Moisture in House

[Invigor]

Originally Posted by Delphinus

2- if you have a high efficiency furnace (or at least a low-cost DC drive fan), run the fan all the time. You can consider this without the high efficiency furnaces, but let me just say I tried this myself and was shocked at my utility bill the next month. With all the halides and stuff I run, that should tell ya something.

I tell ya it was a kick in the pants to find out our new furnace has a 110v fan instead of the variable 3 speed DC fan I -thought- was coming with it...grr. I think the AC fan motor uses 6amps...so that's the same as running 2 250w MH ALL DAY LONG!! huge bill

But, we also bought an HRV unit, just has to be installed. I'm really looking forward to it.

[TheReefGeek]

Oh and about the dehumidifier, if you can't plumb it to a drain line, it is going to fill up mighty quick.

[Delphinus]

Originally Posted by Invigor

I tell ya it was a kick in the pants to find out our new furnace has a 110v fan instead of the variable 3 speed DC fan I -thought- was coming with it...grr. I think the AC fan motor uses 6amps...so that's the same as running 2 250w MH ALL DAY LONG!! huge bill
..

I kind of wonder if it's possible to retrofit a DC drive in a furnace. My house is 2 years old now and had I known about the difference in DC vs AC drive fans when the house was being built I might have tried a little harder to come up with the extra few grand the housebuilder wanted to upgrade to a high-eff furnace. At the time it just seemed like too much investment for only marginal improvements.

I asked the guys doing my HRV install about that (retrofitting a DC drive fan) and they told me that by the time you added up all the factors, that you "might as well just go to the whole new furnace." Of course, asking someone who's livelihood depends on people buying furnaces might not give you the most unbiased answer, so I haven't really given up on that notion for now, might look into it again down the road.

..
But, we also bought an HRV unit, just has to be installed. I'm really looking forward to it.

Same situation for me. I've had the unit half-installed for nearly a week. The guy came back yesterday and although he's STILL not finished with all the ducting work, it's enough done that it can be turned on and I have to say, what an amazing difference. After about 6 hours, my house had dry windows (every single window) for the first time since the warm weather (it's only a problem when it's cold).

Of course as luck would have it, now that it's operational, it looks like we're heading into another warm spell for a few days, so I won't really know for sure until it gets cold again. But I have to say, I'm pretty excited about the potential here.

[Bob I]

Originally Posted by Delphinus

I kind of wonder if it's possible to retrofit a DC drive in a furnace. My house is 2 years old now and had I known about the difference in DC vs AC drive fans when the house was being built I might have tried a little harder to come up with the extra few grand the housebuilder wanted to upgrade to a high-eff furnace. At the time it just seemed like too much investment for only marginal improvements.

I asked the guys doing my HRV install about that (retrofitting a DC drive fan) and they told me that by the time you added up all the factors, that you "might as well just go to the whole new furnace." Of course, asking someone who's livelihood depends on people buying furnaces might not give you the most unbiased answer, so I haven't really given up on that notion for now, might look into it again down the road.




Same situation for me. I've had the unit half-installed for nearly a week. The guy came back yesterday and although he's STILL not finished with all the ducting work, it's enough done that it can be turned on and I have to say, what an amazing difference. After about 6 hours, my house had dry windows (every single window) for the first time since the warm weather (it's only a problem when it's cold).

Of course as luck would have it, now that it's operational, it looks like we're heading into another warm spell for a few days, so I won't really know for sure until it gets cold again. But I have to say, I'm pretty excited about the potential here.

I don't know if some facts would be of assistance to you. I don't know if you realised that warm air can hold much more moisture than cold. That should lead to the explanation of condensation on windows during cold weather. The moisture in the air condenses out when the warmer air runs into the cold window. It is very helpful to have a small fan blow air past a cold window. That is a relatively inexpensive cure. (always depending on the number of affected windows).

[Delphinus]

Hi Bob,

Yes, true, thanks but I was already running fans. I'm looking forward to not having to do this anymore. (When you have 3 fans going you know you have a moisture buildup problem.)

[Bob I]

Originally Posted by Delphinus

Hi Bob,

Yes, true, thanks but I was already running fans. I'm looking forward to not having to do this anymore. (When you have 3 fans going you know you have a moisture buildup problem.)

For sure, and newer houses are probably more airtight. On top of that if you have open topped tanks there is lots of evaporation.

[Delphinus]

Hey Rory, where'd you end up finding a dehumidistat?

[TheReefGeek]

Now you want me to remember things too?

I honestly can't remember the name right now. I remember I did a google search for dehumidistats, then i found a brand name of a company that made them. Then I called their head office, found a supplier in Edmonton, called them, and went there. Then I ended up getting a different one for half the price at the same place, it was like $20.00.

If I can think of the name, i will post back.

[TheReefGeek]

Ok I looked it up.

The company I originally found was LifeBreath, looks like they do HRV's yay!

www.lifebreath.com

I then looked into their dealers and in Edmonton found

ECCO HEATING PRODUCTS LTD.
Contact: ELAINE HODGINS / AL FIRT
14760-116th Avenue
Edmonton, Alberta
T5M 3G1
Phone: (780) 479-1946
Fax: (780) 474-8500
E-mail: ehodgins.edmt@eccohtg .com
Website: www.eccohtg.com
Toll Free: 1-800-330-3226


And went there and they had a cheaper model than the LifeBreath for sale.

There are retailers of LifeBreath in Calgary, just go to the dealer locator from the lifebreath website.

[Delphinus]

Cool, was just curious, that's all (I have the HRV already and it came with one, but just remembered you had some trouble finding a dehumidistat so I was wondering how it worked out in the end).

BTW, my HRV is a Lifebreath

This is going to sound sick but I can't wait for the next cold snap to see how my windows do. For the first time in a long time my windows have been bone dry during a winter month. Of course it's warm now so that's a big part of it, but even still the humidex is reading <40% and it's been a LONG time since I've seen that kind of a number. I like the tropical rainforest effect but I've since learned over the years that it's better to have that in an actual tropical rainforest and not your house.