We've got an insulated house, heat it properly, ventilate it, but still see humidity levels of 70%+ in bed rooms. How to fix that?

We built a house 7 years ago and it's insulated and has double glazing. I've installed Home Assistant with temp sensors in the bed rooms and seeing 70%+ humidity levels. Temperature is always above 16c

We ventilate it, but still it's 70% in the bedrooms. WHO recommends 40-60%, so we're a bit worried.

Living room is around 55% during the day when we have the heat pump set at 21c.

As it's pretty humid outside I think it's almost impossible to get it lower, but are there any other tips? I don't want to run dehumidifiers. Would an HRV like system help?

TagMeInSkipIGotThis,

What sensors are you using to measure your humidity? Have you got anything you can calibrate against?

sylverstream,

I've got Sonoff SNZB-02 temp sensors. I also have a weather station; there is a difference of up to 5%, so I am taking the readings with a grain of salt.

I just bought a dehumidifier which has a RH sensor as well, which is almost the same as the reading of my Sonoff sensors.

shutuuplegs,

Hvac is oversized and not running long enough. Super common issue especially when people tighten up their house

innercitadel, (edited )

What do you mean exactly you ventilating. Mechanical ventilation?

Modern houses NEED mechanical ventilation. It's a travesty that new houses in NZ don't come with mechanical ventilation as standard, as is done in the rest of the developed world.

It's pretty obvious if you think about it. Seal the house well, well insulated, double glazed. How will the moisture leave without ventilation. This is why modern houses NEED mechanical ventilation. Older houses don't need mechanical ventilation because the house is already leaky.

And not the silly DVS thing. I don't want rat infested air from my attic thank you. I don't care how good the filters are. Ventilation from the outside please.

What this looks like is intake vents in the soffit, a duct, and fan that pumps fresh air in for positive ventilation. Our you can do negative pressure where it pumps out, or balanced where you have air coming both in and out. You can install a mechanical heat recovery system if the house gets cold.

Full HVAC includes ducted heating/cooling.

TLDR: your house is humid because it's well sealed and the builders couldn't be bothered putting in mechanical ventilation because we are 20 years behind the rest of the world.

If you already have mechanical ventilation then it is likely not installed properly. Just putting it in doesn't necessarily mean it's sized correctly for example.

sylverstream,

What do you mean exactly you ventilating. Mechanical ventilation?

We've got mechanical ventilation in the bathrooms.

But I meant just old school opening all the windows :)

TLDR: your house is humid because it’s well sealed and the builders couldn’t be bothered putting in mechanical ventilation because we are 20 years behind the rest of the world.

Yes, I understand that, we generate moist from cooking/breathing/washing and that has to go somewhere. We've got many windows open a little bit 24/7.

I'm from Europe, and yes, houses are better insulated, we had double glazing 30 years ago, and now have triple glazing, but ventilation was never an issue. We just open our windows to ventilate for e.g. an hour and that's it.

ohtheirony,

You would probably have had air bricks too.

cabbage, (edited )

4 year old house, double glazing. We have the heat pump set at 21dg on 24x7 all winter and never really open windows.

Current temps and moisture levels:

https://lemmy.nz/pictrs/image/b14177f9-9eff-4bbc-b3c4-a4db759ab48c.jpeg

If you're worried about moisture I recommend a dehumidifier, those things work wonders and much cheaper than retrofitting ventilation like the other poster mentioned.

I guess it's worth mentioning, we have a tumble drier in the garage so the house doesn't get any moisture from drying clothes.

sylverstream,

Thanks. Those numbers are similar to ours. We never really opened windows either, we're aiming to do that daily from now on.

Just bought a dehumidifier. Indeed easiest and cheapest solution.

cabbage,

I'm ok with that humidity to be honest, I am not seeing any mould.

sylverstream,

We only a little bit in certain clothes and in the bottom of our alu window frames.

Still above 60% is apparently not healthy. I'd recommend to look into it.

TagMeInSkipIGotThis,

A lot of modern heat-pumps have a dehumidifier mode. But likely if they're set to Auto they'll never switch to using it I think.

innercitadel,

Thanks for further details. I would definitely invest in getting HVAC installed in that instance or if cost is an issue then at minimum install simple positive pressure mechanical ventilation from the outside into the bedrooms. This should fix your problem. It sounds like windows aren't enough because the house is well sealed, so you need a mechanical solution. Please don't get DVS from the attic.

