Dear Michaele,

I cannot help you with the number of dehumidifiers you need for your cf.
But, having had some dehumidifing experience myself, here's what I did.

I "paired" two dehumidifiers and connected them to the on/off timers you can
get at Radio Shack (etc.) for a few bucks.  The last task of my day would be
to empty all dehumidifier buckets.  The first machine would run from closing
time and typically fill up and shut-off by midnight or so, the second
machine was set to start at 1:00 (or 2:00) am. and would also be filled by
morning.  The first task the next morning would be emptying all buckets and
start over - but during the day I could monitor the machines and dump as
necessary.  I had to be careful with the timers; if two machines overlapped
(ie ran at the same time) we would blow fuses.  With the machines running
nearly 24 hours we actually were able to pull down the rh and keep it down.
Before I created the paired arrangement the rh would drop as long as the
machine was running, then when it filled up and stopped around midnight, the
rh would go straight up and we'd be right back where we started the next am.

Several other thoughts:
-> When the machines are working constantly they kick out a lot of heat.  Of
course, the warmer the air the more humidity it will hold (duh) thus to some
extent you're defeating your own purpose.  If your space is big enough it
may not matter much; in the areas we did it raised the temp significantly.
-> We were not able to find machines between large industrial and home use
size.  We settled for a number of home sized models.  Certain bucket designs
were easier to manage and seemed to overflow less often (always a big
concern).  Don't forget to consider your water dumping options when placing
the machines.
-> As I was taught in an environmental monitoring course: dehumidifying is
an excercise in futility.  Keep adding machines until you can dehumidify
faster than the air exchanges - you'll know.

Good luck!
Sarah Tuttle
Steamboat Bertrand Museum
in (humid) Missouri Valley, Iowa

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