Many years ago Kodak used to publish plans for a tropical dry cabinet.
It was simply a small wooden cabinet with a low wattage light bulb
installed in the bottom. Gun owners face the same sort of problem with
rust as we do from fungus. If you'd like to make your own dry cabinet
you can get various small electrical resistance heaters designed for gun
cabinets for about $20 (or $35 if you buy in the wrong place :-))
Goldenrod is a popular name:
<http://www.midwayusa.com/viewproduct/?productnumber=614184&utm_source=froogle&utm_medium=free&utm_campaign=10615>
Browning also makes one which is flexible to fit in smaller spaces and
also has an LED to indicate if the unit is turned on.
<http://www.amazon.com/Browning-Safe-Accessories-Everydry-Dehumidifier/dp/B0013RBD5K/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=hi&qid=1275740513&sr=8-2>
The Goldenrod is available in two lengths; 12" and 8 watts to protect up
to 100 cubic feet and 18" and 12 watts for up to 200 cubic feet.
Several years ago I was going to build a dry cabinet using a 13 watt
compact fluorescent bulb as the heater but abandoned it as unnecessary
since I've never had a fungus problem in my air conditioned houses.
In my Florida place (and something I've not seen elsewhere) the air
conditioner is controlled both by temperature and humidity in what
appears to be a sort of AND circuit. It appears that power to the
thermostat passes first through a separate humidistat. Regardless of
temperature the air conditioner will not turn on unless the relative
humidity is higher than the setting on the humidistat dial or unless the
humidistat's dial is set to "off". This is a good arrangement for
snowbirds where we're not present during the summer and don't care what
the temperature is as long as the humidity is not high enough to cause
damage. But for normal summer time living I'd like to have an OR
arrangement with the humidistat. If the temperature is above a certain
point OR the humidity is above a certain point (regardless of
temperature) turn on the air. To the best of my knowledge no such
household control exists. It's a bit frustrating since right next to my
heating/cooling thermostat is a humidistat. However, the humidistat
only controls the humidifier on the furnace. It would be nice to let it
work with the A/C as well.
Chuck Norcutt
C.H.Ling wrote:
> I have a Toshiba DC-85E (85 liter?) purchased nearly twenty years ago at
> US$200, which is designed for food so the price was much cheaper than the
> one which is for camera gears (but I don't think there is any difference).
> It keep the humidity at 45 to 55% the whole year depends on ambient
> temperature. The sealed plastic case with silica gel didn't work for me, I
> highly recomend the electronic one which consumes very little power and is
> maintenance free (ok, it broke two years ago but I fixed it and now it still
> works well.)
>
> C.H.Ling
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Fernando Gonzalez Gentile" <fgonzalezgentile@xxxxxxxxx>
>
> Usual figures here, regardless summer or winter. A dry day could be 60%.
> Thus, winter is very cold at +5ºC, and it never snows.
>
> I found a good thread here:
> <http://photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=000Km7>
>
> Fernando.
>
> 2010/6/4 C.H.Ling <ch_photo@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>:
>
>> we have
>> 70-95% in summer time (and it is long)
--
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