[pure-silver] Re: New old home, new lab questions

  • From: Eric Nelson <emanmb@xxxxxxxxx>
  • To: pure-silver@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Mon, 3 May 2010 15:06:02 -0700 (PDT)

That's good to know as I have a small unit available.  It's also interesting to 
hear about the effects of the dehumidifier.
Security, once an AC window unit is installed, becomes an issue as the bad guys 
can just push the unit in and crawl in the hole.  I might have to go with a 
room unit that sits in the room.



________________________________
From: William Harting <wm.harting@xxxxxxxxx>
To: pure-silver@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Mon, May 3, 2010 3:48:54 PM
Subject: [pure-silver] Re: New old home, new lab questions

Eric, when I had a cellar darkroom, with all my photo life down there,
I found a dehumidifier to be necessary during summer in the greater
Boston area -- the cellar became unbearably humid. And the
dehumidifier made it unbearably stuffy, so I eventually went with an
air conditioner. I'm afraid photographic gear and materials are less
tolerant than humans of humidity (and I lived in Thailand for a year
and a half). For a while I just air-conditioned the darkroom but found
that a room-size AC was able to keep the entire cellar cool and dry.

-bill



On Mon, May 3, 2010 at 4:25 PM, Eric Nelson <emanmb@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> I've had to paste the response from Ken below from the archive so I can
> respond.
>
> Thank you Ken!
>
> It's a GFA furnace.
>
> Presently I posses a small darkroom exhaust fan but I may, and probably
> should go
>
> with a larger one.  I also have the light tight vent for inflow.
>
> Sepia toning worries me as I'd like all wet processes to be contained within
> the darkroom
>
> which is also where the paper will be.  I can store the boxes of seldom used
> paper outside
>
> the darkroom.  Toning happens infrequently but...
>
> That's good to know about the paint's durability.  I'm afraid that the tiles
> will be beyond my
>
> budget.  The cement is older, but has not been treated as far as I can tell.
> As I mentioned before,
>
> and maybe I'm worrying over nothing, I worry about the humidity given off by
> the cement
>
> floor, hence my interest in a sealant.  My entire photographic "life" will
>  be stored down there
>
> so a dehumidifier is probably going to be employed.
>
> I will probably have to go with electric heat and baseboard heat may be the
> answer but
>  I
>
> haven't researched that subject yet.  AC may or may not be an issue here in
> Chicago but
>
> we've had our share of hot days.  Some years we've hardly needed to turn it
> on but having
>
> a wife from Thailand means our tolerances are perhaps different. =)  A hot
> darkroom is
>
> not good though and I'll have to see how warm it gets down there to see if
> it's worthwhile.
>
> I've got a nice Leedal water temp. control panel with a filter built in.
> I've found that filtering
>
> water is a necessity for film.
>
> We're working on ways to max out the ceiling height esp. since I have XL
> Omegas and a
>
> tabletop DeVere 8x10.  Knowing that about 8ft being a better height is a
> goal to aim for.
>
> Eric
>
> Congratulations on becoming a home owner!
>
> Re: the floor. Assuming the concrete floor was poured at least a year ago,
> and
> it is not flaking or scaling, a paint will suffice. I tried the epoxy paint
> once, and since decided that it wasn't worth it. Since then, I've used any
> paint spec'd for concrete floor use, available at WalMart in the $10-15
> price
> range. It will stain, it will wear off in traffic areas, and it will have to
> be
> repainted annually, but that's what happened with the $40 epoxy paint.
> If your floor is in poor condition, ie: flaking, rough, cracked, consider a
> 'floating' floor of water/chemical resistant tiles. This consists of
> interlocking tiles about 1/4" thick that are laid over a padded
> underlayment.
> Cost will be a couple dollars per square foot.
>
> Re; the furnace. Depends on what type of furnace it is as to whether there
> will
> be a dust problem. If it's an oil or gas fired hot water system, I'd say no
> dust problem. If it's a coal-fired hot air furnace, I'd say maximum problem!
> Consider putting the furnace in it's own room with an exterior-type door-
> this
> has seals all around it. Second choice would be an exterior type door for
> the
> darkroom.
>
> Re: ventilation. For every cubic foot of air leaving your darkroom, a cubic
> foot of air must enter, and it will come in through any entry point
> available-
> cracks around the door, elec. outlet covers, etc. Be sure that the air
> coming
> in is clean. Put in vents with furnace filters for air to enter. Consider
> having air forced into the room, more than is being exhausted (positive
> pressure ventilation). Exhaust the air from oder producing areas- the sink,
> and
> heat producing areas- the enlarger(s).
>
> Re: heating. Electric baseboard is cheap to install, and easy to control,
> but
> it may be very expensive to operate in your area. Consider a room air
> conditioner unit rather than a central air duct, depending on your climate
> (I
> don't know where you are- obviously, if you're in Alaska, an air conditioner
> is
> probably not needed!)
>
> Other things:
> Consider adding filtration to the water lines. Consider a big water heater.
> No
> matter how many eletrical outlets you have, it won't be enough! The outlets
> near the sink must be GFI (ground fault interrupter) type, but have a second
> circuit on the dry side. Install a phone extension. Install an intercom,
> maybe
> just a cheap one to outside the door. Get a good stereo system! The area
> around
> the enlarger should be flat black (cut down reflections from light leaks),
> but
> the rest of the room should be gloss white.
>
> I'm on my 5th darkroom, and each one has taught me things that I wanted to
> do
> differently. For example, in my current darkroom(s), I discovered that
> ceiling
> heights must be over 8', or you may have to cut holes in the ceiling over
> the
> enlarger(s)! You also can't have too many trash cans (plastic), counter
> space,
> storage space, or lights.
>
> Good luck. Try a google search on darkrooms- you may find pictures of other
> darkrooms.
>
> Ken Hart
>
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