My New Shed

[Physopto]

A dehumidifier on congruous drainage to an outside drain would alleviate the problem mentioned above. I highly recommend the Meaco DD8L which is what I use.

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I suppose it may work but surely the extra cost in electricity? It would be cheaper in the long run to just board the roof over and seal it with roofing felt. Warmer as well.

[Peje]

That's seriously impressive. What a great project. I wish I knew about servers and wiring etc-looks fantastic.

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Thanks. To be honest servers are just like normal pc's and once you learn the basics there's not a lot you can't do. I took a photo last night of a wee raspberry pi based server I built last year, cost me less than 100quid and was great fun. It's main purpose is to monitor all my different servers (both physical and virtual) and let me see at a glance what's happening (with LEDs) and also email alerts. Again, this all sounds more complicated than it is

[Peje]

Hi Pete,

Are you going to heat your room? Because if you are you will need to do something about the roof. I have a garage with the same sort of roof on an extension bit. It drips condensation during the winter all the time even without heating. Every thing under it gets wet. Your monitors and server will need covering at the very least I would think.

Regards

Derek

No plans to heat this other than the nominal 100w the server Rack will be putting out.

The dehumidifier is certainly worth looking into also.

[Physopto]

Hi Pete,

When you start in the winter I suggest putting a few poly sheets over your gear then, especially when you pack up and leave.just as a precaution. My steel benches in the garage are rusted by the condensation quite badly. Even when I have not been in there. Breathing puts a lot extra moisture into the atmosphere. I cannot leave any tools out for fear of damage. It all has to be moved away from that area.

Best of luck,

Derek

[Peje]

Hi Pete,

When you start in the winter I suggest putting a few poly sheets over your gear then, especially when you pack up and leave.just as a precaution. My steel benches in the garage are rusted by the condensation quite badly. Even when I have not been in there. Breathing puts a lot extra moisture into the atmosphere. I cannot leave any tools out for fear of damage. It all has to be moved away from that area.

Best of luck,

Derek

I'll certainly keep an eye on this. Out of the 5 sheets on the roof only the outer 2 are tin, it seems no condensation forms on the perspex ones.

I am only really concerned about drips, general humidity isn't that big a deal....hopefully.

[Tinker1947]

Without any form of insulation walls and roofs will get wet, my Obby the walls are double skinned with breathable membrane there fine dry as a bone, the roof at the moment is Ply covered in rubber, it drips and gets some sort of mildew, i'm in the planning stage to try Polycarbonate twin or triple wall sheets......

[Peje]

Without any form of insulation walls and roofs will get wet, my Obby the walls are double skinned with breathable membrane there fine dry as a bone, the roof at the moment is Ply covered in rubber, it drips and gets some sort of mildew, i'm in the planning stage to try Polycarbonate twin or triple wall sheets......

It does seem quite strange that I haven't noticed any problems with my old sheds. Are you thinking it's the heat delta or the general humidity that's a problem?

[Physopto]

Hi Pete,

I live in the north east. By the sea. My roof in part is poly as is part of yours and it drips all through the winter. So it is not just the tin  roofs. It could be my proximity to the sea air I'm not sure. With no heating it drips, and worse when I have had some heating on to work in there. It is not well ventilated as I have sealed it to try to cut heat loss when working. But that does not account for the none heated dampness. All my tools have to be oiled to stop rust. My hut is double skinned, insulated  and suffers none of these problems. I would hate to see your hard work on computers or scope get knackered. Water on the desk alone would be a swelling disaster if left for a few days or possibly even overnight.

A solid roof will also stop light escape upwards when you are in there and prevent prying eyes wondering what is in there.  If there is plenty of ventilation (cold) it may never happen??

Derek

[Peje]

Interesting info there. On my roof (it's been there for approx 5 years) you can see drip marks on the joists but these are only under the tin sections. It's looking like I may need to fit a dehumidifier and leave that running but need to do some research into power consumption. Anything up to 30w nominal I can live with

One thought about the rust you are seeing, this could be exacerbated by salty humid air if you're very close to the sea? I've never experience rust in my tools, despite some of them living outside for years

[Physopto]

Interesting info there. On my roof (it's been there for approx 5 years) you can see drip marks on the joists but these are only under the tin sections. It's looking like I may need to fit a dehumidifier and leave that running but need to do some research into power consumption. Anything up to 30w nominal I can live with

One thought about the rust you are seeing, this could be exacerbated by salty humid air if you're very close to the sea? I've never experience rust in my tools, despite some of them living outside for years

Yes I agree.

 But this has only started happening in the last few years since I sealed the garage roof edges against wind. I was costing an arm and a leg to heat. From what I know of dehumidifiers they will only work effectively if in a sealed environment. Otherwise they just keep taking out moisture from the circulating air that is let in. After all they are just a fridge. Over a few months would cost a lot for the area you are talking about.

