During the working meet, we have reconfigured the drying room in the cottage. Ben reported the first pair of trousers dried in the room in living memory. The main change is that the dehumidifier which used to be near the ceiling is now mounted just below where the clothes hang, next to the fan connecting to the broom cupboard.
tldr; The main thing everyone needs to know is that, if you use the drying room you must make sure that the water collecting in the bucket on the floor gets poured away. Please check before starting drying and after you have finished.
During the working meet we did various tests and experiments to see what could be done to improve the drying room. We made several changes:
There are now mounting screws down low where the shelf for the dehumidifier can be hung
The mounting screws up high are now the right size to allow the shelf to be easily hung there or removed
We tried running the dehumidifier up high and down low, measuring how much water it removed.
We tried adjusting the settings on the dehumidifier
We somewhat cleaned the dehumidifier
We have made the fan which drives air through the broom cupboard run always when the cupboard is switched on
Based on this we have set up the drying room in the way that seems to work best with the dehumidifier at the bottom of the cupboard. The following recommended settings seem good.
Dehumidifier set to 6
Hygrostat on right wall - controls extractor - set to 1.5
Thermostat on right wall - set to 25 - basically heating all the time
Everything switched on.
If for some reason you change anything, please restore it to the configuration listed above.
For now, all the water that the dehumidifier extracts from the air is dumped into a bucket on the floor. The bucket is covered in a plastic bag to stop the water evaporating again. If you do use the drying room, especially with a big group, it would be interesting for us to hear a report of how much water the dehumidifier collected and how well it worked.
In a near future working meet, once we area sure we are happy with the new configuration, we plan to plumb the dehumidifier to the outside from its current location.
If you have any questions about this then please ask either me (Michael) or John.
We did various semi-scientific experiments with the drying room. These were difficult to really control properly whilst we were working on the cupboard since each time the door has to be opened wet air gets in but even so seemed convincing.
running the dehumidifier down low for approx 3 hours with a towel with 330ml of water on it gathered 450ml of water.
running the dehumidifier up high for approx 3 hours with the same towel and some other items added gathered 120ml of water
running the dehumidifier down low for approx 3 hours without adding any water gathered 325ml of water.
adding some wet items and running for another 6 hours gathered 1 litre of water.
Beyond that, we also experimented with the hygrostat on the dehumidifier.
set to 2, as it seems to have been originally installed, the hygrostat never seems to turn on the dehumidifier
after running for some hours, the hygrostat seemed to trigger at approximately 5.
when up high, the dehumidifier turned off after some time running set at 5
when down low, the dehumidifier continued running at 5.
The extractor fan hygrostat seemed to trigger easily at a setting of 2. We have turned it down to 1.5 which should mean that it runs only when the air is very wet in which case extracting some air will make the work of the dehumidifier easier. We didn’t have enough wet clothing or enough time to make more to experiment with what happened when the cupboard was close to saturated. I don’t think setting the extractor fan to run more often is a good idea since that likely means more wet air coming in from the bathroom and so more work for the dehumidifier.
Please try the drying cupboard now and report back how well its working and any measurements you take and notes about the situation. There is a measuring jug in the cupboard that you can use to see how much water you gather.
Remaining to be done once the new configuration is tested
plumb a pipe from the new dehumidifier location to the outside to take water away
improve the cabling from the timer switch in the kitchen to the cupboard
add a socket in a better position for powering the dehumidifier
maybe add door interlock to make sure the door is closed when the room is running saving us trying to dry the shower room?
That all needs to be done once we’re sure that we’re happy with the new configuration since the new plumbing will be a pain to do and a pain to change.
This switch is my idea for door interlock on all three doors (including the broom cupboard)
Bump. If anyone has used the drying room, please comment how it worked for you. I see about 5 litres of water in the bucket so I assume there has been some success?
I measured and there were 7 litres of water gathered in the bucket which we put in the cottage catching water from the dehumidifier so something has been working but not the instructions about emptying the bucket. John also said he’d talked to some people who used the cottage and said the drying room worked, which is a good sign.
I used the new drying room quite a bit this year, including filling it up entirely (sorry folks) with very wet stuff after camping in bad weather. I find that it works very well, and it is particularly satisfying to empty the bucket, as it shows how much work the dehumidifier did and how much less water your tent and clothing have now. Even if it’s placebo, it feels very good.
My unscientific feeling is that it would benefit from more aggressive circulation inside, and maybe warmer air just for the speed. If it is really full, it feels (this is anecdotal) that there are poorly ventilated pockets, and a strong stream of warm air would help.
Another improvement, given that our hut is in the wettest country in the world, would be a ski-style boot dryer so that wet boots could be dried overnight. This would require investment from the club or interested individuals (I am willing to chip in a bit).
seriously well done getting the drying cupboard to work!