I live in a new house with HVAC and leave the mechanical ventilation on when not heating or cooling and it keeps moisture levels low. I also got HVAC retrofitted into my previous house which made a massive difference in moisture. I'll never live in a house without HVAC in the future if I can help it.

sylverstream,

We do have HVAC, in a heat pump. It's running all day. A complete system like HRV is a bit too much for now. The dry setting is annoying as it is cooling. Not handy mid winter.

innercitadel,

You mean a split system? A heat pump usually refers to a split system which doesn't have the V in HVAC as it just recirculates air. HRV is the ventilation from the attic thing, please don't get that.

HVAC generally refers to ducted aircon with mechanical ventilation. The "heat pump" sits in the attic. Fresh air is taken in from the outside through the soffit. Ducts run from the "heat pump" into each room.

If a ducted system is too expensive then you should install plain mechanical positive pressure ventilation from the outside (not HRV/DVS) Depending on your house it is possible to DIY this using stuff from Bunnings. You could even link the fan to your Home Assistant and get it to activate when the humidity reaches a certain threshold. This should fix your problem. If it causes the house to get cold by doing this then you could install a mechanical heat recovery device.

sylverstream,

Thanks mate, that is very useful. Yes, we indeed only have a heat pump.

I looked into HRV/DVS alternatives some time ago, and Cleanaire was recommended on e.g. Geekzone; which gets the air from outside & heats it. Quote was $4-5k which is a bit steep as we're not sure how long we'll be living here.

A DIY option for a PIV isn't too bad. I could leave it running overnight and use the heat pump to keep the house above 16c.

I also bought a small dehumidifier as a stop gap.

I've left the heat pump running on dry / heat cycles overnight (1 hour dry to 17c, 1 hour heat to 19c). Didn't do anything, RH at the end was exactly the same as the night before.

innercitadel,

Oh wow mechanical heat recovery systems have jumped in price. They were 2-3k a few years ago. The way mechanical heat recovery works is kind of like penguin legs. The inflow and exhaust airflows pass by each other. So the warm exhaust air passively heats the cooler inflow air. So they are quite basic things that are very cheap to run. I guess another kiwi tax. Done some googling for pricing and it does appear 5-6k is the going rate now. E.g. another option: https://www.smooth-air.co.nz/home/hex390

What about something like this: https://www.smartvent.co.nz/why-smartvent/ that should also improve the humidity. Doesn't say price though. They seem to have a variety of options including positive pressure which should be much cheaper than a heat recovery system. https://www.smartvent.co.nz/smartvent-positive-advance/

Here's some more information about heat recovery systems and why DVS/HRV from the attic are shit. https://www.smarterhomes.org.nz/smart-guides/heating-cooling-and-insulation/ventilation-and-heat-recovery-systems/

sylverstream,

Thanks for the details!

Smooth air has kits for just ventilation for 1.5k for 2 rooms. Smartvent is more expensive, like 4k, they have some pricing.

I don't need a lot of bells and whistles. I can automate it myself. Just an outdoor outlet and an indoor outlet, ventilator and two pipes for just the living room.

I read your article, they say HRV/DVS is bad for heating, but not if you use it just for ventilation?

One other easier option is to just have a simple diy DVS by using the air from the attic. I'm going to check the moisture levels there first.

sylverstream,

Sorry to bother you again, but wouldn't something like this work? Instead of connecting to the heated room as inlet, I'd connect it to the outside. Of course has to be water proofish.

https://www.mitre10.co.nz/shop/weiss-heat-transfer-kit-1-room/p/175013

innercitadel,

That should work if you bring it to the soffit instead of a different room. However youre paying extra for the temperature sensor. Don't get the air from the attic, it's not healthy air, I don't care how good the filters are, it is something unheard of elsewhere in the developed world. I would rather have nothing than air come in from the attic. Please rid yourself of the idea of venting from the attic.

