# plant room humidifier



## orchidnut (Jan 11, 2012)

I grow indoors under lights. My room is 15 x 25 feet with about 125 orchids. It is a room not connected to the house. Now that the heater is on I am having trouble maintaining a proper humidity. The plants already sit on humidity trays and I added a room humidifier which dispenses 1.5 gallons per day but so far tops out at 50% at 70 degrees. Its still not enough. Anyone with a good recommendation for room humidifiers that won't break my wallet? I am trying to not have to fill the reservoir every day.


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## Ray (Jan 11, 2012)

Sounds like a bigger-, or additional room-size humidifier might work if you're getting to 50% at that.

Here's something I did to get around the frequent refilling of a cool-mist (ultrasonic) humidifier:


Throw away the tank that came with the humidifier
Cut a hole or groove in the lip that the tank sat in.
Silicone glue a length of 1/2" ID vinyl tubing into the hole.
Direct the tubing into a 5-gallon bucket.
Put a submersible pump into the bucket, with its outlet hose feeding the humidifier.
The pump keeps the humidifier full to a level equivalent to what the tank did, with the excess overflowing back into the bucket. The 5-gallons of water lasted several days, and when I got fed up with refilling even that often, I added a small float valve to it, and ran a quarter-inch line from a saddle valve on existing plumbing.

If you have an centrifugal atomizer or warm-mist humidifier, you can add a float valve to them directly. (I do carry small float valves, tubing, and saddle valves, by the way...)


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## Shiva (Jan 11, 2012)

orchidnut said:


> I grow indoors under lights. My room is 15 x 25 feet with about 125 orchids. It is a room not connected to the house. Now that the heater is on I am having trouble maintaining a proper humidity. The plants already sit on humidity trays and I added a room humidifier which dispenses 1.5 gallons per day but so far tops out at 50% at 70 degrees. Its still not enough. Anyone with a good recommendation for room humidifiers that won't break my wallet? I am trying to not have to fill the reservoir every day.



My growing room is 9 by 18 feet. I have three 3 x 8 feet galvanized steel trays with grill type wire support on top, like those used for shelves in closets. They are always full of water and my humidity is almost always above 70 rh. On very cold night, I have to open the door to prevent the humidity from going even higher and rotting the walls. If I was in your place, I would regroup all the orchids on the same table and put something like a shower curtain around them. That would make it easyer to keep a higher humidity level.


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## Mike (Jan 11, 2012)

My room is connected to the house, so I do get better winter time humidification in the house as a side benefit, but I am running a Kenmore console humidifier that puts out ~14 GPD. The tanks are about 3 gal each and I fill up both tanks in the morning and usually 1 in the evening. Growing room has 1Kw of T5 lights, 40 mature paphs, and 9 trays of seedlings. My forced air heating system pulls room air out and runs constantly,so in effect I am humidifying the whole house, but when you go in the room, the localized humidity is 65%. Daytime temps get to upper 70s and night tems in the mid to upper 60s (F). Don't have the model number of humidifier off hand, but it was their largest.


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## Mike (Jan 11, 2012)

I will add that in a closed space with limited air changes that console humidifier may go for days before needing to be refilled.


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## Hera (Jan 11, 2012)

Welcome to the forum!


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## Justin (Jan 11, 2012)

50% is not bad. 

Next time I get a humidifier I am going to try a Kenmore whole-house. The electronics in my Essick whole-house are starting to break down and it's only in its second season. 

My previous TWO Hunters also lasted only one year each.


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## SlipperFan (Jan 11, 2012)

Welcome, orchidnut!

If this room is not attached to your house, is it a room that can take extra humidity? 50% is pretty good. But Shiva's advice is very good for helping contain the humidity around the plants.


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## Orchidnut57 (Jan 11, 2012)

I have had great sucess with a Hunter Brand Carefree with Permawick...my 9x10 room stays at 55-70 % even when the heat is on...roughly 40 dollars
Jim


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## paphreek (Jan 12, 2012)

Unless you're growing lots of miniature Pleurothalids, a daytime humidity of 50% worked fine for Paphs. If you let the room cool down at night, the RH should rise to at least 60-70% then drop back down to 50% when the room warms up the next day. When the air is dryer, you should reduce the air movement to a very gentle breeze. Adjustable speed ceiling fans work well in accomplishing this task.


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## W. Beetus (Jan 12, 2012)

I have a Trion 707 atomizing humidifier. I believe it was about $230 when I bought it last season. I have it hooked into my greenhouse temp/humidistat. It has a small reservoir, but there is a float in it so you can hook up a source of water for it. I have a 14 gallon tote of water stored about six inches higher than the device, and gravity gets the job done. It drains the tote about once a week at a 55% setpoint in my greenhouse. 
I was initially reluctant to spend the money on a quality humidifier, but once I realized how much I had invested in plants, it quickly made sense to spend the money. And, I haven't regretted that decision.


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## Ray (Jan 13, 2012)

W. Beetus said:


> <snip> once I realized how much I had invested in plants, it quickly made sense to spend the money. And, I haven't regretted that decision.</snip>


That's one of the "issues" with orchids.

They are so enticing that you get a bigger and bigger collection, allowing you to rationalize spending more cash on more items.

Humidifier or fogger.
RO system.
Metering Pump.
Greenhouse.
Heater.
Supplemental lighting.
Digital SLR camera.

I want to correct a comment from above - it's not "rationalization" at all! It's "logical" to do what one can for the preservation and benefit of such creatures.


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## koshki (Jan 13, 2012)

I'm pretty sure that my investment in the stuff to support my orchid collection probably is as much as the value of the orchids themselves. But please don't tell my hubby...!


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## orchidnut (Jan 15, 2012)

thanks to all who contributed. i thought about a curtain but esthetically i don't want to go that route. i believe i will go the route of more water trays for now. i do like the suggestion about refabbing a humidifier with a larger water source. right now i am using an essick room humidifier rated at 9 gallons per day with a 3.5 gallon reservoir. nice unit but it only consumes 1.5 gallons of water per day even though at continuous run. i talked to the help desk. they informed me 9 gallons means water vapor not liquid. pretty devious i think and told them so.


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