Hi Jazz,
In Reno, a quick lookup of some weather data shows Reno’s historical average annual relative humidity looks like about 50%, peaks in January around 65-70%, and low in summer of around 35% .
I’m not an HVAC engineer, however I have some experience with energy and humidity control.
With RH consistently low to moderate year round, there’s plenty of water the ambient air can absorb most of the time. It is costly to run mechanical cooling to accomplish dehumidification of a space like a brewhouse.
I recommend pursuing this path. Assuming the problems are condensation inside the building, Consult an HVAC engineering company to evaluate and design:
1. Ventilation with filtered ambient air inducted near the floor area of the brewhouse and exhausted at the roof.
2. The inlet air does not need to be forced air unless you want to temper it to control temperature in the winter.
3. Forced exhaust air from a plenum, ducting, or other means of ensuring that moist air does not collect under roof supporting structures and condense.
4. Application of a variable speed drive/motor paired with a properly specified fan and housing is important for energy efficiency and to allow variable fan operation to suit the brewhouse operating conditions.
I think a professional design and install is money well spent. Cheap will likely result in unsatisfactory results.
I hope this helps get you started on a cost-effective, functional solution.
Harlan Coomes, Dipl.Brew
Sent from my iPhone
Original Message:
Sent: 5/4/2023 11:59:00 AM
From: Jazz Aldrich
Subject: Humidity mitigation, preferably on the cheap
Our 40 bbl brewery is located in an industrial warehouse with an EPDM membrane roof. During normal operations we end up raising the humidity of the interior and this is causing moisture to condense out on the membrane and soak the underlying OSB, leading to mold issues. Our kettle and wort reciever both have stacks; mash tun and hot liquor tank do not. The mash tun could have a stack added but that is not an option on the hot liquor tank. Anyone dealt with this sort of issue? I was quoted in the $50,000-$100,000 range by one HVAC company and the other won't touch it until I have a mechanical engineer design an entire air treatment system. We do have one empty rooftop curb that a large downdraft or updraft fan could be installed on to either bring in or vent air.
Cheers,
Jazz
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Jazz Aldrich
Director of Operations
Great Basin Brewing Co.
Reno - Sparks, NV
(775) 856-1177
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