I have these links saved in my bookmarks when I first researched this 10 years ago and retrofitted a ducted HVAC system in my previous house.

https://www.energyvanguard.com/blog/Case-Closed-Get-Those-Air-Conditioning-Ducts-out-of-the-Attic

https://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy10osti/48163.pdf

In many countries in Europe houses actually have to have their ventilation/insulation performance tested and pass the test (e.g. blower door for air tightness). We have gotten better at insulating but our builders still don't generally understand the importance of mechanical ventilation. Cue Mouldy homes chapter 2.

Balanced heat recovery mechanical ventilation > positive pressure ventilation > negative pressure ventilation > nothing > air from the attic.

Just my opinion. I don't work in the industry. Just a geek.

sylverstream,

Thanks. I had a look at those articles. I'm not an expert, but they seem to talk about the temperature / lack of insulation in the attic, not about the air quality. They recommend putting the pipes inside the thermal enclosure.

I think you're still right though, better to get air from the outside.

I did some reading, and I found this article where they talk about lack of attic ventilation being a bad thing. Overseas it seems to be a standard now. Think next step is to measure the attic as well to see if I need to ventilate that as well.

Another read about attic ventilation here

innercitadel,

Oh that's a slightly different thing I think. It is referring to ventilating the attic with the outside. Not ventilating the attic with the living space which is what the DVS/HRV thing is. Ventilating the attic with the outside is generally a good thing for various reasons. I might have messed up the terminology. But I don't think attic ventilation between the attic and outside will solve your problem.

sylverstream,

Yeah, definitely don't want air from the attic.

I read somewhere else that just a positive pressure system is not sufficient, you need a balanced one, especially in well insulated houses. Ie fresh air in, stale are out. If I install something I want it to be right.

That would mean a couple of thousand dollars.

Food for thought. Going to try with opening windows more often first and a small dehumidifier, especially when drying clothes.

innercitadel,

Positive pressure is definitely not as good. But if you plan ahead you can always modify into a balanced system later. In my last house when I installed positive pressure I also added an additional vent in the soffit in case I wanted to turn it into a balanced system in the future. But the positive pressure solved the condensation problem so didn't end up upgrading to balanced. You could also do balanced without mechanical heat recovery.

Maybe as an experiment try blow a fan pointed out an open window and see if it makes any difference to the humidity?

sylverstream,

Thanks again for all the tips, much appreciated! I learn more and more about it.

Yes, will try the fan.

What type of system did you install? Just a simple fan or a more sophisticated one? If you want to be ready for balanced I guess your fan needs to be ready as well?

innercitadel,

I installed ducted air con and instead of having a separate system for ventilation, for cost effectiveness I routed it from the outside through the air con system. So the aircon pulled the air from both the return vent in the house (90%) and from the outside (10%). You only need a small amount of mechanical airflow from the outside to reduce moisture levels. And had another vent hole with cover on the soffit for future but not ducted into the air con.

cloventt,

Vapour barrier. Vapour barrier. And maybe a vapour barrier.

They're really cheap and only a little difficult to install. I've installed them in every house I've ever lived in. In our current house things dried out so much some of our floorboards warped a little. They are magic.

sylverstream,

Never heard of that, thanks. Our house is built on a concrete slab, so don't think that will work?

Lemmyin,

Sounds like a reasonably new build. If it’s slab on grade they would have put down a vapour barrier prior to pouring the concrete slab.

cloventt,

If there's an air-gap between the slab and your floor, and you can get in there, then yeah it will help. Concrete is remarkably porous to water.

Dave,
@Dave@lemmy.nz avatar

So your house is insulated and warm, and presumably pretty sealed. I think you should be considering sources of water vapour.

Some common sources:

  • Shower
  • Drying clothes inside
  • Cooking

If you have a separate shower (rather than shower over bath) you can get a shower dome which significantly reduces steam leaking outside the shower. I don't much like using a shower with one but they are effective. You can also get a more powerful extractor fan, though even the super powerful ones don't seem to be that powerful (I want one that sucks your clothes off).

If you dry clothes inside, try not to. If you have a dryer that isn't a condenser dryer, try to vent it outside or at least open the window. Probably try to use it less though using it less and not drying clothes inside don't make for many options in the winter.

