humidity in the game room: detached vs. garage vs. basement

TheShanMan

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humidity in the game room: detached vs. garage vs. basement

As many probably know, we're selling our house with plans of buying a house/property where I can have a big game room. I was talking about detached shops with a fellow wrencher last night, and he was talking about a co-worker with a shop. Oregon of course gets somewhat cold in the winter (highs in the low 40's typically) but quite humid. So this guy would heat up his shop to do some work, and then when done it would cool down and cause condensation. As a result he had a pretty big problem with tools rusting and whatnot.

Obviously that was quite a red flag to me because in order to broaden our purchase options, we're considering basements or detached shops (whether pre-built or we build ourselves). Garage would be a consideration too, but since I want 3 bays strictly for cars/motorcycle/wrenching it would have to be quite a garage to have enough room for a big game room as well.

So for those of you in cold/humid climates, what insight can you provide regarding dealing with humidity in each of the game room locations I mentioned? Initially it freaked me out a bit, thinking we'd have to eliminate detached shops from consideration because it seems like it would mean full time climate control, though as I thought about it I'm not sure. If you've got 2500 sq ft house + 1000 sq ft basement, the basement is climate controlled full time anyway (at least that's probably what I'd do), so is it that much different than a 2500 sq ft house + 1000 sq ft shop climate controlled full time?

I did a little searching here and it seems that some people use one or more dehumidifiers full time in their game rooms. I'd be curious to hear about how effective, and how cheap to run, those are - I know zilch about dehumidifiers. I imagine that regardless of what kind of location I use for a game room, I'd end up wanting to heat and dehumidify in the winter, and cool and dehumidify in the summer. My hope would obviously be to keep the cost of climate control down as much as possible, but I don't have a good feel for how hard that'll hit my wallet.
 
Growing up in Iowa, dehumdifiers were pretty much mandatory. Typically we'd have to dump them out about every 2-3 days. As far as cost - not sure but let me give a comparison. I had 2 big ass Dell Poweredge 8u servers (like 6-8 drives in each one), APC, external DAT backup wirless router, another router and a 24 port switch.
All of these bullshit running 24x7 ran me an extra ~$20 a month. I highly doubt running a dehumidifier would run even half that ;)
 
basements can get damp too, regardless of climate control...At least around here they do, moreso in the summer than the winter, pretty much have to keep a dehumidifier running 24-7 down there in the summer and in the spring and fall, it still runs a lot. winter, not so much.
If you purchase a new Dehumidifier, it should have an average annual cost of operation on it, I would guess you just calculate it off of that, mine doesn't seem to have a huge impact on my electric bill though.
My in-laws have a detached shop, and I don't recall them mentioning having rusting issues with their tools, not sure how often their space is heated and then cooled though...
 
I live in Northern Michigan and have all my games in my full basement. Humidity is a major problem in my basement during the late spring, summer, and fall months. Because my furnace is in my basement and it's fully heated the dehumidifier never runs during the winter.

When the dehumidifier is running it isn"t a cheap appliance to run. According to an appliance usage chart at the Power Company I work at, a dehumidifier rated at 750 watts will run $.06 an hour. So figure it's running 18 hours a day on average, it'll raise your electric bill by over $30.00 a month by itself.
 
OK, so it sounds like the ideal scenario is to have your heater located in your game room in terms of eliminating humidity during the winter.

All other things being equal, if I had 3 houses to choose from - one w/basement, one w/game room in garage, one with detached shop - can anyone offer insight into relative costs to heat/cool/dehumidify each assuming I keep them climate controlled all the time?

All things including cost being equal, I would prefer a daylight basement game room, but since there don't seem to be a zillion such houses available (at least, ones that meet our other criteria), I am trying to determine how willing I should be to consider the alternatives.
 
I have a dehumidifier in my basement. I'm in NJ where it get extremely humid in the summer time. I never paid attention to what it costs to run, but they certanily don't last long. I've been in my house here for 5 years and went thru 3 of them. And at $300+ a pop, it really sucks when the thing dies.
 
It may be a little off the subject, but I seem to recall seeing modern home builder shows demoing a new style of heat exchanger. Looked like a big roll of shipping tape. Anyways, if I recall correctly these add on units to Cental heat and air, would echange heat, either from the outside or from within the house and they would regulate the moisture levels as well as a side effect. The whole point was to have a house with perfect climate. But its been some time since I saw it and maybe someone else has seen something similar and can explain it better.

I guess point is, if I am rembembering correctly, you may just want to pick a house with a basement and upgrade the central heat and air with one of these deluxe units. But they were large and expensive from what I recall.
 
