humidity in my shop

Where is the water vapor coming from? If its below freezing outside, the RH should be very very low.

You don't want to run a dehumidifier in a space that is cold. You run the risk of turning the dehumifier into a block of ice. These machines need to cool the incoming air in order to condense out the moisture.

What you need to do is heat the building. Insulating it would be a great idea to minimize the energy costs.

 

Wow, I thought we guys who lived in Florida had a problem with humidity, sounds like you guys in the colder climates do too. We keep bed sheets over all our cars. They are soft and keep dirt, grinding dust, and dampness off the cars. A couple of King Sized sheets will cover most cars, and they don't scratch the finish.

Don

 

I agree with insulating the ceiling and having a vent system between the ridge and soffits. There are hard foam trays that are stapled between the roof joists that channel that air between the soffits and ridge. You also need a ridge vent. The soffits have to be vented as well.

If you can get some sort of heat in there, it will help with the humidity. Even a couple of 6' electric baseboard heaters with thermostats on them are a good start.

In that big a space, 1 single dehumidifier won't do the task. The one in my ba*****t (runs from May to October) is something like 24 pints and has to be emptied almost every day.

Bob

 

Thanks for the many responses, I will certainly take steps to isolate the roof in the future. Also I will look at ventilation options. and sheets on the cars of course.

 

and she goes to sleep....

 

Here may be a low buck solution to heating the shop. A solar furnace, I thought it was pretty clever. I have also seen home built solar powered fans inside barns to provide ventilation. Regardless the building needs vents,,ridge vent for sure.,,the building currently is just like a "greenhouse".

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-b...olar-furnace-decreases-heating-bill-1.2527065

 

The concrete floor sweats when rapid temp changes occur. I`ve fought the issue for years. I have heated and insulated garages with vapor barriered concrete floors and it still occurs if the doors are opened before the temps can equalize. The garages are insulated and part of the problem was they were too "tight" not allowing proper ventilation to happen.

My problem was solved by using a dehumidifier and two wall fans on timers to run 8 hours per day in staggered shifts. Garage stays at 55% humidity and my suspensions & engines are no longer wet each spring.I keep my garages at 45 degrees in winter for storage.

If the garage is to remain unheated and you don`t want to run fans or dehumidifiers then just ventilate the soffets and ridge vent areas. It`ll be cold but dry.

The biggest no-no is DO NOT open doors to dry out your garage.
It wil absolutely soak everything inside within 20 minutes.

 

Thanks for sharing this information! Looks very interesting may try something like that for my shop!

 

Rust dont sleep