For cooking, make sure you have a rangehood to catch the steam from any boiling pots. And make sure it's externally vented. I have lived in placed with rangehoods that just push the air back into the room (I'm not sure of the point...) but I'd think with a house that new it wouldn't be an issue.

You might have other ideas about sources of water. Gas heaters can be one but it sounds like you heat with a heat pump.

An HRV/DVS can help but I'm not sure it's as effective in a newer house.

You also mention the living room is 55% in the day when heated to 21c, what temperature are the bedrooms when they are 70%? Colder air can hold less water, and so the relative humidity is higher with the same amount of water in the air.

sylverstream,

Thanks Dave, much appreciated! Yes, I guess it's from internal sources, like shower, drying clothes and cooking. Will try to decrease that, but as you said, drying clothes outside is not really an option in winter.

So, right now, living room is 21.5C@57.1%. Bed room 1 is 18.1c@67.6, bed room 2 is 17.8@70.4%, bed room 3 is 19.1c@65.3% We've got doors open so it should stabilize a bit more. I understand that higher temps means lower RH, but I don't want to heat bed rooms to 21c. There are panel heaters in each bed room, which are set at 16c during the night, and at 19c at the end of afternoon until 6pm.

Garage is 14.6c@77.7; which is not insulated & not heated.

Think as a gap stop I'll get a dehumidifier, especially for the colder winter months.

Bizarroland,
Bizarroland avatar

You could probably solve most of this problem by installing an ERV but those are fairly expensive.

Dave,
@Dave@lemmy.nz avatar

Other than the garage, those temperatures/humidities all have a similar amount of moisture in the air, the difference comes from the temperature of the room. See this calculator I googled up: https://www.omnicalculator.com/physics/absolute-humidity

So the warm air has X amount of water in it, and when it goes to the cold room it still has the same amount of water, but because cold air can hold less water the relative humidity goes up. So I don't think there's anything special about the bedrooms.

The dehumidifier is probably a good idea, but before you go and buy one, check if your heat pump has a "dry" setting.

sylverstream,

Thanks Dave again for the insights!

Our heat pump has a dry setting, but it must be set 2c lower than ambient temperature. So it's getting quite cold. I was hoping / assuming that a dehumidifier wouldn't cool that much.

But perhaps worth giving it a try for an hour or so.

sourworm,

A dehumidifier will actually add a bit of heat.

Dave,
@Dave@lemmy.nz avatar

Ah interesting, I've never read the instructions just hit "Dry"!

Don't forget to warm the room back up before checking the humidity or the cooler air might make you think it hasn't made a difference :).

On another note, I've always wanted to try home assistant but never got around to actually getting any equipment. What sensors did you get?

sylverstream,

Ah interesting, I’ve never read the instructions just hit “Dry”!

Yeah, I noticed it didn't do anything when set to e.g. 22c when it was already 22c there. Then I read the manual, which is a bit cryptical:

When the room temperature is higher than the temperature setting: The device will dehumidify the room, reducing the room temperature to the preset level. When the room temperature is lower than the temperature setting: Dehumidifying will be performed at the temperature setting slightly lower than the current room temperature, regardless of the temperature setting. The function will stop (the indoor unit will stop emitting air) as soon as the room temperature becomes lower than the setting temperature.

Notice the bold part. First it says, if the temp setting is higher/same as ambient, it will perform slightly below ambient. However, next sentence it says it stops when temp setting is higher/same as ambient?

I have to set it e.g. 2c lower than ambient, otherwise it just doesn't do anything

Dave,
@Dave@lemmy.nz avatar

Yes I noticed it contradicted itself. I think that was probably referring to the earlier part, that you start it when the temperature is high then it keeps going until it reaches the set temperature.

I am going to go and play with ours now, we haven't really used that setting, but I have no idea what the humidity is in the house. I've just in the past in a different house had to work out how to reduce dampness and mould.

sylverstream,

Yes I noticed it contradicted itself. I think that was probably referring to the earlier part, that you start it when the temperature is high then it keeps going until it reaches the set temperature.

Yes, guess you're right.

I've got a cheap weather station from Aliexpress which also has a humidity sensor, that could be a temporary solution for you if you don't go for the HA route.

