Excess moisture in the house

[fixerupper]

Originally Posted by Coralgurl

Will look into, thanks



Cost



Do you have problems in the summer with heat in the tank?

This is one of the advantages of LEDs. We don't have central A/C and there were several days last summer that the tank climbed into the low 80s for a while. During those few days I removed the tops to take advantage of evaporative cooling. It never did get to the point where I had to mount a surface fan. I think if a person lived in a hot climate, had a warm house or used MH lights, the heat trapped by a top would be more of an issue.

[Coralgurl]

Originally Posted by fixerupper

This is one of the advantages of LEDs. We don't have central A/C and there were several days last summer that the tank climbed into the low 80s for a while. During those few days I removed the tops to take advantage of evaporative cooling. It never did get to the point where I had to mount a surface fan. I think if a person lived in a hot climate, had a warm house or used MH lights, the heat trapped by a top would be more of an issue.

I do have LEDs, but even last summer the tank temp rose into the mid 80's during the day (no a/c either). I threw a fan on the sump which did help. Been watching the cover thread and may move to a glass/lexan top for a cover.

I think I will go with skinning the tank to start.

[magikof7]

Since starting my biocube I too have mold in the windows. Plastic casing and the old wood ones, I spray them with a bleach and water solution or Vim spray for bathrooms let it sit for a few mins then wipe it out.
We have been thinking it is time for a dehumidifier as well. It just seems to be winter when we have the problem.

I have the Radion on my tank, I am still topping off up to 2 litres a day.

[sphelps]

If your house is new-ish you should have an exhaust fan that vents outside from your furnace cold air intake. Typically it's turned on manually with a light switch under your thermostat. This will do the exact same thing as an HRV without the heat recovery. Try it as a temporary solution, you can replace the switch with a timer or humidistat or just run it manually for a while. See how much of a difference it makes to your home humidity and gas bill. You can also get a new thermostat to control it so it turns on with your furnace based on humidity levels. Ideally it should run with the furnace fan so the furnace can bring new air in at the same time.

Also check your humidifier as others have mentioned, usually they are controlled with a humidistat located in your furnace room which is a pretty stupid location when you think about it. Turning it off is probably best for now.

Air circulation is key to reduce mold growth as well so increasing your furnace fan duty cycle is a good idea and of course keeping your furnace filter clean.

[SmallFry]

Ok, so you've had quite a bit of constructive advice here, but I've been stuck in a room with no windows learning about this sort of thing for the last couple of months. I had to suffer, now I'm going to bore you with it too.

Part of your 'problem' is that you have a pretty new house.

In old houses there were enough leaks that the warm moist air would rise to the top of the building and leak out, probably not doing the fabric of the building or whatever insulation there was much good in the process. Cold, dry air would then be sucked in (through a wall cavity containing who knows what in the way of formaldehyde loaded insulation etc.) to replace what leaked out the top, this is called the stack effect. In an older home you may not even notice any condensation issues because the air leaks are ventilating it for you (and adding to your heating bill).

Newer houses are much more airtight than they used to be, so this stack effect is reduced or eliminated and all that humid air is stuck in there. Enter the HRV...
Where I live you aren't allowed to build a house without one. Unlike an exhaust fan, a HRV brings air in in balance with what it exhausts and recovers some heat from the exhaust air to warm the incoming air (which is very useful in a Manitoba winter). The HRV wins over the exhaust fan in two ways. First that it saves energy. Second, in a newer tighter home there are not (hopefully) enough leaks to allow new air to come in and replace what the exhaust fan is removing, so the house ends up at a negative pressure, and the flow through the fan and therefore its effectiveness decreases - the HRV is bringing air in as well as exhausting, so this isn't an issue.
I know an HRV isn't cheap, but you may find it paying for itself in heating costs, especially if you live in an area where hydro/gas is expensive.

As swill noted these mould issues may well manifest themselves in the upper levels of a house since that's where the moisture will be taken by the rising hot air, and also the windows since the R value of a window is pretty low compared to a well insulated wall. An upstairs bathroom is a prime candidate, which is why our HRV takes air from all the bathrooms one of which is upstairs and has a switch so it can be used instead of a bathroom fan. It copes pretty well with the 5 gallons a well that my tank pushes into the air, to the point I only really run it intermittently.

I have also seen them just attached in the cool air return duct of the forced air system (exhaust air upstream incoming air) and wired to the furnace blower so that it operates when the HRV is running.

Hope that's of some help.

[gridley]

We had a similar problem earlier this winter and I began looking into the options. I realized that the humidistat for the furnace humidifier had been installed in the furnace room (likey for the ease of instalation) and the furnace room was the dryest room in the house - I lowered the humistate and the problem was solved. This is most likely not the same issue as you are having - but it is a quick fix if it happens to be the same.

[Delphinus]

An HRV really is the answer you're looking for, and it will have benefits that go far beyond just controlling humidity when the weather is cold. Now that I have one, I'd never live in a house around here without one - even if I didn't have tanks - they're that useful.

Maybe keep the idea in your back pocket and look into it eventually. You could go DIY to keep costs down, if that was an option.

Maybe run the summer fan more often in the meantime to keep the air stirred up.

A dehumidifier can help but they are noisy and expensive to run and only offer a localized solution (and the humidity bounces back instantly when they're off). But it will help out in the meantime.

[Starry]

i run 2 portable de-humidifiers in my fish room (basement) and have to empty them both daily. still a little bit of dampnes on up stairs windows when its cold, but nothing like it was with out the de-hums. looked into HRV but basment is finished and is cost restrictive.
I also run a 180 gallon.

[Mike-fish]

i run glass tops on all my tanks on the 175g i had a bit of heat issues 3x400w mh lights only when it was hot out. the 270g 3x400w no heat issues. 29g biocube hqi no heat problems