The Auswine Forum

HI Guys

It's CC here... GOd it must ahve been years since I last voiced on the forum.

I nmeed some help. I m currently setting up myu above ground celler in a south facing room. The air con is runnin on med speed @ 17deg but due to the location I am able to achieve 15 deg. Terracotta flooring.. No sun exposure.

Question
1. How do I get my humidity down? It's currently 95%. The cellar is 5 days old. I have put 2 damp rid crystals in it.. No go.
2. Bottle tem is about 17deg.

Thanks

Calvin

Hi Calvin,

Welcome back....

Are you sure your humidity reading is accurate? It should drop fairly quickly if the aircon is cooling and the condensation drain is outside the cellar.

Mine sits around 70% except in summer I have to run an evaporative cooler in the cellar to get the humidity up as it drops well below 50% otherwise. It's 77% this morning after a rainy Sunday. I have several courses of the outer brick wall below the moisture seal and that raises humidity except when the aircon sucks it out in summer.

RB

Yes

I am using a portable a/c... I try to empty water tray daily.

I have also removed the pot plants today to see it that changes.

Mitsubishi has a de-humidifier but it cost $900.. Not economical


Btw can you please send me your new wine management program

Thanks

C
Calvin@calvinykw.id.au

CC,

A friend used DampSorb crystals in his cellar (I think he used about 4 pots, not 2) and it took about 3 days to reduce the humidity by about 20percent or so.

Maybe you need to up the ante on the numbers?

CC,

Where are you that has 95% humidity, has it been raining a lot? Is the room well sealed from air movement? I don't think I've ever seen mine up much over 80%.

I'd give it a week or two to stabilise before lashing out on anything expensive, the harder the aircon works the more water it will suck out of the air, so as the weather warms up it should drop. That's one reason why the specialised wine cellar aircons are more expensive, they include a humidifier to return some of the moisture back into the air, not usually the other way round.

Check your mail for the RBCM database link.

CC wrote:
Question
1. How do I get my humidity down? It's currently 95%. The cellar is 5
Thanks

Calvin

Those portable aircons do an excellent job of removing water from the air, so much in fact that i had to wake up in the middle of the night every night in Brisbane's summer to empty the bucket.

I think you need to calibrate your hygrometer. If it's one of those non electrical types, u can wrap a damp towel around it for a while then calibrate it on the back of the device to "100" and see how that goes.....

I thought Calvin was whacko when I read this thread all those weeks back (no offence Calvin) but here I am, a new cellar installed on my bush block (a cool room set to run at 15 degrees rather than at 4 degrees), and blow me down if the humidity hasn't been running at between 80 and 96 percent since it was let loose about 5 days ago. It's still in the low 90s, and everything feels slightly clammy. I suspect that things will settle, but I'll be watching it

Campbell.