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dehumidifier that lets you exhaust heat?

T

TREE KING

are you guys exhausting your dehumidifier heat outta the grow room? i like to only keep the ac on when the lights are on and then run the dehumidifier only at night while the plants transpire. it adds alot of heat though especially during the summer. how are you guys dealing with this issue? is there a special dehumidifier that comes with an exhaust duct similar to a portable ac or something?
 

Coconutz

Active member
Veteran
The hot air is the dry air.
Thats how the dehumidifier works...
Sure, you could exhaust it if you wanted to dry another part of your home and let your grow room stay humid.
Anyway... You want the AC running constantly to remove moisture from the air.
Your dehumidifier should only need to run during lights off though.
If not, you should add more light, or do some bare bulbs.
If you have an intake vent going still you are wasting electricity with the deheuy
 
T

TREE KING

duh lol i guess that was a stupid question. thanks once again coconuts i guess worst case senario il have to run the ac at night. im tryin to save electricity you know and i figured that was a way. appreciate it
 
T

TREE KING

oh one more thing. do you know of a dehumidifier that has an energy saver setting in the thermistat? like when it gets to your desired humidity i dont even want the fan to run when it gets there you understand what im sayin? identical to the energy saver setting on an lg air conditioner
 

Coconutz

Active member
Veteran
I guess you could buy a humidity controller if yours doesnt have one, or doesnt work very well.
I think the most energy efficient way to run them is to let the compressor run. I set mine at 60 and it doesnt shut off very often when the lights are out.
If you want to save electricity grow more weed with the electricity you are already using.
Your room is way oversized for 4K. You should add more lights, or divide your room.
12/2 for veg and 11/13 flower ftw!
Dont run a dehuey with lights on. add more light
save money on nutes!
 
T

TREE KING

lol my room isnt oversized we'll just agree to disagree. i dont see how leaving it on and its running non stop would be energy efficient. i was just tryin to figure out a way to avoid spending the extra $80 on a humidity thermistat. im buyin another dehumidifier next week i figured i could find one with an energy saver thermistat. whatever no big deal
 

Coconutz

Active member
Veteran
Because it takes a lot of power to juice up the compressor a bunch of times.
If it stays running at a low power its more efficient than letting the rh spike while its off and then the compressor is ramping up to full power all the time.
Thats why its important to size it correctly to the load youre going to put on it.
Just like an AC
Your room is oversized.
You are at about 30wps.
Thats just barely good enough for house plants or reading
It also adds to your humidity and wastes electricity with the dehuey needing to dry a bigger space than is being used
just trying to help you save electrcity
peace
 
T

TREE KING

hmm never heard that before. your sayin its also good to do that with an ac? i keep my ac on the energy saver setting. why would they have that option if it didnt work?
 

Coconutz

Active member
Veteran
You will have rh spikes when the ac shuts off.
If my ac isnt working the room will get very moist even with the lights on.
When the lights go on the ac removes all the moisture from the room and I dont need to run a dehuey.
If the ac wasnt properly sized it would cycle the compressor on and off and the RH would spike!
The energy saver setting isnt what you want in a grow room.
You want to properly size the ac to the room load.
You want to keep everything constant
If you are running your intake vent you are wasting electricity with the ac
just trying to save you electricity
 
T

TREE KING

You will have rh spikes when the ac shuts off.
If my ac isnt working the room will get very moist even with the lights on.
When the lights go on the ac removes all the moisture from the room and I dont need to run a dehuey.
If the ac wasnt properly sized it would cycle the compressor on and off and the RH would spike!
The energy saver setting isnt what you want in a grow room.
You want to keep everything constant
If you are running your intake vent you are wasting electricity with the ac
just trying to save you electricity
yeah but even on the cool setting the ac shuts off. it just keeps the fan running as the temp rises. im curious does just the fan running on the fan setting control the humidity?
 

Coconutz

Active member
Veteran
Not like that it wont.
If the ac shuts off the coils arent cool, so it wont dry the air...
My ac compressor has an inverter and throttles back instead of shutting down.
A typical window banger may try to save energy by shutting off because they are terribly inefficient.
I only used one when I first started grwoing and dont really remember it too well
 
T

TREE KING

thats my point so it wont make any difference if its on the energy setting. its all good though this is just minor shit. appreciate the info
 

BubbaBear

Member
They dont make special dehumidifiers with ducts for the heat like a portable AC as far as I know BUT...they do make portable ACs with cooling dehumidifying functions I've even seen ones that offer cooling or heating dehumidification. Its something I've been curious about and looked up several times my self because dehumidifier heat sucks ass !I could never find anything about it.Then l bought a used dual duct Soleus AC/heater/dehumidifier and noticed it cooled when it is in the dehumidifier function, not as much as when its in AC setting but it definitely doesn't kick off heat, its perfect for running at night, so as long as you can hook up a dual duct portable AC at your spot your good to go, enjoy .
 

