tigerxj
Well-known member
we are nearing completion of our new house. We are in upstate SC, temp yesterday was 99. humidity often very high as it is in the rest of the SE.
Our basement is daylighted to the back yard. It is set up with an in-law suite, that has a full bath and closet that measures about 500sqft.
The main area is about 800 sq ft. The remaining 700-800sqft is storage/shop area.
It will be an unfinished basement until I pay off student loans to finish it properly, but we roughed in plumbing for the above uses.
I will be insulating it with R19 (2x6 ext walls due to 2 floors above it) and sealing up the gaps with spray-foam-in-a-can.
I would like to add a dehumidifier, but I'm split between going with a lower end residential model like you see in box stores, versus a high end Santa-Fe type unit that is low temp useable, 100-150 pints/day, up to 2400sq ft, much more efficient, etc.
Complicating matters is that I'm not sure what I'll use for future hvac in the basement. We will likely go mini splits, probably at least 2 zone, maybe 3 zone, so each area of the basement can be controlled independently. The reason for this is we are using a 5ton unit for the main floor and 2nd floor, which is about 3000sqft. So I think the 5ton unit is probably already at its max capacity for square footage, and even though the basement doesn't take much to cool, I'm not sure it will be effective or efficient to just drop ducts down for the basement.
thus my conundrum. I don't like the idea of spending $1k or more for a Santa-Fe if I'm going to spend $2-4k in 5-10 years for a mini-split system. But I don't want to jack my power bill up with an inefficient consumer-grade dehumidifier.
I bought a humidity probe today to take some measurements over the next few weeks so get an idea of our RH and average temps in the basement. Its not fully sealed up yet as the door hardware isnt installed so the doors are usually open as laborers are in and out. We got our power meter this week, so they are planning to get the hvac going next week once the trim and drywall is done at the end of this week. That should give me a more realistic place to start.
i'm leaning towards the $200-300 range units at this point, but I don't know if they'll be big enough for almost 2000sqft in the basement. I can run them to a continuous drain since we have the plumbing roughed in.
Our basement is daylighted to the back yard. It is set up with an in-law suite, that has a full bath and closet that measures about 500sqft.
The main area is about 800 sq ft. The remaining 700-800sqft is storage/shop area.
It will be an unfinished basement until I pay off student loans to finish it properly, but we roughed in plumbing for the above uses.
I will be insulating it with R19 (2x6 ext walls due to 2 floors above it) and sealing up the gaps with spray-foam-in-a-can.
I would like to add a dehumidifier, but I'm split between going with a lower end residential model like you see in box stores, versus a high end Santa-Fe type unit that is low temp useable, 100-150 pints/day, up to 2400sq ft, much more efficient, etc.
Complicating matters is that I'm not sure what I'll use for future hvac in the basement. We will likely go mini splits, probably at least 2 zone, maybe 3 zone, so each area of the basement can be controlled independently. The reason for this is we are using a 5ton unit for the main floor and 2nd floor, which is about 3000sqft. So I think the 5ton unit is probably already at its max capacity for square footage, and even though the basement doesn't take much to cool, I'm not sure it will be effective or efficient to just drop ducts down for the basement.
thus my conundrum. I don't like the idea of spending $1k or more for a Santa-Fe if I'm going to spend $2-4k in 5-10 years for a mini-split system. But I don't want to jack my power bill up with an inefficient consumer-grade dehumidifier.
I bought a humidity probe today to take some measurements over the next few weeks so get an idea of our RH and average temps in the basement. Its not fully sealed up yet as the door hardware isnt installed so the doors are usually open as laborers are in and out. We got our power meter this week, so they are planning to get the hvac going next week once the trim and drywall is done at the end of this week. That should give me a more realistic place to start.
i'm leaning towards the $200-300 range units at this point, but I don't know if they'll be big enough for almost 2000sqft in the basement. I can run them to a continuous drain since we have the plumbing roughed in.
