Humidity control in fish room in FL

[chrismhaase]

My buddy has a fish room with some humidity issues in Florida.

So this is what I was thinking. Adding in the ceiling a bathroom exhaust fan with a humidity control. Will this work? Where is it suggested to exhaust the air from the fish room; up into the attic or pipe it to the outside through a duct?

Here are the products I am considering.

Fans
http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/wcs...=10000003+90401
or
http://www.kitchensource.com/bathroom-fans/br-504.htm

Controller
http://www.rewci.com/huusfordecoc.html

Any and all suggestions welcomed.

Thanks, Chris H.

[alpine]

Well you dont want to exhaust the air into the attic.That will only take the humidity problems from the fishroom to the attic.Definately exhaust the air to the outside of the house.

[chrismhaase]

Cool thanks.

[Gtstricky]

Have they tried a dehumidifier?

[8BALL_99]

He will probably end up having to have either a Dehumidifer or a window ac in that room.. I'm in Alabama.. I use an Exhaust/Intake fans in the winter months to cool my fish room and deal with the moisture.. I vent the hot humid air out and bring fresh air in at the same time.. Works great.. But in the summer here its pretty humid outside.. If you exhaust the air outside your just going to be pulling hot humid air back into the house somewhere else. Not saying it wouldn't help that room but you would just be adding hot humid air to another room.. If you exhaust air out of the house Make up or replacement air has to come in from some where else.. Cracks under doors ect ect.. Thats just how it works. The air outside probably isn't any cooler but It MIGHT not be as humid. I know here its pretty dern humid alot of the time!

Dehumidifers arent' much better though. Since they give off a ton of heat and use alot of power. I use a window AC in my Equipment room since it cools the air and moves the heat outside.. Still uses a little power but atleast it gets the heat and moisture out..

Will

[DMBillies]

I got a dehumidifier in my townhouse because in the winter the water was condensing on windows and causing some mold issues. I got it used from CL and after installing it we noticed a $30 jump in our electrical bill (our average is only about $150, so a very significant jump especially considering the number of appliances and tanks jammed into our townhouse (on top of the normal ones we have a kegerator, 270 gallon, nano cube with halide light, 30 gallon frag tank). I didn't really process the amount of energy a dehumidifier could use (after some research, and considering it ran almost 24/7, I'm not surprised).

As said, venting the air will probably make your A/C run more in the summer. I don't really know how you would avoid that other than a dehumidifier and they are really pretty inefficient (especially because of the heat they introduce into the room... at least an AC unit is releasing that heat outside). A window AC unit would work, but the price and operating cost of one of those might not do you any better than just running the main house AC more.

I also wonder if combining a timer and humidity sensor might not be more appropriate than just a humidity sensor for control. Implementing a timer would allow you to run the fan more during the times when the weather is least likely to create additional load on your heating/AC (i.e., during the summer avoid running the fan for the hottest afternoon hours when your AC will already be having trouble keeping up and allow it to vent more at night to make up for that lost time during the day...reverse the cycle in the winter time). This method would certainly allow a build-up of humidity (and temperature) in the fish room at certain times which your set-up may not be able to tolerate, but I would think you could still avoid most of the problems associated with humidity that way.

Interesting problem from an energy perspective... reducing my consumption is something I've really tried to strive for as I upgrade my equipment and set-ups (helps my wallet and the environment).