Dave,
@Dave@lemmy.nz avatar

Nah, that takes the fun out of it. Given how cheap the parts are I'm going to have a play at getting HA set up when I get a chance.

sylverstream,

Good luck!

One tip if you have a SO: Make sure that they are on board, and that it only adds benefits & there's a backup/fallback plan. E.g. don't say "Oh sorry the lights don't work if the internet is down", that won't go down well :)

Dave,
@Dave@lemmy.nz avatar

Haha good point! What is the plan when that happens?

sylverstream,

I'm avoiding plugs that require internet access, but it's a bit hard, especially in NZ. E.g. the TP Link smart plus don't work if the internet is down, and my standing desk is Tuya based which requires the cloud.

But, e.g. the TP Link plugs still have a button to turn them on manually in case the internet is down. The lights still work if you turn them off and back on at the wall. So everything can still work without internet.

Dave,
@Dave@lemmy.nz avatar

Ok cool, I'll be sure to think about that stuff before getting too far along, thanks for the suggestion.

Most of the lights in our house are built in LED downlights, so can't really switch them out for smart bulbs, it would need to be a smart switch

sylverstream,

Yeah it's a big rabbit hole like I suggested. I am also looking at automating our "dumb" alarm, our garage door, our Nissan Leaf, etc. I'm no longer allowed to talk about it during dinner, so please take it slowly :)

sylverstream,

Just to add, it IS very handy. I've just created a script that sets the heat pump to Dry & 2c lower than ambient temperature.

This way I will be able to create automations to e.g. run it on Dry every night for e.g. an hour, then back to heat, etc.

Dave,
@Dave@lemmy.nz avatar

This sounds like a rabbit hole I'd like to get lost in. Except when I'm away and no one else can use anything because I stupidly started an update just before I needed to leave and it broke things and now nothing is working.

sylverstream,

Yep, try to do small things first instead of letting hell go loose if something doesn't work.

I've set up a tablet in the living room as "wall panel" where e.g. the kids can change the thermostat for their bedrooms, check the weather forecast, and it shows random photos from the NAS as a screensaver, which is just fun & nice.

Dave,
@Dave@lemmy.nz avatar

That's cool! I like that idea.

innercitadel,

What is something simple to start with if getting into HA? I already have a NAS.

sylverstream,

I started with:

  1. Integrate my web cams using Frigate, showing up in HA and sending notifications when I'm not home. HA knows if I'm home.
  2. Added zigbee temp sensors and smart plugs to bed rooms to control electrical heaters as thermostat.
  3. Motion sensor and smart bulbs in the hall way. Of all the things I've done, this is the thing my SO keeps raving about.
  4. Control my rm mini 3 Ir blaster, for my heat pump, tv and sound bar. So eg thermostat for heat pump and universal remote for TV/audio

Next to do is put smart plugs in our electric blankets, make our dumb alarm smart and make the garage door smart.

You can run it dockerized to get started.

innercitadel,

Oh cool. I'm going to try the temp sensors. Thank you!

sylverstream,

Enjoy. It's a rabbit hole, I've just spent hours googling for a Zigbee IR blaster that's compatible with ZHA, and there's none. Zigbee2MQTT has better compatibility but I don't want to convert my Zigbee network to Z2M at the moment.

sylverstream,

Don’t forget to warm the room back up before checking the humidity or the cooler air might make you think it hasn’t made a difference :).

Yes good point! Doing a test now, set to dry, will check how it goes.

On another note, I’ve always wanted to try home assistant but never got around to actually getting any equipment. What sensors did you get?

First of all, it can be a rabbit hole. Secondly, it's awesome. I've set it up on a Raspberry Pi, and set up a Zigbee mesh with the Home Assistant SkyConnect dongle from here. I bought some Sonoff temp sensors, and Sonoff Smart Sockets to increase the Zigbee network range. I've also bought some Smart Sonoff Bulbs at Aliexpress but I'm not very happy with them as they caused some Zigbee network issues. Seems to have resolved it by itself somehow.

Our heat pump is not a smart one, so I'm using a Broadlink RM3 Mini to control my heat pump. Works like a charm. That way I would also be able to set it to dry and heat on intervals of e.g. 1 hour during the night.

