Commercial dehumidifier in crawl space

[RalphVa]

In our 7th year after encapsulating our crawl space underneath the family room and laundry room, we started experiencing odor and it affecting my wife this year. It has been traced to bacteria formation underneath the encapsulation. The expert who diagnosed this recommended a commercial dehumidifier, Santa Fe or AprilAire. We went with the Santa Fe because it is more efficient even though about $100 more. Bought their 70 pints/day one.

There's a remarkable difference between it and the run-of-the-mill department store dehumidifier. We tried one of those in our first year of encapsulation. It was inadequate (at the same 70 pts/day) because it grossly heated up the crawl space and didn't seem to lower the humidity much. We went to about 3 different fans located at various places in the crawl space plus a normal dehumidifer in the adjacent utility room. This worked well for 6 years, until this year.

The exhaust from the Santa Fe is only about maybe 70 F. I figure the thing has enough air flow such that the cold coil probably only cools the air maybe 5 F and then the hot coil reheats the air 15 F: 60 F down to 55 F and then back up 70 F. I could do a whole lot of calcs to prove this, as this is kind of work that I did as a chemical engineer, but figure I'm pretty close in my guess.

Highly recommend the Santa Fe. The compressor is so quiet that you cannot tell when it comes on. You just have to watch for the water being condensed out on the cold coil.

Ralph

 

[RalphVa]

We had our friend who is a handy man take out 3 concrete blocks to enlarge the opening to the crawl space. My wife hung her toe coming out of the smaller space and bounced onto the file cabinet and then only the concrete floor of the utility room. It pulled some muscles around her ribs and was painful for a couple weeks.

Here's the enlarged crawl space opening.

Ralph

 

[RickB]

We are having an encapsulation done this month. Both contractors we interviewed suggested Aprilaire as their current recommendation but both have used Santa Fe in the past and if we preferred would use that brand without reservation.

 

[RalphVa]

That unit sitting on a shelf just inside the crawl space is an air purifier. It didn't entirely do the job: thus the Santa Fe. The air purifier uses a Merv type filter ahead of an activated carbon one.

The Santa Fe has a Merv 13 filter on its air inlet. If it also had an activated carbon one, we could junk the air purifier.

Ralph

 

[PsRumors]

We've been using two Santa Fe units for about 3 years now, one in our garage and one in the encapsulated crawl space. They work very well.

 

[user.69169]

Why not just kill the dang mold and solve de problem for 5-7 years?
Whille you at it spray all wood & everything above de pool liner too cause you can bet it got mold growing into it.

 

[RalphVa]

Wife wiped down all surfaces with bleach solution in utility room and entire encapsulation. She even removed all the floor joist insulation. (Don't need it with sealed encapsulation, e.g. not vented to outside.) Found a little bit of mold on the insulation.

The bad stuff is on the back side of the encapsulation in contact with the ground. Cannot get to it. Gotta kill it by drying it out.

No mold evident on any of the wood.

Ralph

 

[Frankenkubota]

The guy who drew the plans for my house and shop asked me for 3-4 priorities.

1. Hip roofs

2. 10 ft walls, 2x6

3. NO CRAWLSPACE!

I just spent way too much money on a foundation I call my Rock of Gibraltar. Solid concrete! The guy said it’s way beyond code and a waste of money.

My last crawlspace was literally that. I had to put tools in a bag and tie them around my belt because you had to go in on your belly! Never ever again!

That should, imho, be against code.

Snakes love crawl spaces.

 

[Sigarms]

The guy who drew the plans for my house and shop asked me for 3-4 priorities.

1. Hip roofs

2. 10 ft walls, 2x6

3. NO CRAWLSPACE!

I just spent way too much money on a foundation I call my Rock of Gibraltar. Solid concrete! The guy said it’s way beyond code and a waste of money.

My last crawlspace was literally that. I had to put tools in a bag and tie them around my belt because you had to go in on your belly! Never ever again!

That should, imho, be against code.

Snakes love crawl spaces.

Try installing an HVAC system or retrofitting ductwork in a a crawlspace.

Up north, they think package units are for sitting on roofs and have no clue that a package unit can be put on the side of a house and ductwork is run UNDER the house:laughing:

When we got married in NC and looking for a home, one requirement was a basement (which is more rare than the norm here IMO).

For the last 15 years or so have been using a Aprilaire dehumidifier. The unit runs constantly in the summer, tied to the first floor system. On average, brings all three floor levels down about 5-10% in RH with the first floor generally never getting over 42% RH, which leaves me running the t-stat at around 77F in the summer.

 

[RalphVa]

The guy who drew the plans for my house and shop asked me for 3-4 priorities.

1. Hip roofs

2. 10 ft walls, 2x6

3. NO CRAWLSPACE!

I just spent way too much money on a foundation I call my Rock of Gibraltar. Solid concrete! The guy said it’s way beyond code and a waste of money.

My last crawlspace was literally that. I had to put tools in a bag and tie them around my belt because you had to go in on your belly! Never ever again!

That should, imho, be against code.

Snakes love crawl spaces.

Wife just found a snake skin in the crawl space. None was there when she wiped it all down. Gotta be a snake in there somewhere. We had one get hung up in our main HVAC blower once.

Our crawl space is hunched over walk space (for the wife, not me) until ones gets to under the laundry room. Then it's a comfortable "walk" on all 4s.

Didn't get a vote. It was there when we bought the place: bare earth. Encapsulated (which I think now is required) in 2013.

Ralph