Small dehumidifiers, battery powered or direct wired, thinking thinking.

First off this is musing, it's coin chat forum, I'm chatting about storage...

here's the deal, I live in south florida where it's usually 40-90+% humidity on an every day basis, my central AC does quite a bit for climate control, burt we do have power outages, and even so, you can tell the A/C still has some humidity to it.

Which got me thinking, My coin collection fits a 3 drawer nightstand dresser pretty packed, I was thinking to purchase a 2nd hand 5 drawer dresser of larger dimensions and modifying it with a couple small dehumidifiers on the back one corded and one that will run on batteries for when the power is out, thereby limiting the length of time the collection is exposed to humidity.

A second option is to just modify a walk in closet and use a larger dehumidifier and run a similar set up with a battery powered emergency back up, but then this could include my comic books, cards, toy collections, as well as my guitars (sucks when a neck gets warped)

Truth be told I don't mind toning, but I'd like to slow it down to a crawl instead of a sprint. So anyways, that said, I'm trying to avoid the damp rid or silica methods which need to be refilled and dumped, and looking for something more mechanical that would need to be dumped.

I found this one:
Acare Mini Dehumidifier for Closet, 2200 Cubic Feet (190 Sq ft), 32 Ounce For the corded model,
unfortunately I don't like the design as it's round. That said, they aren't exceptionally expensive for larger floor models that take up to 4 gallons of water a day, those run for about $135-$150. but that kills the modified dresser idea and freedom of placement, and I might as well pick a closet with all cinder block walls, slap on an exterior steel firedoor with a nice lock system and have it as a collection room/safe room/safe. I feel like this is the best way to go for the overall long term solution, It will give me a 10ftx10ft space, and with the firedoor and keypad/card entry, it's gonna take a sledge or an axe to get in there, and time. but the door part won't be cheap.

Any ideas for this? I'm firmly against the damp rid or silica as an easy answer, long term it's costly, and I think it's messy in my situation, the 4 pound bucket of damprid is gone in my garage lets say in about a week and all liquid this is what it's like without A/C the humidity sweating and open windows.
I think with the larger dehumidifier I could dump it once a week or once a month and it will be basically dry air but you have to remove the water, or it just evaporates and recirculates.

Overkill? Perhaps.....

Anyways, anyone else built something like this or thought to? looking for ideas/tips/pointers.

 

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Where in South Florida do you live? I've lived in SWFLA for 40+ years, and I've never had a problem with humidity affecting my coins because the A/C runs 24/7.

 

Ft. Lauderdale area. my A/C runs 24/7 also, except when it's not running due to a power outage, and over the decades, there's been a couple long periods I've been through of more than a week. I won't say it's "crazy fast toning" but like I'm definitely noticing toning appearing on coins in the 10-15-20 years ago of ownership range of minting and older. I'd like to slow it down further. I know toning is an eventuality but feel like it's happening faster than it needs to be.

today for instance, it's 89F, feels like 102F, Humidity is 67% outside, and I'm at 55% according to the hygrometer, inside with the central A/C doing it's thing and the house closed, leaving doors or windows open is an even bigger problem for general dampness.

I'm not at "mold concerns" level at 55% but it's not a "worst day" either, but I think the humidity should be 30-50% for "comfortable" and "normal" conditions. I had a good day of rain on saturday to sunday, lots of water that's evaporating now and this has something to do with the humidity. I think if I could get even a single specific area to 30% and stable it would be beneficial, and I really have to do something for when the power goes out. the house gets hot really quick, hotter than outside even by 3 pm, and the rapid change has to have a condensation effect, and same happens when the power comes back on and the house rapidly cools again.

 

Don't have batteries anywhere near your coins. Some emit fumes even when healthy. But when they start to go bad (and all do eventually), they emit a witch's brew of chemical fumes. If you are going to have battery back-up, the batteries should not be in the same enclosure as the coins. They can be in a separate case outside the enclosure with wires running from them to whatever needs power inside the enclosure.

Cal

 

I like this idea. I wouldn't use it for daily, just for emergency when the power is out, much like my battery powered air pumps for my fish tanks (oh yeah fishtanks, this probably also has something to do with my indoor humidity!) yikes...forgot about that.