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I’ve been concerned about the humidity in my crawl space since we moved in. In fact, I wondered about it at our former house but never did anything about it. At the current house we’ve had some problems with water getting under the house in heavy rains but I think I’ve got that whipped.

I decided the first step was measuring the humidity under there so I bought a Honeywell TM005X Wireless Thermo-Hygrometer and put the remote unit under the house. I bought it back in January 2009 and boy was I shocked. The humidity seldom got below 75% even in the winter! As the summer came on and the humidity rose to above 90% I decided I had to do something. It is so humid down there that water condenses on the cold water pipes and drips on the floor.

Completing the plastic covering on the floor (about 20% was uncovered) did nothing. So I went looking for solutions. I found the SmartVent Crawl Space ventilator and after reading their convincing argument that you can’t dry under your house with wet air, I decided to purchase one of their vents. It cost me $315.

It arrived less than 1 week after I ordered it and I installed it the next weekend. I had never removed a crawl space vent before but it turned out to be a pretty easy job. Mine were installed with mortar which I broke out using a long chisel and a hammer. It took me approximately 1/2 hour to prepare the opening to receive the smart vent. The place I chose to install it had an electrical outlet nearby so I was set for power. I used clear caulk to seal around the opening.

I installed it on 20 June 2009. After 2 weeks my crawl space humidity is down to 77% from 92% on the day I installed it. I’ll make a table below to record occasional readings. It has been dry here since I installed it. That, no doubt, is part of the rapid improvement but since I’m not doing any sort of controlled experiment, I’m just going to report what I see.

The SmartVent appears to be well made and runs a clever algorithm. It has two muffin fans, a small circuit card, and a thermometer and humidistat positioned near the front grill. It uses these sensors with the fans off to sample the outside air. If the outside air temperature is above 42 degrees F, it runs one fan for about 15 minutes to pull crawl space air over the temperature and humidity sensor. It then compares the dew point of the outside air with the dew point of the crawl space air. If the dew point outside is lower both fans run to pull wetter crawl space air out so that it will be replaced (through leakage) by dryer outside air. If the outside air is wetter than the inside air, the unit waits.

My sporadic observation of its habits confirm that it is behaving as expected. I’ve seen it running continuously for the last few days while the outside dew point has been low but last week it ran much less because the outside air was very humid.

I’ll try to record some readings here so I can track how it does.

Note: On 14 July 2009 my Honeywell wireless hygrometer died and I replace it with an Oregon Scientific RMR500A. The calibration was clearly different. I calibrated the new one using the damp salt method.

I expect it to become gradually harder for the SmartVent to improve the situation under the house because as it lowers the dew point, there will be fewer times when the outside dew point is lower. But, I hope and expect it to be better than it was.

Our new (to us 2 years ago) house came with a large (maybe 36 square feet of floor) tiled shower in the master bath. The inspector warned me that it leaked but I hoped it was simply a problem with the plumbing. I tested the shower pan by sealing the drain and filling the pan with water drawn from elsewhere in the house. It leaked! Water ran under the house. The right thing to do would be to tear it out and replace it but that will be a major undertaking. I wondered if there was something I could do that would delay this major bill? How about coating the floor and bottom rows of tile up to the bench with Epoxy Waterproofer? We decided to try it.

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Oddly, there is nothing about a ½” pipe that is ½”, be it copper, iron, or PVC. Nice tables with the internal and external dimensions of pipe of various materials.

• Hannah’s blog of her adventures
• Map on MSN Encarta
• Weather
• Hirabayashi JHS and pictures
• Kanno JHS and some pictures of the school
• Elementary schools

Kelly’s engineer estimates beam thickness as 1/2 inch per foot of span.

It appears to have a defective washer. Not an ordinary O-ring unfortunately but rather a gasket with a “frill” on it. Their customer service number is 800-782-2385. I think it is a 104-557HC. I called on 7 January and they are sending and entire “stem” rather than just the O-ring. On 12 January I received a new complete “stem” for my faucet. Great customer service. I would have been happy with just the gasket but this will get it working again. B&K Mueller is a quality company. I’ll buy and recommend their stuff for sure.

On further examination I found that the tubular shaft was cracked allowing water to enter it and spray out the knob. I soldered the cracks and it seems to work now.

Replaced 1 April, 9 December

Says “lasts up to 90 days”. What does that mean? The upstairs unit runs an average of 3 hours per day. So replace at 270 hours? The downstairs unit runs 2.3 hours per day, so replace it sooner? That makes no sense.

I’ll check them once per month.

Dakota Alert WPT-3000

We’re very pleased with it. No false alarms, no misses either. We no longer need a doorbell.

Installed 31 July 2006. Batteries appear to last about 9 months.

Replaced east side battery on 26 January 2007 because of battery defect.
Replaced both batteries on 7 May 2007. Alarm was still working but sounds twice for a single car when the battery is weak.
Replaced east side battery on 2 Feb 2008, was sounding twice.

Replaced with GE GXWH20F to get the mounting bracket on 10 January 2006
New cartridge on:

• 12 March 2006
• 08 June 2006 (too long, filter was failing)
• 13 August 2006 (no sign of failure)
• 22 October 2006
• 20 December 2006
• 3 March 2007
• 5 May 2007
• 15 July 2007 (much less silt than usual)
• 30 September 2007
• 22 December 2007
• 16 March 2008
• 6 June 2008
• 29 July 2008 (pressure switch failed, pump running continuously, probably stirred up extra silt)
• 13 December 2008
• March 2009
• 16 May 2009

Generac Guardian 15kW/H

Installed 31 October 2005.

• Changed oil, oil filter, air filter 11 November 2006. 19 hours on meter.
• Changed oil, oil filter, air filter, checked plugs, on 17 November 2007. 34 hours on meter after running 4 hours during an outage.
• Changed oil, oil filter, air filter on 15 November 2008. Need to check the plugs. 44 hours on the meter.

Oil filter is Fram PH4967
Air filter is Fram CA101 (not available in stores)
Plugs are RC12YC (2) gap 0.020 inch
Oil is 1.7 quarts of 5W-30 synthetic