Yes, we do sell hygrometers for measuring humidity, but adding humidity is another story. For years, many of us have been placing wet paper towels in our refrigerators, but maintaining a constant amount of humidity is difficult. Two years ago we posted a fascinating article about using salt to retain humidity in a refrigerator cave. Steve Murtaugh perfected that technique and shared all the details with us (link below). But, what about the lucky few of us who have actual rooms for “caves?”
Over 2 years ago, Claude Garneau in Ottowa, Canada built a cave for his wife in a room in their house. He sent us this note which we posted in the January 2014 Moos-Letter:
Recently, he sent us this description of his own creative solution for adding humidity to a room sized cave:
Humidity control problems in our cheese cave finally resolved!
About a year ago, I had sent in pictures of my wife’s new cheese “cave.” I was able to regulate the temperature very easily by using a window AC with a Coolbot unit for the summer, and a thermostat controlled bathroom fan that draws heated air from the basement in the winter. I have no problem keeping the temperature at a steady 55F.
Controlling the humidity level, however, was another matter. Regular house-sized humidifiers would shut down around 60%, and it was beyond my skills to bypass the humidistat, as they were all electronic units. I then bought 3 of the small units that take 1 litre water bottles upside-down. It worked well, but we had to keep filling them, and humidity always varied by as much as 10%.
Also, no matter how I tried to set them up to auto-fill, I was unable to come up with a way.
So then, I bought 2 Perfect Cheese humidifiers (the rectangular unit in the photo).
I placed them in a plastic tub that I fitted with a humidifier auto-fill valve. It worked fairly well, but did not provide enough moisture. So I got 5 of the small humidifiers that you place on top of a water bottle (the round blue ones in the picture). I used a small plastic cutting board that I drilled holes in so the water tubes could pass through. So now, I had a system that could provide enough humidity. I then ordered a WH-8040 (the square unit with the red LED display).
I now have a working, controlled source of humidity for our cheese “cave” that I do not have to fill up. In hindsight, the 5 round units would have been sufficient, so total cost would be under $100. I’m pretty proud that I’ve been able to set up the system to control heat and humidity at very low cost. The fill control unit can be seen under the red plastic “shelf” that the round humidifiers are sitting on. They are also very low-energy units, as they use a micro-usb adapter for power.
Now, I have to take some time and clean up the wiring in the “cave.”
