Author Topic: Fridge - Humidity Controller & Maker?  (Read 1561 times)

JohnnyBHammerer

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Fridge - Humidity Controller & Maker?
« on: May 30, 2010, 03:08:00 AM »
I was building a fermenter for homebrew made from an AC unit and a foil lined polyisocyanate insulation box.  I got a sweet deal on a fridge to use for fermenting.  So, now I can re-purpose this as a cheese cave and finish it.  A photo album here.  The box already has temperature control.  It uses an HVAC thermostat so I have both 120VAC and 24VAC readily available for humidity generation and control.  I am a little lost on humidity.  I'm assuming that I will need to increase humidity since humidity is mild in my local and the AC will strip moisture as part of cooling.  I notice Dayton makes humidity controllers mentioned in other threads.  With one of those I should be able to turn on and off some humidity generation.  So, how to generate humidity?  One idea was to use a small fan to move air across water.  I'm not sure how high humidity can go this way.  Will a small amount of heating be needed?  I'd rather limit antagonism between the AC cooling and heater, however I know our data center's commercial HVAC does this.  Another idea was use small humidifier like one would use when they have a cold or flu.  Any thoughts on these ideas or some better ones.  Any cheese cave wisdom is welcome.  I have made one batch of nufchatel cheese and I'm already building a cave. :o

BigCheese

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Re: Fridge - Humidity Controller & Maker?
« Reply #1 on: May 30, 2010, 04:30:36 AM »
It sounds like you may want to go more sophisticated than this, but one approach is simply putting in and removing pans of water as needed. Sometimes you need to get the humidity down and for that I have heard recommendations of using Damp-rid. You simply remove the lid and it absorbs moisture, when the humidity is where you want it, replace the lid.