Humidity in Town Garage

Rodney Summers

**** if I understood you correctly this garage is about three years old. My guss is this structure is fairly air tite. Whith the amount of ice and water being brought in it has to have someplace to go when it evaprates.

The fan on a timer would be you most cost effective option. and should solve your problem.

Dick Charland

Has anyone run accross a solution for high humidity levels in garages with radiant in the floor? I have had to run a de-humidifier in my garage at home. The topic came up yesterday at Town Meeting regarding a relatively new garage we built in town 3 years ago. With the snow, ice etc on the trucks, the wet sand sitting in the trucks overnight, the humidity level in the garage is high, causing a mold problem. I'm thinking along the lines of running the ventilation fan system on a timer so we can change the air. Follows law of unitended consequences, great system, everyone loves the heat, unfortunately moisture now creates a problem. I was wondering how it is being handled elsewhere?

A.J.

Been there

About ten years now we installed radaint in a system in a 10,000 sq ft bottled water warehouse. Same situation were they would bring the trucks in at night all covered with snow. The radiant heat would very quickly melt and then dry the snow putting all that moisturer into the building.
They solved problem by putting a few big fans up high to keep the air moving on those high ceilings, were it was condensing.

Dick Charland

You are correct, it was built energy efficient, I thought of adding a humidistat in line to prevent unnecessary operation.

Eric_25

HRV

Consider an HRV (Heat Recovery Ventilator)as your means of exhaust, it will exhaust the moisture laden air and at the same time bring in fresh air through a heat exchanger to recover the heat from the air you already paid to heat. Check www.lifebreath.com

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Glen

exhaust fan?

with humidistat? Have had good success with larger res garages (3 - 4 car). HRV may be suitable too - depends on level of humidity, frequency of problem. You will need to chat with a HVAC engineer in your area.

Dick Charland

Thanks, very familiar with HRV's etc. I have e-mailed Lifebreath to see if they make anything for such an application or are aware of anyone who does. The problem as I see it is the volume and relatively short time span in which to deal with it. I'm not anxious to lose the energy, but given the size, changes taking place with 4 bays, the volume of moisture being introduced etc. it becomes a matter of practicality/economics.

don_185

Think long term.

the exhaust fans are find in the winter months when you can pump dry air in but..what about the summer months?
I mean even then you will be bringing in hot humid air in
the summer time.I'm sure it rains there..high humidity wet
floors makes for some nice breeding when it comes to mold.

Maybe you would be better serve by a HI-E dry dehumidifider.

Checkout www.therma-stor.com.They'll be able to help.

Dick Charland

Thanks for all the suggestions. I contacted Lifebreath and received a reply from Dave Robinson their Technical Advisor on how to deal with the problem. I'll check out the Therma-stor web site. Will bring all the info to the Selectboard for the town and study our options. Thanks again.