andyb wrote:
What is the cause of the moisture?
It's multiple issues.
1. Last year or the year before our total rainfall was 25 inches above normal. That's severe. More moisture is working its way in through the foundation, not so much the walls but the floor. And I'm talking about overall dampness, not puddles.
2. The local public sewer system for our street is now overloaded, not only because of the extra rain, but because a large residential development up the road was added to our already heavily taxed system, it's overwhelmed on a regular basis.
I routed the water from my down spouts through some underground plastic piping I installed a while back. That was a marvelous change but the current rainfall is just nuts. I've filled in low spots in the lawn with more soil, and next year I will bring in a small truckload of top soil and put a slight slope on the soil away from the house. Given all that the solution with the lowest up front costs would be to simply install a gable fan in a cellar window on a humidstat, but if it's very humid outside it then runs for no reason. And I'm in a river valley, humid by nature.
andyb wrote:
If the moisture is created in the cellar would it not be possible to have the excess moisture pumped out of the building.
I'm trying to mitigate the cost of running the dehumidifier. It runs mostly in the summer and adds heat to the cellar as well. And it's running a lot.
CA_Steve wrote:
You know that seems like an option. They're $200, about the same price as a 100 watt solar cell. No charge controller to buy, but it appears to be a grid tied inverter, whch means they require AC to synch up to so they can pump it back into the grid, else they won't ouput anything. So now we're talking AC home wiring and local codes. Add to that power companies don't like to discover their meters are running backwards, some may even haul you into court if they find out you're doing it in secret.
But the micro inverter strikes me as a strange option. It converts DC to AC immediately, which means there's no way to store it. The thing I don't like about selling power to the power companies is they pay only fraction of what they charge when they buy it from you.
Don't get me wrong I like the Enphase unit. If it wasn't grid tied it would be perfect for the attic application.
Thanks and keep the conversation going.