Dehumidifier question:600 sq foot basement

[Renfro]

Also Renfro, what do you spray on you're plants for spider mites?? Any tips you can give me? Do you spray them when their young, etc..

I use a product called Forbid 4f at a rate of 1mL per gallon. You can't use it in flower. I hit them right before I flip them and after that application wears off they are on their own so it's important not to bring bugs in. Shower and change clothes if you have been outdoors, you are the most common vector for mites. Outdoor clothes should go straight into the wash. Good to have dedicated house shoes for in the grow area. Any clones I get from outside sources are dipped and quarantined. I prefer to get cuts without roots so there is no medium to worry about.

 

[Renfro]

Renfro how do I know that the current extension cord I have is a 12 gauge?? This extension cord is thick and says 15 amps on it, 225V, and 2150 watts. Is the extension cord good enough?? Also note the cord is only 6 ft long.

Probably a 14 gauge cord, it would be safe but if it is really long you can get voltage drops and may have issues starting the compressor. Being that the appliance says not to use a extension cord you should upsize the gauge, especially if it is longer than 10 feet, if you intend to ignore the manufacturers recommendations.

 

[Meast21]

Probably a 14 gauge cord, it would be safe but if it is really long you can get voltage drops and may have issues starting the compressor. Being that the appliance says not to use a extension cord you should upsize the gauge, especially if it is longer than 10 feet, if you intend to ignore the manufacturers recommendations.

The extension cord I use is about 6 to 10 feet... The house won't burn down or nothing I'm guessing. (knock on wood)

 

[Apalchen]

I think your undersized. So since your not venting and I don’t didn’t see anything about an ac I will assume there is no ac in there. Even if you do have ac it’s nice to have enough dehuey so that when lights are off an ac not running you can pull it back down. So basically since your not venting you got to treat it like your in a sealed room. So add up all the water that you give your tents per day. You need a dehuey that pulls at least as much water as you put in per day. Then on top of that dehuey rating are only accurate at certain temps. And then you have the basement humidity to contend with. So you need to oversize. Without knowing the size of your tents it would just be a guess at this point. At the price range your talking about a 70 pint is prob as big as you will find and I’m not sure it would do it. But since u already have a 50 pint I would think between the two you should be good. Again that’s only a guess.

 

[Meast21]

I think your undersized. So since your not venting and I don’t didn’t see anything about an ac I will assume there is no ac in there. Even if you do have ac it’s nice to have enough dehuey so that when lights are off an ac not running you can pull it back down. So basically since your not venting you got to treat it like your in a sealed room. So add up all the water that you give your tents per day. You need a dehuey that pulls at least as much water as you put in per day. Then on top of that dehuey rating are only accurate at certain temps. And then you have the basement humidity to contend with. So you need to oversize. Without knowing the size of your tents it would just be a guess at this point. At the price range your talking about a 70 pint is prob as big as you will find and I’m not sure it would do it. But since u already have a 50 pint I would think between the two you should be good. Again that’s only a guess.

I do have AC down there in the 700sq feet of basement (turns on when AC in house is on) and the dehumidifier is on 23.5 hours while the humidity stays in the high 60's.. I already purchased a new 70 pint yesterday. I'm gonna set it to get the humidity below 60%.. I hope it can do it... I'm only gonna run the new one, the old one is gonna get unplugged.

 

[Renfro]

I do have AC down there in the 700sq feet of basement (turns on when AC in house is on) and the dehumidifier is on 23.5 hours while the humidity stays in the high 60's.. I already purchased a new 70 pint yesterday. I'm gonna set it to get the humidity below 60%.. I hope it can do it... I'm only gonna run the new one, the old one is gonna get unplugged.

You may need to run both of them.

 

[Apalchen]

Yes and it’s not a big deal to run both of them as they kick off when you reach right humidity anyways.

 

[Renfro]

Yeah I would set the best one to say 45% and the other one set at 50% so it will kick on to help when needed. Of course you can never rely on what they say the humidity is, I have had some that were 10 - 15% off, so figure what you need to set them at to get the job done.

 

[Meast21]

Yeah I would set the best one to say 45% and the other one set at 50% so it will kick on to help when needed. Of course you can never rely on what they say the humidity is, I have had some that were 10 - 15% off, so figure what you need to set them at to get the job done.

I can't run both, due to I don't have enough electrical outlets or power... If the new one can't bring my humidity below 60% I'm sending it back.

 

[Renfro]

Well I have seen low gain refrigerant (LGR) commercial units that can do up to 250 pints on a 120 volt feed, with about 9 amps. And depending on how big you go they are costly. Sometimes you can find them used on craigslist and many of the commercial ones have hour meters so you can see how many hours they have run. Some good makers are Phoenix, Fantech, Quest and Dri-Eaz. If you intend to run it on a controller you want to make sure the unit will auto restart after a power outage.

