Is it okay to keep a dehumidifier inside a large tent?

[Keith]

The tent is 5×8 and the grow area will be 4×5.  3-4 plants.  So I’ll have another 4×5 area to keep it.  I’m worried about the warm air it blows around.  In an area that large could it hurt?  I’m thinking it’s a good idea but I thought I’d check with you guys.

[Loves2Trim]

My RH during the New York Summer was around 68% I bought like the biggest homeowner special dehumidifier Lowes had (70 Liter?)

My Dehumidifier was set at 55% to keep my whole basement dry and it was pushing my entire basement upwards of 70 degrees. They pump out major heat. But… Thats for a large oldschool farmhouse basement maybe inside a tent it would only have to run a few minutes at at a time? At the same time your inline fan replacing the air inside of the tent, will be drawing humid air that could be treated outside of the tent?

Whats your living situation like?

[Keith]

The room is in a building out back.  It’s insulated, it’s an apartment but I use it for growing.  It’s got no hvac system so I use window ac to keep it cool.  I could prob keep the dehu outside the tent and let the inline fan control the rh, but I was hoping to set it in there and allow it to control the rh through its own sensor.  The rh in the lung room shouldn’t be too bad.  I was also planning on keeping a radiator type heater in there if it gets really cold this winter.  I don’t know about the dehu inside the tent.  It could work just in the lung room but it runs constantly.  I figured if it was in that tent it wouldn’t run as much.  I guess I just have to pay around with it.

• This reply was modified 2 years, 1 month ago by Keith.
• This reply was modified 2 years, 1 month ago by Keith.

[Nate]

I would say (depending on where you are, and how cold it gets in the winter), you likely won’t need as much dehumidifying in the winter. Where I live, my RH has already dropped from like 70-80% in the summer to somewhere in the ballpark of 50-60% in early October, and last winter my RH was as low as 30% at times. So you may not even need the dehumidifier during the winter at all.

Also I would think that if you have it in the tent, you’d probably have to run your exhaust fairly high to keep the temps lower, which would cancel out any isolation from the lung room. I know that when I was running my dehumidifier in my basement this summer, my temps were hitting near 30˚ C without even having any part of my grow setup running. So yeah I would say once you have your tent set up, definitely test it out and see what kind of stable environment you can set up, and what works best.

[Keith]

That’s really good info and answered a few questions for me.  I’ll have to check previous years winter rh I’ve never grown before so I’ve never paid attention to stuff like that.  I know it’s gotta be lower than summers, but I know cold air has moisture in it too, so I didn’t know what to think.  But it’s gotta be lower.  It’s really just all gotta be tested out and it’s going to be difficult.  Where I live the days are usually in the 50-60’s but the nights will get down in the 30’s.  Also some days might be 30’s with nights 15°.  There’s huge temp swings here.  I was hoping the dehu would warm the tent up but I can’t control the heat that comes out of it, so if it’s a warm day it’ll get the tent too hot.  I will prob have to keep it outside and maybe put a little heater inside connected to the Inkbird to control that.  I can’t rely on my dehu for heat.

[Nate]

One of the other factors that affects RH is if you have a space heater, or forced air, it tends to drive down the RH every time it comes on. I definitely wouldn’t want to rely solely on a dehumidifier to regulate temperatures, as it won’t keep things at a consistent temperature. What size is your dehumidifier? As far as it running constantly in your lung room, mine said to run it constantly (as opposed to setting a target RH%) for a day or two until the humidity balances out, and then set your target RH%.

[Keith]

It’s a big one, it was my parents they used in their basement.  I think I’ll prob keep it in the lung room then maybe during flower of my rh needs dropped I’ll get a small one for the tent.

That’s the exact reason I didn’t want to use a space heater.  It’s what I used last spring when I started growing and it’s thermostat was very unreliable.  I’ll prob use a radiator type heater but I still think the heat will prob drop rh.

[Nate]

It’s definitely a balancing act as RH is directly tied to temperature. And that’s without getting into trying to hold your environment at the ideal VPD range.

[Loves2Trim]

Im constantly trying something new. Luckily winter means low RH for me. Was thinking of using some sort duct with fan to bring outside air in when the basement gets over 70.

[Keith]

Lol, that just got me thinking.  You gotta try new things, unless you’ve got the money to buy everything you need to do it perfectly.  I don’t so I’m trying whatever I can to keep things right.

[Loves2Trim]

I think a mini split machine would be sweet. You wouldn’t need the Lung room (I like that term).

[Keith]

What is a mini split machine?  Or a regular split machine.

[Nate]

It’s just a type of heat pump.

[Keith]

I have a heat pump inside my house.  It’s a pretty cool concept how it works.  The way I understand it is it uses the same freon that cools the house to create friction which creates heat which will warm the house.  It doesn’t get extremely cold where I live. In the north we had to have furnaces.

[Nate]

Right on. I’d love to get a heat pump eventually. I’m not sure exactly how I’d go about it though, as I’m in a townhouse, so I’d either need to get a ducted heat pump, or have at least two heads, if not three.

[Brad104]

From what I gathered out of every ones opinion that I know that grow in tents swear by the dehumidifier so, I wanted to throw that at you @keith

 

[Keith]

That’s def helpful.  I think I might get a smaller one.  The one I have now is a 50 point I think.  I’ll prob leave that in the lung room to keep the rh around 45%.  Then if the tent is high I’ll get a smaller one.

[Cannabliss]

You could hook one of these up & place the probe inside the tent to only run the dehu when needed.

Humidity Controller IHC-200

 

Then the unit can go off of the RH in the tent, instead of the room. Keeping it out of your tent will keep the heat down. They can be vented out a window can’t they? That would keep your lung room from heating up. Exhausting outside can help make things more easily dialed in for you as well.

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