Any other questions just ask.

Dave,
@Dave@lemmy.nz avatar

Oh boy, that's cheaper than I was expecting startup costs to be... I am oh so tempted now!

With HomeAssistant, as I understand it, it needs the full Pi? I have a bunch of services running on my RPi 4 and so when I've looked at HomeAssistant I haven't been able to install this without touching the other stuff on there. I think they have a docker container version but it has a lot less features.

I have for a while been intending to uprade my stuff to something that can handle photos/videos better, but haven't got around to it. I might need to wait until I do that, then I'll have a spare Pi to use for HA.

I'm guessing an RPi 1B won't handle it. It's running Pi hole at the moment, but I think this is about the only thing it's capable of.

sylverstream,

With HomeAssistant, as I understand it, it needs the full Pi? I have a bunch of services running on my RPi 4 and so when I’ve looked at HomeAssistant I haven’t been able to install this without touching the other stuff on there. I think they have a docker container version but it has a lot less features.

I'm running it dockerized as well as I'm using it for other stuff as well, like PiHole, media server, etc. No problems at all.

Some features are missing, like editing config files in the browser. Major gap is that add-ons are not supported. Add-ons are essentially 3rd party apps, like DuckDNS, Frigate or MQTT. It's mostly annoying because the documentation assumes you run the HASS version. But it's no big deal, you can set up those apps yourself. I'm running Frigate and MQTT dockerized and connected to HA without issues.

For docker resources, check out https://www.linuxserver.io/. I used to install apps like NZBGet, Radarr, etc. all directly, which was very annoying as each app uses a different install script. With the docker compose files from linuxserver it was a breeze. I only run PiHole directly, as I saw some issues with the Docker version, the rest is all dockerized.

Dave,
@Dave@lemmy.nz avatar

Ah thanks! I think I decided not to continue when I saw it didn't support add-ons as I thought that would make it pointless, but it sounds like you can run them in their own docker container and connect them. I've used linuxserver.io docker containers before. Thanks for the tips!

Lemmyin,

Hey hey. Yeah I’ve been toying with the idea of going to a dockerised setup for HA. I run it as a VM on one of my servers and that’s been rock solid along with add ons and the like.

My moto with this whole HA thing was to always do it as cheaply as I can. That has meant a fair amount of building circuits and such myself which is quite a bit of fun.

Also check out ESPHome. It’s great and integrates into HA very well.

Dave,
@Dave@lemmy.nz avatar

Thanks for the suggestion, I'll take a look!

I don't think I would know where to start with "building circuits"...

Lemmyin,

Heh it’s great fun and there are tons of guides. It’s just hooking up wires mostly :). I would call it building circuits I guess haha.

sylverstream,

If you want some very specific stuff like height sensors for standing desks (something I still need) you will have to go the self build route. Also to make my dumb alarm smart I have to do some soldering apparently.

That is my next rabbit hole I guess :)

TagMeInSkipIGotThis,

Yeah I run HA as a docker container on unRaid, alongside ESPhome. It works fine - have never had a situation where I wished I was running the OS/VM version of it instead.

TBH though, I kinda hate HA; its really kludgy for anything that I’ve wanted to do, and a lot of the presence based stuff seems super flakey. I’m constantly getting notifications about Frigate events when it knows im in my home area & they’re supposed to be silenced.

sylverstream,

I have for a while been intending to uprade my stuff to something that can handle photos/videos better, but haven’t got around to it. I might need to wait until I do that, then I’ll have a spare Pi to use for HA.

I’m guessing an RPi 1B won’t handle it. It’s running Pi hole at the moment, but I think this is about the only thing it’s capable of.

Not sure, HA itself is not very demanding. Most demanding thing I'm running are NZB's (extracting / par check), Photoview (to index the photos on my NAS), and Frigate (web cams with motion detection). I've set CPU limits for each docker container to ensure it's not overloaded, installed a fan, and now it seems to perform okay.