Some tools in steel cabinets so maybe trapping moist air. Planes in wood cabinets but still need oiling, saws hanging up still need oiling! Can't seem to win on that one

If I'm not mistaken though you had an open area under the roof before, so the air temperature  under it would not be much different to above it. Maybe just some condensation on still nights?

Derek

[cathouse42]

Where's the beer fridge? Is that what the white box is for?

[Gina]

I think damp needs taking pretty seriously.  Everything made of iron or steel in the sheds goes rusty and even my lathe in the back porch has got rusty   I'll have to clear a space in the main house for it.  The porch has a corrugated galvanised roof with corrugated plastic section, corrugated plastic and glass wall sections and corrugated asbestos-like walls lower down and a T&G suspended floor.

I get a small amount of dampness in my obsy scope room which I combat with a dehumidifier with pipe to outside.

My warm room stays dry, with rubber roof on 12mm OSB and walls of 18mm shiplap on dampproof membrane onto the wooden framework, wooden T&G floor, mostly 50mm thick polystyrene insulation including under the floor.  Walls and ceiling are clad with 6mm external grade plywood.  An insulated wall and sealed sliding door separate warm room from scope room.

[Physopto]

Yes Gina,

 My Myford has to be coated in oil as well. The pillar drills are the same on the castings that are not painted. I would hate to think a lot of hard earned money was lost just because of a bit extra insulation. Even if only the roof.

[Peje]

Certainly plenty of things to look at. I think what's going to work in my favour is I'm not trying to keep the shed warm, at the minute it's actually 8 degrees above ambient due to sunlight but that's not really the norm over here.

[Avo]

I thinking of making one of these to get some heat into the shed, to drive / keep moisture away. 

Appreciate the heat input is cyclic, will have to see how it performs. Seem popular in US.

I'm going to use beer cans though.  

http://blog.hemmings.com/index.php/2010/06/22/soda-can-solar-heater-v2-completed/

[Peje]

Out in the shed at the minute, started getting cold outside and inside wasn't long catching up! Sitting in a tshirt wishing I'd brought a fleece. We're also getting battered by hailstones so I'm not looking forward to the dash to the house

[catman161]

I suppose it may work but surely the extra cost in electricity? It would be cheaper in the long run to just board the roof over and seal it with roofing felt. Warmer as well.

It is actually very spay efficient as it is not on continuously. It samples the air every 30 minutes and if it is above a predefined humidity the dehumidifier turns itself on and dehumidifies until it is below that level. Then It's turns itself off and will turn on again to sample the air again for a few minutes, if the air is below the level it goes into sleep mode again.

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[Peje]

It is actually very spay efficient as it is not on continuously. It samples the air every 30 minutes and if it is above a predefined humidity the dehumidifier turns itself on and dehumidifies until it is below that level. The. It's turns itself off and will turn on again to sample the air again for a few minutes if the air is below the level it goes bro sleep mode again.

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I think for me I would need to put extra effort into sealing the shed first as the dehumidifier would be working constantly as humid air poured in from outside

[catman161]

I think for me I would need to put extra effort into sealing the shed first as the dehumidifier would be working constantly as humid air poured in from outside

That's a given

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[Peje]

I think it may be worthwhile going a different route, I could put in closeable louvred vents. So when I plan to be in doing some work I can close them to keep heat in and otherwise leave them open to let inside and outside be the same temp....This just occurred to me so I haven't fully thought it out

[Peje]

Got the RPi server running properly, after LOTS of debugging I found the root of the problem was errors on the USB HDD. A simple 'fsck' fixed this and it's all running 100%. Reworked my low temp script to detect high temps and email me if above 35 is detected. If I get peace tonight I'll rework it so it warns me about a max and min. Current code below if anyone's interested.

#!/bin/bashTEMP=$(/usr/bin/temperv14 | awk -F" " '{print substr($5,1,length($5)-1)}' | awk -F"." '{print $1}')MAX="35"UPFLAG="/mnt/hdd/tmp/UPFLAG-TEMP"DOWNFLAG="/mnt/hdd/tmp/DOWNFLAG-TEMP"LOGFILE="/mnt/hdd/logs/Temp-Log_`date +'%m-%Y'`"STATUSFILE="/mnt/hdd/logs/Temp-Status"# Uncomment the following to test the numeric check#TEMP="test"#echo $TEMP;# Numeric checkre='^[0-9]+$'if ! [[ $TEMP =~ $re ]] ; then   echo "error: Temp is not a number" >&2; exit 1fiif [ $TEMP -ge $MAX ]then  echo "Temperature High. $TEMP oC `date +'%d-%m-%Y %H:%M'`" >> $LOGFILE  if [ -f "$UPFLAG" ]  then    echo "UP FLAG EXISTS - NO STATE CHANGE"  else    rm $DOWNFLAG    echo "UP FLAG DOES NOT EXIST - CREATING"     /scripts/mail-temphigh.sh    touch $UPFLAG    echo "Temperature High. $TEMP oC `date +'%d-%m-%Y %H:%M'`" >> $STATUSFILE  fielse  echo "Temperature OK.    $TEMP oC `date +'%d-%m-%Y %H:%M'`" >> $LOGFILE  if [ -f "$DOWNFLAG" ]  then    echo "DOWN FLAG EXISTS - NO STATE CHANGE"  else    rm $UPFLAG    echo "DOWN FLAG DOES NOT EXIST - CREATING"    touch $DOWNFLAG    echo "Temperature OK. $TEMP oC `date +'%d-%m-%Y %H:%M'`" >> $STATUSFILE  fifi

