I do agree with you 100%, but all this is still going to be a trial run. The house I'm moving into has a fish pond. So what I'm thinking is to built the tarantula enclosure to go over a part of the fish pond (then I can keep some H.gigas aswell) and I'm pretty sure that will solve all the humidity issues. The only thing I will have to control is the heating, which will be quite basic, I hope.

Great idea! Never thought of this one, please let us know how it turned out?

Have you considered a small solar system for the extra electricity consumption?

Hi

I have also thought about this extensively and have done some work on it myself.

Sorry to mention this Jaco but unfortunatly your plan will work but not for long

A aircon needs manual control form a remote. For instance if you require 30 degrees in the room and the room is at 22, If the unit isnt on heating the aircon wont run because the temp is already lower than that witch you require. You have to switch the aicon over to heating.

That is also a problem. for if the room reaches 35 degrees and you are not there to set the aircon back to cooling, the unit wont run because the temp is higher that that witch you require and the temp will stay at 35 until it comes down.Aircons dont have the abbility to change between heating and cooling on themselves.

The biggest problem with the room will be the aircon and misting.

The high humidity will cause frost to build up on the aircon pipes. Frost expands and that will cuase the pipes to rupture and the frost will cover pipes and make the heat exchange surface smaller and the gas in the unit will partly remain a liqued and get pumped back to the compressor. A liqued can not be compressed, witch will then cause the compressor to break pistons and conrods.

The only way to get past this is to build a refrigeration unit that will be able to controll the humidity and the temp.

The inside unit will be equiped with heating element inside the unit, they will then heat up and the fans will enshure the distibution of the heat over the heaters and into the room.

The heaters will also help with the frost on the pipes, as the unit will go into a defrost period every 2 to 3 hours.

The unit will also go into a cooling phase that will help keep the temp incase the room gets to warm.

The biggest problem will be the cost of this unit as you will need allot of pipe work and solenoid valves to control the heating and cooling turnover.

Then you will need a temp and humidity control that can be integrated into the refrigeration unit. They are also very expensive.
not to mention the running cost of these refrigeration units.

I dont want to burst any bubbles but it is going to be very expensive.

lol like i said i have done allot of work on this toppic. :blush:

Hope i helped.

Hagar.

Hagar, thanks for the explination, like I said I am lucky in one way, I can install and wire this system up myself, Already have the circuit to switch the aircon between heating and cooling, very basic.

On your theory of pipes freezing up, the humidity where I stay varies between 60 and 90% in the summer, never had a aircon freezing up and they run 24 hours a day. If you look at my plan you will see that I plan to drop the the temp at night and stop humidifying, so on the coldest part of the 24 hour cycle there will be no misting.

I understand why you think it might freeze up,but do remember, my planned t room will have no windows and 1 door, kept close, insulated roof and little influence from outside. It will also be controlled at 28dg, so it is not hunting for 16 or 18 like most aircons, freezing the pipes at 28dg is a lot more difficult than at 16 or 18, also achieving 28 is a lot easier and faster than achieving 16 or 18. The almost 2 sizes bigger aircon even speeds this proses up a lot and running time gets cut to the minimum (Low duty cycle). I cant see that it will ever run long enough to freeze.

Thought of all this but also did my research, and this setup are being used in a lot of applications even to such an extend as to where the misters was installed directly in front of the aircons.

Hope this helped :blush:

Jaco

Howzit Jaco.

Well it seems you have also done some extensive researsh.

Please, as soon as you project is up and running , let me know . I would love to come and have a look at the desighn.

What controller did you get and from who?

And the t's of course lol.

Hagar.