Quote:
Originally Posted by orchids44
Ryan,
Can you share your pimped out humidifier details?
Stunning, amazing Vanda !!!!! Congrats  |
Thanks! sure I can share the details. I should probably make it its own thread but this will have to do.
A lot of it was trial and error and honestly, it still is, but the current set up seems to be working great.
I bought a 40 gallon NEW trashcan and set it on a bench (I sometimes use the water via siphon for my plants that need RO water). I drilled a hole for a float switch as high up as I could. This float switch is connected to the product line of my reverse osmosis unit (RO) and I run the RO unit until the can is full-- the float switch keeps it from overflowing when full. I took the lid of the can and drilled two holes large enough to fit tubing (corrugated tubing used for dryer exhaust-- it is flexible and can elongate or contract). One of the tubes is fitted with a 4inch fan, the other is simply the "exhaust" tube of the air the fan on the OTHER tube is pushing into the can. Inside the can floats an ultrasonic mister-- mine has five heads, but you can get them with one up to 9 (9 is the most I've ever seen). Turn that on and it'll generate copious amounts of mist that is then mixed with air from outside by the 4inch fan and then that is forced out the exhaust tubing and effectively humidifying the grow space.
The first issue I ran into was that it was so effective, I got it to rain in my grow area, which is inside my house-- not good. Its in the basement so no damage was done but my light fixtures were soaked-- I kept them off during this period of monsoon! To fix this I slowed the fan down-- no more rain.
The second issue I ran into was that the FULL can would be depleted within a week-- if I left the house for a week or more, my plants would suffer the dry air of colorado. I could leave my RO unit all the time and the float switch would prevent it from over flowing and would keep the trash can full all the time, however, that is extremely inefficient for the RO unit and would cause unnecessary wear.
Third issue-- when the lights are out, the temp slowly falls and the relaitve humidity (the ability for the air to hold water at a specific temp) would converge, making it very humid at night. However, once the lights come on, it heats up and the RH is divergent and it would be too dry.
I was able to solve all three issues with one solution-- humidistat! I bought this wonderful mechanism that allows me to set the MAX humidity. Once the humidity limit is reached, it will shut down the fan. If it falls below it, it turns the fan on. I can set it from 10 to 90% RH. I set mine at 80%-- my hygrometer measures the air with that setting between 70-75% (neither mechanism is calibrated to any known standard so I have to "best guess" it).
I have fans running 24/7 in my grow space and one fan is next to the humidifier and its running draws a small amount of mist all the time, but the 4inch fan will pump out the humid air when the humidistat calls for it.
Because the controller will shut the fan off at max RH, the amount of time it runs at night is minimal. During the day it'll run roughly half the time. Therefore the 40 gallon can will last almost two weeks for me. Because RH is dependent on TEMP, the night time humidity is 70% and the DAY TIME humidity is ALSO 70%, but the actual amount of vapor held in the air is more or less depending on the temp (think of dew at night, when the sun goes down, it gets "humid" or "wet" even though the amount of water in the air hasn't actually changed, the change in temp is what causes the vapor to go from a gas to a liquid and everything in between...dew).
Here's the breakdown of cost (sticker shock!):
Trashcan with lid: $40
4inch single-speed fan: $10
Tubing: $5
Ultrasonic mister: $100
humidistat: $50
Total: $205
May seem like a lot but large ultrasonic humidifier is that or even more and wont run as reliably. My humidistat is also located AWAY from the humidifer, and sit in front of the main circulation fan, thus is gets a good sampling of the air at all times.
As you can see... it's worked wonderfully.
---------- Post added at 08:13 PM ---------- Previous post was at 08:07 PM ----------
Quote:
Originally Posted by silken
Amazing! Great growing considering your dry and non-tropical climate. I have my first Vanda and I too dunk it in a 5 gallon pail every few days.
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Thanks! And yeah, the occasional dunk is about all it takes to make these guys happy in my set up.
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