[Peje]

Ended up just getting stuck in, not the most efficient I'm sure but it works for me

#!/bin/bashTEMP=$(/usr/bin/temperv14 | awk -F" " '{print substr($5,1,length($5)-1)}' | awk -F"." '{print $1}')MIN="0"MAX="35"UPFLAG_MAX="/mnt/hdd/tmp/UPFLAG-TEMP-MAX"DOWNFLAG_MAX="/mnt/hdd/tmp/DOWNFLAG-TEMP-MAX"UPFLAG_MIN="/mnt/hdd/tmp/UPFLAG-TEMP-MIN"DOWNFLAG_MIN="/mnt/hdd/tmp/DOWNFLAG-TEMP-MIN"LOGFILE="/mnt/hdd/logs/Temp-Log_`date +'%m-%Y'`"STATUSFILE="/mnt/hdd/logs/Temp-Status"# Numeric checkre='^[0-9]+$'if ! [[ $TEMP =~ $re ]] ; then   echo "error: Temp is not a number" >&2; exit 1fi#log temperatureecho "Temperature $TEMP oC `date +'%d-%m-%Y %H:%M'`" >> $LOGFILE#test maximumif [ $TEMP -ge $MAX ]then  if [ -f "$UPFLAG_MAX" ]  then    echo "MAX UP FLAG EXISTS - NO STATE CHANGE"  else    rm $DOWNFLAG_MAX    echo "MAX UP FLAG DOES NOT EXIST - CREATING"     /scripts/mail-temphigh.sh    touch $UPFLAG_MAX    echo "Temperature High. $TEMP oC `date +'%d-%m-%Y %H:%M'`" >> $STATUSFILE  fielse  if [ -f "$DOWNFLAG_MAX" ]  then    echo "MAX DOWN FLAG EXISTS - NO STATE CHANGE"  else    rm $UPFLAG_MAX    echo "MAX DOWN FLAG DOES NOT EXIST - CREATING"    touch $DOWNFLAG_MAX    echo "Temperature OK. $TEMP oC `date +'%d-%m-%Y %H:%M'`" >> $STATUSFILE  fifi#test minimumif [ $TEMP -ge $MIN ]then  if [ -f "$UPFLAG_MIN" ]  then    echo "MIN UP FLAG EXISTS - NO STATE CHANGE"  else    rm $DOWNFLAG_MIN    echo "MIN UP FLAG DOES NOT EXIST - CREATING"    touch $UPFLAG_MIN    echo "Temperature OK. $TEMP oC `date +'%d-%m-%Y %H:%M'`" >> $STATUSFILE  fielse  if [ -f "$DOWNFLAG_MIN" ]  then    echo "MIN DOWN FLAG EXISTS - NO STATE CHANGE"  else    rm $UPFLAG_MIN    echo "MIN DOWN FLAG DOES NOT EXIST - CREATING"     /scripts/mail-templow.sh    touch $DOWNFLAG_MIN    echo "Temperature Low. $TEMP oC `date +'%d-%m-%Y %H:%M'`" >> $STATUSFILE  fifi

[Peje]

A wonderfully infuriating development...

Discovered mites roaming across the monitors in the shed and realised the tree/bush in my nieghbours garden is infested with mites thanks to a few hundred starlings that arrived a couple of weeks back. I've contacted a pest control business who are due out in the morning, I'm hoping they have an easy fix that doesn't involve getting the tree removed (since it's not on my property).

If treating it isn't an option I may have to approach the neighbour and try to convince him to let me pay someone to remove it. The are no access issues as he hasn't enclosed his back garden and he really only uses it as a path to get to his car. If he refuses I may have to just cut it down myself and deal with the consequences after.

The tree/bush is only about 8ft tell so there isn't a lot of work in getting rid of it.

[Physopto]

If approached I would be surprised if at the least he would not let you spray it with a pest control of some sort. Best of luck.

Derek

[Peje]

If approached I would be surprised if at the least he would not let you spray it with a pest control of some sort. Best of luck.

Derek

If spraying is an option I'm not even going to bother him as I can access it without any effort, I just have a feeling that because these are brought in by Starlings any treatment will be undone as soon as they come back that evening...I would love this assumption to be wrong though.

We have suffered through these creatures every summer for 3 years so now I finally know where they are coming from I want to solve the problem.