 

[Apalchen]

If gonna stay in hobby for long haul u gonna have to figure out how to wire up new outlets and install new breakers. It sounds harder than it is. I just had a guy show me when here to do ac he did one for me and I’ve done the rest. You just make sure the wire size is the right size then for 110-120 whatever u wanna call it you put black wire to the new breaker white and copper to the ground. For 220 or 240 you put white and black to the breaker and and copper to the ground bar. For wire size just google what wire for certain amps. Remember to keep plugs, wire, outlets all rated for same amperage. If you are out of spots in your panel you can add what they call a cheater breaker or tandem breaker. It will spilt one of your 120 breakers your currently using into two seperate breakers.

 

[Apalchen]

Does your humidity spike above 65% at all inside of the tents like when lights are out or at any time. 65% is not that bad if that’s as high as it gets. Majority of strain I run could handle 65% and other than the last couple weeks I wouldnt even be worried about it. I have one strain I wouldn’t run untopped at 65% humidity because it could get bud rot (colas get huge on it untopped) but the rest of em i would comfortable at 65%. Air movement and defoliation are even more important at higher humidity. But a lot of people are now trying to grow by VPD chart anyways which would have your humidity that high or higher for most of the flower cycle.

 

[Renfro]

But a lot of people are now trying to grow by VPD chart anyways which would have your humidity that high or higher for most of the flower cycle.

Yeah I keep pondering this but I am afraid to do it. Don't want to lose a crop to bud rot or powdery mildew.

 

[Apalchen]

Yeah I keep pondering this but I am afraid to do it. Don't want to lose a crop to bud rot or powdery mildew.

Once I get my my room set up just right I will do it up until the last couple weeks. But I need to add c02, a mini split controller (to change day night temp) and get a quest or similar dehuey as well as a better humidifier.

But in the past I’ve had several grows that have exceeded 65% during lights off at diff times and only had bud rot once on one plant and the only lost a few grams. It was an untopped plant and I let her go 10 extra days so could cut with the rest. So 85ish days with random spikes in humidity. This was usually because I forgot to empty dehuey or had unplugged it to use vacuum on that outlet.

But my tents were like wind tunnels, I see people saying that’s a bad thing, but I don’t agree I think moving as much air as possible is a good thing.

 

[Meast21]

Does your humidity spike above 65% at all inside of the tents like when lights are out or at any time. 65% is not that bad if that’s as high as it gets. Majority of strain I run could handle 65% and other than the last couple weeks I wouldnt even be worried about it. I have one strain I wouldn’t run untopped at 65% humidity because it could get bud rot (colas get huge on it untopped) but the rest of em i would comfortable at 65%. Air movement and defoliation are even more important at higher humidity. But a lot of people are now trying to grow by VPD chart anyways which would have your humidity that high or higher for most of the flower cycle.

I have a lot of air inside my tents. 4x4 tents I have 500CFM turned up all the way, so tents humidity is probably even lower. As long as I can get humidity under 60% I am fine.

 

[Meast21]

Once I get my my room set up just right I will do it up until the last couple weeks. But I need to add c02, a mini split controller (to change day night temp) and get a quest or similar dehuey as well as a better humidifier.

But in the past I’ve had several grows that have exceeded 65% during lights off at diff times and only had bud rot once on one plant and the only lost a few grams. It was an untopped plant and I let her go 10 extra days so could cut with the rest. So 85ish days with random spikes in humidity. This was usually because I forgot to empty dehuey or had unplugged it to use vacuum on that outlet.

But my tents were like wind tunnels, I see people saying that’s a bad thing, but I don’t agree I think moving as much air as possible is a good thing.

I have (2) 20 amp breakers and a larger outlet for washer and dryer I use for my plants.... The 1 20 amp breaker I have 3 tents hooked up to with (1) 600 watt and (2) 400 watts with all accessories (fans, scrubbers). The other 20 amp I have (1) 600 watt and (2) 205 watts for veg. The larger washer/dryer hookup (separate circuit) I have another 600 watt and my 500 watt dehumidifier hooked up.. I basically ran out of electric on these so my breaker doesn't flip and I basically have no actually electrical outlets to plug anything in. Electrical panel has no openings either... I get about 18 0z's per month and can't even get rid of it, so I don't need anymore than the 5 tents I have now. (3) 3x3's and (2) 4x4's.

 

[Meast21]

New dehumidifier came. Due I need to have "auto defrost" on?? My basebment is between 65-75 degrees all the time. Do I ever need to use defrost at all?

 

[Renfro]

Due I need to have "auto defrost" on?

Yes. this prevents the unit from freezing up the coil rendering the uni ineffective till thawed.