Humidity and ERV/HRV

[reef tank guy]

I have moisture problems in the basement that aren't being solved by a dehumidifier. The problem is compounded by the couple aquariums I have down there.

I'd like to pump out the stale humid air out of the basement, and pump fresh air into the rest of the house.

My concern is humidity. The summers here are pretty humid. I don't want to be pumping more humidity into the house. Will either an ERV or an HRV dehumidify the incoming air?

I had my local guy here yesterday woking on a quote to replace my old leaky a/c with a heat pump. He suggested an ERV but was a little shaky on what would happen with the humidity if I"m pumping cool humid air out of the basement, and feeding the ERV with warm humid air from outside.

Thanks,

Dan

[deejoe]

Check out the "Humidex' it could be exactly what you need.
http://www.humidex.ca

[reef tank guy]

Thanks, but I don't think an exhaust fan is going to work for me. It would be great on those days when the outside temp is in the 70's, but the rest of the time I wouldn't want to be wasting all that heating/cooling.

Any other input on humidity and erv's? I know they transfer moisture, but which way does the transfer go during summer months. I don't want to add more humidity to my house.

Oh, and this site is addicting!! I just found it yesterday and already have spent hours looking through all sorts of threads. Lots of good info!

thanks,

Dan

[teddy bear]

Originally posted by reef tank guy
I have moisture problems in the basement that aren't being solved by a dehumidifier. The problem is compounded by the couple aquariums I have down there.

I'd like to pump out the stale humid air out of the basement, and pump fresh air into the rest of the house.

My concern is humidity. The summers here are pretty humid. I don't want to be pumping more humidity into the house. Will either an ERV or an HRV dehumidify the incoming air?

I had my local guy here yesterday woking on a quote to replace my old leaky a/c with a heat pump. He suggested an ERV but was a little shaky on what would happen with the humidity if I"m pumping cool humid air out of the basement, and feeding the ERV with warm humid air from outside.

An ERV transfers about 50% of the moisture from the wet air stream to the dry air stream. Exhausting wet air while introducing dry air will wet the dry air and dry the wet air. This defeats drying wet fresh air. An ERV helps dry damp fresh air when you exhaust dry air. They remove about 50% of the moisture. You need dehumidification to remove the other 50% or the inside space will get as wet as outside after 3-4 air changes. A couple fish tanks are easy to dry with a high eff. properly sized dehumidifier. How many gallons of water are added to the tanks per day? What climate are you in? A possible solution is to use a ventilating dehumidifier to introduce 50-100 cfm of air to the rest of the home, while maintaining 50%RH throughout the home. Exhaust 50-100 cfm from the fish tank area. The dry air from the home will move through the fish tank area keeping it dry. Keep in mind, drying the space will eliminate most of the odors in the basement. TB

[deejoe]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by reef tank guy
[B]Thanks, but I don't think an exhaust fan is going to work for me. It would be great on those days when the outside temp is in the 70's, but the rest of the time I wouldn't want to be wasting all that heating/cooling.

Your away off base in your uninformed "air flow" thinking. If you knew more about air movement,location of damp moist laden air, you just may give this "so-called" exhaust fan a look.
It is worth looking into. And unlike a Dehumidifier that guzzles lots of electricity and has to be drained, this Humidex only consumes 45 watts of power and needs no drainage.
'nuff said

[reef tank guy]

Teddy Bear, Thanks for the info!

I used to have a couple hundred gallons of saltwater in the basement and evaporated a couple gallons of water a day.
That, coupled with existed humidity problems was too much for my existing dehumidifier to keep up with. I had to cut back to just a couple small tanks....for now.
I'm in Illinois, and we get our share of hot humid weather.

A ventilating dehumidier sound promising. As one dynamic I've noticed is that when the dehumifier runs constantly it actually warms up the basement, the warm air causes an increase in evaporation from the fishtanks, which causes the dehumidifer to work harder, which warms the air....
From the little bit of research I've done it looks like the ventilating dehumnidifer vents it's heat outide?

Thanks again,
Dan

[reef tank guy]

deejoe, it looks like the humidex processes 205cfm. That's 205cfm that I've already paid to heat, or cool getting pumped outside?

Not that I doubt the Humidex's ability to reduce humidity. (well actually, I do doubt it will be very effective during the many hot humid days of summer when the basement needs the most help. But I guess that's just my 'uninformed air flow thinking')

Dan

[beenthere]

What teddy bear said.