Dave,
@Dave@lemmy.nz avatar

The RPi model B was the first iteration of Pi's available (they released two at the same time, A and B). It has 512MB RAM and a 700MHz CPU. It is painfully underpowered. I doubt the stuff you're talking about would be able to run on it. But since you mentioned running HA dockerised alongside other services and having it work OK, I think I'll do that method on my RPi4.

sylverstream,

Yeah, the RPI4 is pretty good. I had to install a fan as it got hot pretty quickly and at 85c it will throttle.

Main issues I had were with photo management solutions, which would completely knock out the Pi. Photoview and Pigallery2 are ones that are working well on my RPI4. I still have CPU limits on those docker instances.

Also, had to tweak a bit with the settings for Frigate. They recommend a Coral for motion detection, but they are very hard /impossible to get or very expensive. I run 2 cameras with CPU motion detection and it works well. Load of my PI is between 1 and 2 so that's fine for a quad core CPU.

Dave,
@Dave@lemmy.nz avatar

Yeah I had the same issue wirh photos. I have a plan to eventually upgrade the main board from my Framework laptop and turn the old one into a server to deal with photo/video stuff.

sylverstream,

Check power usage. I also used an old Intel Desktop PC, but found it used about $150 / year power. Rough estimate, but if you leave something running 24/7 it's good to keep the power usage low.

Dave,
@Dave@lemmy.nz avatar

It's a laptop so should have lower power usage than a desktop anyway. But I kinda expect anything doing photos/videos will use a bit of power. I might have to see if I can get a power usage measurer that's compatible with Home Assistant!

sylverstream,

The smart plugs I linked before have power measurement built-in. It's Zigbee, so locally only.

Most of the ones sold in NZ are all WiFi based, which is annoying as they depend on the cloud. Philips Hue is I think the only proper local solution, but bring your wallet if you want to go down that route.

Dave,
@Dave@lemmy.nz avatar

When you say Zigbee is local only, I presume if you have remote access to Home Assistant then you can use this to control them? But they don't rely on a cloud server. That sounds ideal.

sylverstream,

Oh, for remote control to HA, I use Tailscale. So I can connect to HA from my phone anywhere by turning Tailscale on. And, I get e.g. notifications for motion sensors. Very convenient.

sylverstream,

Yes, Zigbee is a protocol for a mesh network. Mains powered devices like smart bulbs and smart plugs are routers as well to extend the coverage. Temp sensors are end devices only (and not a router). You also have Zwave but I think Zigbee is more popular.

Downside is that not all Zigbee devices follow the Zigbee standard, it's a bit of a mess sometimes.

So... there's a new kid, Matter and Thread. It's very new, so not a lot of devices, but the SkyConnect dongle is Matter/Thread ready. It will come first to HASS, and afterwards to dockerized (another advantage for HASS).

The benefits are that it's indeed local only (i.e. your local network) and the batteries in end devices like temp sensors will last much longer than the wifi equivalent.

I didn't know about all of this 6 weeks ago, hope it makes sense.

Dave,
@Dave@lemmy.nz avatar

You're making sense! I can't want to dive in and get started, but will probably take a month for anything to arrive from ali express.

sylverstream,

Glad it makes sense! Delivery times seem to have improved. It still sometimes takes a month, the Zigbee smart plugs arrived within 10 days. For the SkyConnect I ordered at Seeedstudio and paid extra for quick delivery, it was here within 5 days. Any questions just DM me.

Dave,
@Dave@lemmy.nz avatar

Will do, cheers!

innercitadel,

Do you have any old x86 computers lying around?. I am running a NAS serving a dozen docker containers and a VM on an ancient 4th gen intel cpu. I never got into the home assistant stuff but maybe I'll also give it a go! I use PhotoView to share photos with family through CloudFlare zero trust tunnel.

Dave,
@Dave@lemmy.nz avatar

Computers outnumber adults in our house by quite a bit, depending on what you count. There's one in particular that I think would make a good server, but it's a laptop and I can't find the power cord!

Other than that, the Raspberry Pi 4 handles many services just fine, it's just photo/video that are pretty slow (and gets worse the more you use it, so probably thermal throttling - it doesn't have a fan). But it turns out you can run Home Assistant in a docker container and still use the addons by connecting them in other docker containers, so I will give this a go once I get a chance.

innercitadel,

I have an unused Pi4 4GB model lying around, I might try run HomeAssistant on it. Sounds like a fun project.

