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I have a very small shop 5 metres square...and was wondering if anyone has any cheap ideas to maintain RH..

One idea I have is I already own a vapourizer which I don't think is supposed to run for long periods of time but may do the job but I would have to experiment with it and monitor the humidity.....although it won't keep it constant like a good dehumidifier or air conditioner/dehumidifier would....

I am interested in what people are using to control their environment as i need to do this as cheaply as i can...

If any of the aussies have any brands and model numbers i can check out would be great as well

cheers grant

Grant,

In high humidity, I have heard of some who place a 45 watt incandescent light bulb in the bottom a wardrobe that has been VENTED at the top. ( this thing will be on 24-7, you must vent say a 50mm hole to let heat and moisture out or you could have a fire in your shed)

They then work on their bench placing the components back in the wardrobe between sessions until construction is complete and the instrument is sealed.

I thought about doing that myself, but ended up just building a smallish sealed, insulated room, 2.4 x 3 metres within my shed in which I run a dehumidifier. I will build in their and create the major dust in the shed proper.

To be honest, I don't think your vapouriser is going to be worth diddley squat here in Australia. Our main problem in this country seem to be the RH being too high.

However, if you do have a problem with the RH being too low, I would imagine that a vapouriser will add moisture to the air far too quickly causing the RH to continually spiked up. This may be OK, I am not sure, but for mine, it would not be a good thing for your work piece.

If you have not already, I think you should first identify your enemy before you begin your attack. I would suggest that you buy a hygrometer from Dick Smiths ($50.00au) because you will need one anyway, and set it up in your shop.Then you can monitor what goes on IN YOUR SHOP.

I emphasise because each location has it's very own micro climate which can vary considerable in just a few hundred metres. Do not trust the weather bureau unless their monitoring station happens to be built directly over your shed. As mentioned, their advise can be waaaaaaay off accurate in relation to your position.

Once you know what you are up against, then consider your approach. In the interim, perhaps the light bulb in the wardrobe trick is your answer.

Cheers

Kimlarkim38965.3035763889

Here in Houston, the problem is usually too much humidity, but it does occasionally get very dry here -- like down into the 20s. This past week we've had unusually mild weather -- temps still a bit high, but quite dry, with the RH dipping down into the high 30s. I don't worry too much about humidifying my shop at that level. But if it gets much lower than that I will plug in the humidifier.

I use a smallish bedside-style humidfier. Cost me about 12 bucks at Wal-Mart. Capacity is probably around 3 liters and it'll run about 10 hours or so before going dry. I set it on the floor of my shop and let it run. My shop is about 12 square meters, and I find that this little humidifier works well enough to bring the humidity up into the 40s. If it gets really dry where you live, a couple of these will probably do the job.

To de-humidify the shop, I use a window A/C unit during the summer, which will not only keep the shop temp comfortable, but gets the humidity down into the 40s pretty consistently. I also have a dehumidifier that I'll turn on after I shut down things in the shop. During the cooler weeks of the year (from mid January to mid February or so ) I'll run just the dehumidifier. Unfortunately, neither a decent dehumidifier or a window unit A/C are particularly cheap (plus they also run up the electric bill more than I'd like), but I went ahead and shelled out the bucks for them because I knew they would be needed.

Best,

Michael

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How well is the space sealed? If there are a lot of air leaks it will be expensive to maintain the RH no matter which direction you need to go or what technology you use to do it.

It's generally less expensive to add humidity to the air than to take it out. I use a small vaporizer to humidify my shop in the winter heating season, and it only eats up about 40 watts. The A/C and dehumidifier I use the rest of the year are a lot hungrier!

Still, I get by with relatively small room-size units for a 1000 sqaure foot shop because I wrapped the whole thing in plastic before I sheet rocked it. The only real problems I have are when I have a shop full of hot, sweaty students, and usually pre-coling the place helps keep that to managable levels.