidity , you see its the rate of air flow that you are moving across the dehumidifier coil , the air moves at a much slower rate ,therefore extracting the max amount of moisture from the air. (when sized properly) this is why Joe Mc posted about getting a DEHumidifier you have to understand the principle Physics of Air (science)

A A/C system moves air across the coil at a much faster rate ,therefore not being as efficient as a Dehumidifier ,and if the said A/C system is over sized for the said sq ft the moisture removed is at even a much lesser rate . therefore you might only be removing a very small amount of moisture in the air. hope this helps a little good luck.
as ususual you are a wealth of knowledge in all areas hvac jr . I wasn't informed enough to make a guess as to the cfm rating of the inducer motor. And was struggling to explain why a dehumidifier works better for dehumidifying air than ac alone.



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Bumping Spheda

Well-Known Member
The DampRid clone brought night time RH down to ~70% AC on fan only (not sure if leaving the AC off is good, I feel there's less of a chance for mold at cooler temps). I plan to cut a couple holes in one of the lids that came with the tupperware containers and add a PC fan. This stuff actually does work! I think increasing the air flow over the CaCl2 could help reduce RH to a respectable level.

Thanks again for the help so far, everyone. If this doesn't work I might add another DampRid clone to increase effect, but I'll severely start considering a dehumidifier on craigslist.
 

Bumping Spheda

Well-Known Member
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The little calcium chloride dehumidifier is in the corner. Just took apart a really old laptop cooling pad for the fans, then epoxy puttied them onto the lid. It's absorbing a lot of moisture, but RH is still about 85% at night. Last harvest finished and there were no signs of mold. I added some air flow to the room so I'm going to leave it as is. If RH gets back up to 99% I'll buy more calcium chloride.

Not a fix for my circumstance. I'm not even sure if a dehumidifier off craigslist would really solve the problem, it won't fit in the tent and the ambient air is ~35%.
 
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