humidifiers

[Yvonne G]

I've read the four threads shown associated with "humidifiers", however, they don't really talk about my question. I'm not talking a small indoor habitat for tortoises. I have regular sheds for my tortoises...similar to a garden shed. The horse has already escaped from the barn, and my YF, Aldabrans and leopards are already pyramided, however, I wonder if providing them with more humidity in their sheds over the winter will make them more comfortable. I've been looking online at the warm air humidifiers. Some of them run for 12 hours and automatically turn off when the water runs out.

I close my tortoises up inside their sheds nightly. Would running a warm air humidifier in their sheds be beneficial or not. The sheds are appx. 10'x10'x5'tall.

 

[wellington]

I run one here in Chicago in the winter. I think it helps for sure, but if you were going to try and grow a smooth tortoise in a shed with a humidifier, I don't think it would be enough. So for some humidity, yes, to try and keep a high humidity, then a a very large one or several would be needed.
Try to get one with the biggest reservoir as possible, this should have the longest run time also. Auto shut off and easy fill.

 

[Kapidolo Farms]

I am wondering what the condensation would be for using a warm air humidifier in a shed. If the air from the humidifier is warmed to hold more water, as soon as that warm air mixes with cooler air in the overall shed won't you have alot of condensation?

What Tom does in his night-houses is to have large open trays of water, that way the air will hold the amount of water appropriate and relative to the temperature. If that water had an aquarium heater in it, it would increase both evaporation and RH in the shed some. But to have warmed air humidified above the carrying capacity of the air in the shed based on the ambient air temp would result in alot of condensation.

I think optimally you would want to saturate the air with moisture to just above the dew point*. Lower than that and you get condensation, water coming out of the air because there is more water in the air than it can hold at any given temperature. By infusing warmed humidity into the air, as that warm air will cool, it losses the temp to hold all that water and the water comes out of the air as dew.

So static water, maybe slightly heated would provide higher humidity. If the air temp in the shed is 70, then adjust the heater in the water to 72. This is a passive system with an easily maintained water supply. An active system would be to powerful for the application as I understand you in your description.

*In simpler terms: the dew point is the temperature at which dew will form should the air temperature fall sufficiently. Other things being equal, as the temperature falls, the relative humidity rises, reaching 100% at the dew point, at least at ground level. Dew point temperature is never greater than the air temperature, since the relative humidity cannot exceed 100%

 

[wellington]

My shed is heated to 80. During the day with the basking lights it's higher. Too much heat for the small amount the humidifier puts out to cause condensation. I also always have 2 five gallon buckets of water warmed by the heater and the torts water dishes of course. At one point I had a bunch of plants too. Never had a problem with too much humidity. If you don't heat your shed, then condensation may be a problem.

 

[MPRC]

I ran a ultrasonic humidifier (cool mist, not warm air) in my iguana room for 12 hours a day and saw a noticeable difference in his sheds. Because it was a small humidifier when I bought it I actually added a larger reservoir to insure it didn't run dry since it did not have an auto off.

I think more humidity is always great, so long as it isn't lowering your temperatures in your shed and making things too wet. I'm not sure how much RH it would take to encourage mold in a warm wet dark shed in CA, but I know it takes next to nothing for it to happen here in OR.