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Workshop recommended temperature & humidity range?

Mistfarer

Member
Hi everyone

Quick question to help prevent corrosion! I recently bought a hygrometer for my workshop, and it reports 81% humidity. I have now bought some dehumidifiers to bring that down, but it prompts a question, and I couldn't find the answers in the plans or the forum...!

What is the recommended temperature & humidity range to store the non-primed kit?

Thanks in advance!
 
I dehumidify my shop to 50 - 55% range. Temperature is allowed to fluctuate unless I'm actually working.
 
Old kits can get corrosion. Put your effort into building and priming. Keep a log of when you work and how much. Any large gaps in building will self-shame you into working more. Make your shop comfortable for you to work. Bonus, your kit will not get old and your goal of flying your build will occur sooner.
 
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I live in a coastal environment and keep my shop at 60 degF. And 50% humidity or less.
However, if you pull the plastic off stored parts and allow air to move around things, you don’t have much of a worry. However, 81% humidity is a lot of suspended water and depending on swings in temperature you could have a rainforest in your hangar at times. Again, not that big of a deal unless the environment is like that all the time.

Temperature alone doesn’t matter. It’s the relative humidity that does. Higher temperature air can store more water, but it stays there unless it condenses.

If you have any bare steel parts, a liberal coating of oil or grease will keep them from rusting.
 
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40 to 60 is the ideal range without going crazy on the power bill for super humid climates. For metal even lower is better, but for storing cars for example, you don’t want lower than 40 because it will dry out leather upholstery. This is probably not an issue for someone building a plane unless they get to interiors and have leather. So the lower the better, sub 30 for zero rust or corrosion but that isn’t realistic for a hangar in FL unless you are NASA.
 
Thanks everyone - I'll try to get that figure down to the 50-60% range. Not sure how feasible/economically viable this is in good old Albion.
 
Thanks everyone - I'll try to get that figure down to the 50-60% range. Not sure how feasible/economically viable this is in good old Albion.

That will keep rust off the tools and parts. Quest 225 has worked well for me in a 3200sqft and 3600sqft building. I am in a wet coastal environment but not terribly humid. Not cheap and require some maintenance just like an air conditioner. Both buildings are insulated and kept at a constant temperature.

Also, I had a Mini split system in two hangars, 2800sqft and 3000squft. Mini split heat pumps can be set to heat/cool/dehumidify. It worked well and provided modest heat. It was a lot more money that just a dehumidifier if you already have heat.
 
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For closure...!
I tried a few things (which didn't work), and eventually bit the bullet and bought a proper dehumidifier. It is now, quite literally, getting buckets of water out of my workshop...
 
My hangar is comfortable when the humidity is below 50%. My old dehumidifier is costing me about $1 USD per day in electricity to operate. Typically I do not run the dehumidifier in the winter as I typically have less than 50% humidity most of the winter. In the summer, the dehumidifier runs 24/7 and the A/C will come on if it gets above 89 F when I am not in there. When working in the hangar during the summer, I typically will have the A/C set to whatever feels comfortable for the work that I am doing. Most of the time that is between 78 F and 80 F. The dehumidifier removes 1 to 2 US gallons of water per day with the A/C removing an unknown amount when it is cooling.

I keep my firearms between 40% and 50% as that is what was recommended for them. It starts to get expensive trying to get below 40%.
 
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