A while back I posted a message about the new humidifier I ordered and was waiting on for the shop, I'll post some pictures tonight of the actual installation but I figured I could provide the info now...
Like everyone else who builds controlling humidity is a major concern, here in Idaho it's gets so dry during the winter the fossils go looking for water! Because I built a whole new shop I wanted to get away from refilling humidifier tanks, I have so much going on my life anymore that I have made a concerted effort to automate everything that I can.
After doing a ton of research I found that people who collect and consume or sell cigars have the same issues we have. And that there are places who cater just to their needs, to that end I found the following
humidifier.
After waiting for weeks and weeks it finally showed, of course then it sat for weeks until I could get the time to work on it, in december I started a new job and discovered that the people who ran the place where shall we say 'crazy', so I resigned and took a job with the second place I was looking at. It's a great job but you all know how it is when you first start, you have to get through the learning curve to get up to speed, and I'm just about at the end of that now...
Anyway, the unit comes with a thermistat that you wire into a 110V circuit, so I bought some lamp wire, some water tubing (the kind that use for ice makers), some 1/2" black tubing for spill over and went to work. I installed the unit right above my sink about 5" from the ceiling (this turned out to be a mistake, more on that later) and hooked up the water and the thermistat.
Interally what the unit has is a float that is tied to a water valve, this keeps water in the unit at all times. There is a drain off plug in case the float gets stuck, the unit works by spinning a center shaft into the water and pulling it up and atomzing as it pushes it out. It's fairly quiet and really can put out water, in my 300 sq ft shop it took the humidity from 21rh to 59rh in about 20 minutes. I keep a small fan attached to the wall next to it and it helps blow the vapor around the room.
After the first day of testing I noticed the ceiling getting wet over the unit and I discovered that it was too high, so I lowered it about a foot from the ceiling (the top of the unit mind you) and fired it back up, since then it's been going strong. After a little fiddling with the thermistat the shop has a natural swing from 45rh to 49rh, if I open the garage door it plummets, the unit kicks in and after closing the door it takes about 20 minutes and it's back.
So I'm one very happy builder, I've been letting the wood acclimate to the shop and will actually start building again this weekend. Everything was so dry I didn't want to rush in until it all had a chance to settle, so waiting a couple of weeks was a good idea IMHO. I can handle the minimal swing the shop shows, it's right within my target range and honestly without spending A LOT more money I don't think I could do any better.
Total cost was $360 for the unit (a little more with taxes and shipping) and about $30 in materials, total installed time for me was about 30 minutes, you will want a water supply you can tap into, a place to drain the water and you will need access to a 110 circuit (I just made my own plug).
Like I said this was the answer to my problems, it's been so dry I've been worried about gluing up tops and backs and finally after years of battling the shops RH I think I finally have it under control. This summer we will be installing an AC unit that has an air dryer I can control, I had a fiasco on e-bay and we lost a grand on our last one so this time we are taking a different tact...
I'll take some pictures tonight and post them...
Cheers
-Paul-
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