Dave,
@Dave@lemmy.nz avatar

Do it! You might also consider this list of self-hostable projects: https://github.com/awesome-selfhosted/awesome-selfhosted

sylverstream,

I'm seeing some odd behaviour. I've set the heat pump to dry twice, for about 30 minutes. Both temp and RH drop, which is good. However, as soon as I turn it back to heat, the RH jumps up about 6% within 5-10 minutes. The sensor is a couple of meters away from the heat pump, so that's odd.

Also outside it's 14.5c @ 72% so I have no idea how to get it 16c and below 60%. That seems only possible if I shut all windows and have dehumidifiers running 24/7. I see articles where they recommend 30-50% in winter, how the heck is that possible when it's damp outside.

Dave,
@Dave@lemmy.nz avatar

I’m seeing some odd behaviour. I’ve set the heat pump to dry twice, for about 30 minutes. Both temp and RH drop, which is good. However, as soon as I turn it back to heat, the RH jumps up about 6% within 5-10 minutes. The sensor is a couple of meters away from the heat pump, so that’s odd.

Could this be as simple as the heat pump is blowing out dry air, but hasn't turned over much air total. Then when you stop it, the dry air mixes with other air around the house and the humidity comes back up?

Also outside it’s 14.5c @ 72% so I have no idea how to get it 16c and below 60%. That seems only possible if I shut all windows and have dehumidifiers running 24/7. I see articles where they recommend 30-50% in winter, how the heck is that possible when it’s damp outside.

I dunno man. I tend to think I live in a warm, dry house. We only heat rooms we are using but otherwise we don't hesitate to turn on a heat pump. We have never had an issue with mould or dampness. But I just have this feeling when I get some sensors they are gonna say 70% like yours and I'm gonna have to go down a rabbit hole trying to work out why!

We do have a DVS, but ours is an older home. I think they help more with heat recovery (all they do is pump air from your ceiling cavity into your house - which is often warmer because heat rises). They do slightly pressurise the house because they are pumping air in, which can help stop outside air getting in cracks, but I can't imagine a fairly new house like yours would have the same issue with that as our 50's house. Maybe throw a sensor in the ceiling and see if the air is warm and dry up there?

sylverstream,

Yeah we assumed our house wouldn't have moisture issues being so new. But... If I hadn't measured I wouldn't know as we don't have massive moisture issues. Main issue is condensation on the window frames as they are not thermally broken. Well it is what it is.

I've ordered a 10L dehumidifier, we'll ventilate more, and let's see how it goes then.

It's not so easy to get onto the ceiling but it's indeed worthwhile.

Dave,
@Dave@lemmy.nz avatar

Good luck!

It’s not so easy to get onto the ceiling but it’s indeed worthwhile.

You don't have a man-hole in the ceiling in a wardrobe/laundry or other out of the way place where you can just poke a sensor up into the ceiling?

TagMeInSkipIGotThis,

I think your assessment is likely correct, 30 minutes isn't long for a dehumidifier to do much work, and unless there's a unit in each room, or its central then for the total volume of air it won't have pulled much more than was in the general area its located.

Ozymati,
@Ozymati@lemmy.nz avatar

Dry setting while you're out of the house during the day?

sylverstream,

Tried dry during the night, didn't do anything for humidity.

TagMeInSkipIGotThis,

So many folks overlook the Dry setting on a heatpump :)

Dave,
@Dave@lemmy.nz avatar

Though as I learnt from this thread, it's so much more complicated than just turning it on!

Givesomefucks,

70% you need to be running dehumidifiers...

It's not just mold that's an issue, it can cause structural damage.

sylverstream,

As I understand it, dehumidifiers are not a proper long term solution for an entire house; they are recommended for rooms where ventilation is hard.

Givesomefucks,

You can call an HVAC specialist and get something more permanent, but you need to do something ASAP.

But you can absolutely get one with a drainage tube and run it 24/7 tho. Lots of people in older houses in America do it.

sylverstream,

Thanks. You mean a dehumidifier with a drain tube? I haven't seen one here in NZ.

CosmicApe,
CosmicApe avatar

Makita sell a handy tool that can fix that 🤣

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