I run a humidifier in my basement, I believe it keeps things pretty dry, I have it set at 30% humidity and I dump the bucket once a day.

My garage is a different story... it leaks a little and gets humid as all get out. I stored a few games in the garage last year when I had flooding and the all got a little bit moldy.

ArcadeMaze

P.S. I see mikeatunion had also weighed in, in full disclosure, I live in Iowa too and I also have a walkout. If it makes any difference.
 
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I live in Iowa, it is humid... I generally only keep it on 24 hours a day in the summer. I would recommend getting one that is adjustable. Mine can be set to run 4 hours on and 4 hours off. It can also be set to humidity levels. I see about 10 dollar a month increase in the summer.

I have machines that sat in crappy warehouses for 20 years and work fine and didn't get a great deal of oxidation. I would just look for an adjustable dehumidifier and keep the humidity under control. I'd also buy one with a hose attached so you can send the water down the drain instead of having to dump it all the time.

I have had no problems, but my basement is a walkout with plenty of ventilation and central A/C. It may also help that it is a walkout and has plenty of full sized windows. The air is very dry in the winter around here. I acutally have to use an April air unit to put moisture into the ventilation system for 3 month dec- feb.
 
I also run a dehumidifier 24/7 here in MN spring thru fall. It doesn't run in the winter, its obviously so dry and cold I have no mold or wetness problems down in the arcade at all. I'm sure it has somewhat of an impact on the electric bill, but not so much it makes a guy worry. I'm more worried about the games getting moldy; which they have not in the 8 years since I've built my gameroom. I also run a fan down there every now and then to move the air around so its not so stale. In the summertime I pretty much cut off the A/C to the arcade because it costs more to have half the cool air running thru the arcade and not making it upstairs than it does to leave it slightly warmer(some A/C goes into the 'cade) down there and run the dehumidifier. In the end all is dry and no mold or wetness issues. You have to make sure you get a dehumidifier that is rated for whatever square footage you have; and then run a line down a drain if you have it so you don't have to empty the damn thing everyday...
 
You don't need to dehumidify in the winter. Your furnace taking colder wetter air, will significantly reduce the moisture just by heating the air. The opposite problem is usually true in winter - the air will get too try to be comfortable (below 40%). We actually have a 220V center steam humidifier that runs in the winter.

I can't offer much help on the garage temp cycling, but I suppose if you keep it heated all the time, the cycling/condensation wouldn't be a problem.

Wade
 
Great info so far guys. I'm not as worried about the basement situation as I am about a garage or a detached shop, and the concern there is condensation from cooling if I turn the heat off (not climate controlled 24/7) on the one hand, and cost of full time climate control on the other (seems like it would be higher than for a basement).

I'd probably want full time climate control including summer time AC. Perhaps not quite to the degree of my house since I can always heat it a bit or cool it a bit when we want to play, but going out to a cold or hot game room isn't what I'd like to do.

So anyone with a garage or detached shop game room that can address cost of full time climate control?
 
I live in Cleveland, so of course in the summer we see our share of humidity due to our close proximity to Lake Erie. I run a dehumidifier from May until November and that works just fine.
 
I have a 70 pint dehumidifier that I keep running at 45% humidity and it really keeps my basement dried out from the humidity and the best part is it has a direct drain hose that goes directly into my sump pump. In either scenario, just stick a dehumidifier in there and you will be good to go. I would be comfortable putting the dehumdifier in a detached garage or a basement. Theres no reason to spend $300 like mentioned above...I got mine off newegg.com who typically sell computer parts. Its a Frigidaire and its been running like a champ for a year now (knock on wood).
Here is a link to the one I have...notice the good reviews.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...773&cm_re=dehumidifier-_-96-767-773-_-Product
 
Keep in mind that running an A/C also dehumidifies... so if you plan on keeping the area cool with an air conditioner, that will also keep the area more dry.
 
Quick temperature swings are the harbringer of condensation, when things are stored in a barn, for the most part, they tend to warm up and cool down with the existing surroundings.

The thing to avoid is over-cooling a shop and then letting in a rush of hot humid air, like from an open garage door. I've been in shops where the concrete actually "sweats" under those conditions.
 
Thanks for the product suggestion, velvet. One thing I definitely learned: examine potential game rooms for drains, or I suppose I could always drill a hole in the wall and run the tube through it. I think emptying the bucket daily would get old fast!

Yeah, I realize that Frizz - thanks for mentioning though. My biggest concern is during the winter so that's when the dehumidifier would mainly be used.

Airlair, did I say a browns fan could post in this thread (I'm a steelers fan in case you weren't aware)? I kid, of course.
 
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