Dehumidifier in shop?

[ebarr]

Hey everyone. I am fairly new to this group, but am really enjoying reading everyones posts.

Has anyone purchased a dehumidifier for their shop. I saw some this weekend for a few hundred dollars and wondered if it was worth it.

My shop is 14' x 20' with a concrete floor. It's pretty well insulated, one of my early projects when we bought the house, and it is under some pretty heavy shade most of the day. As a matter of fact I have some moss problems on the back side of my roof. Someone told me to put some copper wire at the pitch of my roof and it would keep the moss off. Anyone ever heard of this? I have tried about everything else, to include spraying with Round Up, with no luck.

My TS stays fairly rust free with frequent coats of Johnson Paste wax. But was looking for a way to cut down on some of the dampness.

Thanks,
ebarr

 

[PeteM]

I have a small one in my basement shop and think it's well worth it. I just dump it out every morning before heading out to work. It pulls out about a gallon a day. The only problem is that it also puts out some heat so I usually leave it off on Friday night if I plan to work in the shop early on Saturday.

pete

 

[DaveO]

I run one too. My shop is a basement/garage. Three of the walls are below grade. I don't have any moisture problems, except for minor flooding during really bad rains :crybaby2: The dehumidifier help to keep things dry and keeps me from sweating all over everything :eusa_doh:

Dave

 

[McRabbet]

I bought one for my shop (25 pint/24 Hr capacity) and I also bought a thermometer with a humidity gauge on it. Since my shop is in the unfinished and therefore unheated/unconditioned part of my basement (still raised 4-9' above the crawl space), I do get elevated humidity (up to about 75%) during summer parts of the year. I waterproofed my basement concrete walls (below grade at the front side of the house) and put up an R-19 insulated stud wall to insure less moisture from that source. My crawl space has 6-mil polyethylene vapor barrier, but I haven't completed the R-19 insulation under the shop floor. Outside walls are now insulated with R-13, too. I have the dehumidifier outlet connected to a drain hose and turn it on whenever the RH exceeds 55%, which occurs maybe 2-3 months of the summer. It will knock the shop RH down to < 50%. It's running right now as I noticed the relative humidity was up just over 70%.

Rob

 

[sapwood]

My situation is similar to Tekkdan's, except my shop is a 10x14 standalone. I bought a dehumidifier for about $150 bucks (LG brand) at Wally World and it makes a real difference. I keep it set at about 55% and during hot summer days it will suck up close to 2 gallons. Since the tray only holds a few quarts, I run a hose down to a bucket so I don't have to empty so often.

Bottom line . . . it works great, but every couple of months I still rub out a little rust and put a coat of paste wax on CI tops.

HTH,
Roger

Oops! Be sure to get a model that will work in cold weather 8-O
Unless stated in specs, most won't work below about 55-60 degrees!

 

[Tarhead]

What about a portable heatpump? A little bit more $'s, but you get cooling (definitely a good thing today in Durham) , heat and dehumidification. They're programable for heating/cooling and don't require a lot of demolition to install.

Check these out: http://www.soleusair.com/Consumer/index.htm
I especially like the ones with dual hoses(LX-140, LX-120)...one for cooling the condenser and one for exaust. Otherwise you're exhausting conditioned air from the room to cool the condenser

I have decided to go with a split heatpump unit for my shop like this:
http://www.ajmadison.com/cgi-bin/ajmadison/KFR18GW.html
as humidity is not that much of an issue for me in the winter and floor space is always an issue.

As far as moss on shingles, I have seen these Zinc based strips used for fungus on asphalt shingles. They don't fix existing problems, just prevent future probs.
http://www.roofhelp.com/shingle_shieldx.htm

Stay cool,
Mark

 

[Steve D]

I run a dehumidifier in the summer in my garage shop and it eliminates rust problems from humidity. I'm able to run a hose outside so I never need to empty it.

I have heard of using copper wire as a solution for moss and it is supposed to work very well. you need to make sure that the rain water that comes in contact with the bare copper wire washes down to the area affected by the moss. It will take a while to work so don't expect to see results right away.

 

[eddie joe]

I use a dehumidifer that i got at lowes. I set it at 55 . It keeps my tools pretty much rust free. I have a basement shop and it pulls a good gallon a day out or it. Makes a big difference from last year. Re :the roof the wire thing works but i think it is galvanized wire rather than copper.

Edd

 

[PeteM]

The was an episode of Ask TOH where Tom put a new roof on a some guys garage and installed did something along on the roof to control the mildew. I think it might have been this stuff . . .

http://www.z-stop.com/z-stop.htm

pete

 

[Steve D]

It seems that both copper and galvanized (zinc) will do the trick but the runoff from zinc can be toxic to other plants:

[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Copper[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Copper is usually applied in the form of copper sulfate. It is corrosive to metal eave troughs, downspouts, and the metal parts of sprayer equipment. They should be flushed with water immediately after using. Unless a great deal of copper is used, it is not toxic to plants.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Zinc[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Zinc is usually applied as zinc chloride. Zinc in some forms is corrosive to metal so take the same precautions as with copper. Additionally, the zinc products are toxic to plants. If you use zinc products be sure to avoid runoff onto plant areas.[/FONT]