250CFM dehumidifier in boiler room

Taylor_3

I'd appreciate steamhead opinions on this. I'm thinking of installing a 250CFM ultra high efficiency (ultra high price) dehumidifier in my basement. Before you say "backdraft", it is possible to attach an intake vent from another room, and I am investigating a small network of intake vents throughout the basement. The best location for this is in the furnace room. I guess I would put 6mil poly or something over the boiler intake during the season that this runs, so my nice dry air is not forced up the flue. But I'd appreciate any words of caution.

The company literature on this is disingenuous. They show dehumidifier in utility room, duct drawing humid air from an adjoining space, then dry air running under the door. At 250CFM, I would imagine that door would have to be raised a few inches! In any case our furnace room has a louvered door (and a gap underneath) so there should not be a "positive pressure" problem.

Matt Clina

One Thought

It would make more sense to me if you ducted the "good" air back to the space, and used the louvered door to draw the humid air back into the utility room. It would help to keep dust, etc. in the utility room from migrating into the finished space.

The concern might be with pulling negative pressure in the boiler room, and the potential for CO problems, but if you are going to cover the boiler flue anyway...

In either case, you would want to make sure that the two systems are never allowed to run at the same time.

Taylor_3

Thanks, I will see if that is feasible when I receive the unit, it is now on order. Having now got the d**n cat box out of the utility room, I was planning on keeping it clean from now on. It also occurred to me to install an anti-backdrafting system such as this, just in case someone forgets to put on the plastic some time:

http://www.ncinstitute.com/StarKap.htm

And if I'm feeling really ambitious, I'll wire the dehumidifier and boiler so one cannot be on while the other is, again just in case. Though the boiler should be sucking up any humid air in winter time so they should be mutually exclusive.