I'm having issues with humidity in my growroom. I have a humidifier running 24/7 and the hygrometer is saying 26% Lol indoor humidity ( photo / image / picture from FountainMan's Garden ) I'm refilling the humidifier every day and have is full blast. I know it's working because I'm having to refill. And I know the hygrometer is accurate as it's part of a Davis Vantage Pro2 weather station which are considered top notch. Theoretically with the humidifier running all day every day for a growroom that's 5' X 12' X 6' high I'd expect the room to be like a sauna. And the bedroom the growroom is situated always have the door closed. So my question is, where's the humidity going and how do I correct this once and for all? 26% for a growroom is unacceptable.
The only thing I can think of is to close off the greenhouse section with a plastic wall.... unless the greenhouse encompasses the entire bedroom. In that case I have no idea.
I have no idea, but what do you have for walls? If it isn't greenhouse plastic or glass maybe your structure/room is absorbing the moisture which in time will start growing a large amount of mold/mildew on your walls and floor.
There's already a plastic wall at the entrance. The walls are the normal painted sheetrock. The growroom is basically like a tent. Even if the walls were absorbing the moisture I would still expect better than 26% I'll investigate the problem.
With a humidifier you should get it up to 50.....beware, your sheet rock could mold....You really want to cover the sheet rock with plastic. I have to keep fans going in the greenhouse to keep the humidity moving around. It gets 75 and 80 percent after it waters.
Aren't humidifiers built for painted sheetrock rooms though? The plastic isn't expensive but it would be hard to implement it being I already have stuff along the walls. I'll figure it out I guess.
Well, I don't think a humidifier gets it up to 60 percent when you are sick. It sounds like you are trying to do a small area in a room. You may succeed in doing that but then even painted sheet rock will hold moisture.
What are you growing that you need that high a humidity level ? In an enclosed heated space you can sit a pan of water in there and mist the leaves weekly and evaporation will keep the humidity up enough for tropicals. And as everyone said even painted sheetrock will absorb moisture. And a lot of it!
I don't think sheetrock is designed to be so "humid" all day long. I don't have a humidifier running continually in my bathroom, but with the showers that are take almost daily in there... there is mildew growing on the walls in tiny little specks. NOT at all what I want to see. I can't scrub it off, either. At some point I will repaint the room, but not until my children are done ruining the walls with humid showers. So, I can imagine that your walls will be mildewed at some point with the humidifier running all the time.
I grow tropical plants like Umbrella Palm, carnivorous plants, Mimosa Pudica which I think have already kicked the bucket due to humidity. So I put plastic sheeting over the walls. I'm thinking about rolling my own humidifier. Taking some perforated pipe and rope netting like the stuff used in volleyball nets and using a small pump to flow water down the net and position the thing in front of the box fan. Just out of curiosity I positioned the humidifier on the shelf below the weather station console and the fan in the humidifier pushing the air up past the hygrometer in the weather station, I'm still getting about 35-40% I want about 50-55% to be satisfied. I'll redo the growroom. Have to wait for a free day.
Something interesting, my humidity is back up to 45% but also watching the air pressure and noticed as the pressure is dropping the humidity is rising. When I started the thread the air pressure was 30.50 In/Ugh which is the highest I've ever seen. It's like my growroom has it's own weather. I'm now wondering how the humidity and air pressure correlate. Something that will have to be observed over time.
Fountain man... that is probably very accurate correlation. We heat our house with wood and when the weather is changing... for the worse, We can't get it to warm up and our house is not an old farmhouse without insulation. No matter what we do it seems to go right up the chimney!
Well certainly the barometric pressure and the humidity correlate. But I can tell you this,, that papyrus does not need the humidity. A Texas drought won`t even kill it. Please come get mine! My granddad used to take an old glass coke bottle and a pint fruit jar half filled with water and make his own barometer by turning the coke bottle upside down into the fruit jar and marking the water level. When the barometric pressure is rising the water will be pushed up into the slender neck of the coke bottle. That's when its time to go fishing. So if the barometric pressure is dropping there is literally more room for moisture in the air.
Discovered the problem, I forgot to wet the wick filter prior to firing the humidifier up as mentioned in the manual. Did this and now the humidity is about 60%.