Asslover

Member
Veteran
Most store bought dehumidifiers will shut down completely (fan and all) once the set RH is reach and stays for more than a few minutes. My Lowes bought 70pt Frigidaire does that. So did the HD bought 70pt Lg I had before that.
In a sealed room night time RH spike is usually always an issue. Down here in Florida it's particularly bad.
Down here most serious growers run sealed, co2'd, dehumidified and AC. And most of us use mini split AC's.
When my dehumidifier kicks on (at night) the warms (dry) air causes the AC to run, which in turns further dehumidifies the room, which causes the dehumidifier to shut off, which causes the AC to eventually shut off, which causes humidity to rise, which kicks on the dehumidifier, and so on...See, we use the two as a system. And this way we're able to maintain perfect temps and humidity 24/7/365.
 

Treetroit City

Moderately Super
Veteran
Gotta jump in here, sorry for the brief hijack. Hopefully it adds to the thread.

Coco, you're saying deheuy shouldn't run during lights on. Mine runs during lights on, if I set my controller for a higher daytime rh thus keeping the dehuey off, the mini split should pick up the slack?
 

Coconutz

Active member
Veteran
How many watts? Room size? BTU? That the breeze?
Theres a sticky here with BTU calculation in the growroom design section...
If the AC is properly sized it should remove enough moisture to not run the deheuy.
The dehuey will just make the ac run more...
If the ac is oversized it will cycle the compressor on and off and the RH will spike.
When I run with only a few lights in my room I will need the deheuy, but when I have enough load on the ac it runs constantly and takes moisture out of the room.
The heat from the lights should make the ac run hard enough to take all the moisture out of the air.
I have a hard time keeping the humidity up during stretch with bare bulbs in my room.
Once the buds fill out the humidity gets up to about 65 but I find that its just fine with fans running.
When I want it 50% in there I just turn the AC down. It removes more moisture and the plants like to finish cooler anyway.
Peace
EDIT:
If youre air cooling lights you may be oversized
 

Coconutz

Active member
Veteran
They dont make special dehumidifiers with ducts for the heat like a portable AC as far as I know BUT...they do make portable ACs with cooling dehumidifying functions I've even seen ones that offer cooling or heating dehumidification. Its something I've been curious about and looked up several times my self because dehumidifier heat sucks ass !I could never find anything about it.Then l bought a used dual duct Soleus AC/heater/dehumidifier and noticed it cooled when it is in the dehumidifier function, not as much as when its in AC setting but it definitely doesn't kick off heat, its perfect for running at night, so as long as you can hook up a dual duct portable AC at your spot your good to go, enjoy .

Except you dont really want it too cool in the room.
They continually cool even if its already cold.
Once its below 65-70 it shouldnt really remove any moisture at all
The deheuy should throttle back once its at the set RH, the ac will just keep running on dehumidify
I usually keep my ac set to 77 and it stays about 75 with the dehuey running at night.
Keeping the day/night DIF low or even + seems to reduce stretch(so they say)
If you can get the temp down a few * for the first few hours of lights on its supposed to reduce stretch(so they say)
soleus sucks ass!
 
T

TREE KING

They dont make special dehumidifiers with ducts for the heat like a portable AC as far as I know BUT...they do make portable ACs with cooling dehumidifying functions I've even seen ones that offer cooling or heating dehumidification. Its something I've been curious about and looked up several times my self because dehumidifier heat sucks ass !I could never find anything about it.Then l bought a used dual duct Soleus AC/heater/dehumidifier and noticed it cooled when it is in the dehumidifier function, not as much as when its in AC setting but it definitely doesn't kick off heat, its perfect for running at night, so as long as you can hook up a dual duct portable AC at your spot your good to go, enjoy .
coconutz is right. if it cools at the same time than it defeats the whole purpose cause all its doin is the identical thing that the window ac does. my window lg ac has cool, fan, energy saver, and dry settings. the dry setting is the function your talkin about on the portable cause it cools and drys the room at the same time. im not seeing a way to get rid of the heat without cooling the room so i guess i dont really have any other options other than keeping the ac on and ready to kick in when the heats gets above a certain degree during the night cycle
 
T

TREE KING

Most store bought dehumidifiers will shut down completely (fan and all) once the set RH is reach and stays for more than a few minutes. My Lowes bought 70pt Frigidaire does that. So did the HD bought 70pt Lg I had before that.
In a sealed room night time RH spike is usually always an issue. Down here in Florida it's particularly bad.
Down here most serious growers run sealed, co2'd, dehumidified and AC. And most of us use mini split AC's.
When my dehumidifier kicks on (at night) the warms (dry) air causes the AC to run, which in turns further dehumidifies the room, which causes the dehumidifier to shut off, which causes the AC to eventually shut off, which causes humidity to rise, which kicks on the dehumidifier, and so on...See, we use the two as a system. And this way we're able to maintain perfect temps and humidity 24/7/365.

thats great news. i also plan on buying a Frigidaire except im getting the 50 pint one
http://www.amazon.com/Frigidaire-FA...8&qid=1388916935&sr=8-1&keywords=dehumidifier

since its the same company im guessing it functions the same. appreciate the info
 
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