Re: [APD] RE: Humidity and Open Top Aquariums

["S. Hieber" <shieber at yahoo_com>]

There might also be an issue of how the mositure is venting
*into* your attic space plus the adequacy of the venting of
outside air through the attice space. Worth looking into.

Scott H.
--- Eric Wahlig <ewahlig at earthlink_net> wrote:
> 
> Unfortunately, I have had first hand experience with
> humidity and open-top
> aquariums in the home. I suppose there is an unlimited
> number of
> calculations you could perform based on tank size,
> temperature, relative
> humidity, home design, etc. to figure out what would work
> for your
> application but I found out the hard way. I had a 125
> open-top setup and
> another ten tanks with lids on them in a home in a
> relative cold
> climate/environment. After finding mold growth along the
> bottom of the
> walls and on the carpet and walls in enclosed spaces like
> closets, I bought
> a $400 dehumidifier. I had to special order it because I
> live in Colorado.
> No one has a dehumidifier in Colorado. Its a very dry
> climate and every one
> has humidifiers in their homes. In the summer most homes
> do not use air
> conditioning; they use evaporative cooling as its very
> effective in a dry
> environment and also provides a welcome relief from the
> extremely dry air.
> It basically pumps cool moist air into your home.
> 
> Anyway, I got the dehumidifier going and that seemed to
> clear up the
> mold/mildew problem and increased the electric bill by a
> large amount as it
> ran 24/7. I thought I had this humidity problem under
> control but during
> the winter I went up into the crawl space between the
> ceiling and the roof
> for some reason and found a real nightmare; large icicles
> hanging from the
> roof trusses. I estimate about 30 gallons of water in the
> form of ice
> covering the inside of the roof. This was a real problem.
> It took a week
> for the ice to slowly melt and evaporate by shutting the
> dehumidifier in
> the room that had the attic portal in it and running it
> full blast. It
> wouldn't fit into the attic. Of course I immediately put
> tight fitting lids
> on all the tanks to control the humidity/evaporation
> rate.
> 
> I attribute the problem to having high humidity in a cold
> location Although
> the relative humidity of the atmosphere is usually very
> low, its quite high
> inside the house and when the moist air contacts a cold
> surface it
> condenses. The house is located in Summit County,
> Colorado at an elevation
> of about 9000 feet. Its relatively cold all year long.


=====
S. Hieber

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