Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Climate control for my Gun room

I have approx 7x14 room with ICF walls and a 6" poured ceiling and Browning vault door in my basement that is to be my gun room along with some simple vegetable storage. Kind of a survival room/bomb shelter I guess. The radiant floor heat is on it's own loop and I have it switched off. There is a supply and return duct from the main trunk. The main trunk fan runs continuously and seldom carries heated air, just recirc from house and fireplace. Present temp runs approx 60� +/- 2� and humidity around 47%. Should be a bit cooler for my veggies, but this is the coolest place in the house. My thought was to close off the warm air supply and let the return draw out with the makeup come in from the basement (66�f avg) under the vault door.

I guess my primary question is: Is the 40-50% RH sufficiently low?

Forty/fifty% is likely fine. Not knowing your locale though, I'd suggest either a bit more heat or a dehumidifier, if ones environement has any extended periods of high humidity. When it comes to my firearms, I'd rather be safe than sorry.

I'm in WI and the humidity tends to be stable in this room. I'd like to keep the temp as low as possible. I had some grief initially with the vault door and after working through the issue with the mfr and fixing myself, I was promised a "dehumidifier" for my problems. Never saw it though...

I figured I should be fine at that temp and humidity, just needed reassurance.

I think it was Jim Carmichel that said 60 degrees and 60% humidity as the best enviroment to store guns.

I have a room similar to yours in my house in Michigan and with no heat in the winter and a tuned dehumidifier it runs 50/55 degrees and 50% humidity. The guns have stored quite well for the 8 yrs I've had this set up. Hope it helps.
Scott

I run a dehumidifier in mine too, way too much humidity here.

I did not put air ducts in mine due to the fact its a place that fire/heat can move in. I do have much smaller 4 inch ducts to let the room breathe just a bit. But not large vents.

Jeff

Keeping the humidity below 50% prevents mold growth. As far as a desirable number, the lower the % the better for the life of powder and primers.

Guns and veggies have different storage needs. Low humidity for guns, high humidity for vegetables. Grocery stores use misters to keep produce crisp, your fridge has drawers to keep humidity in.

If any of us need more dehumidification, ask an HVAC contractor about AprilAire or Santa Fe dehumidifiers. They can be added to existing ductwork, or ducted individually for a certain room or basement.
http://www.aprilaire.com/index.php?znfAction=ProductDetails&category=17&item=1700
http://www.thermastor.com/Santa-Fe/

I'm not saying the OP needs these, I just want to let people know these systems are out there.

I would not consider storing veggies and guns in the same space... Our humidity is automatically too low for veggies, so experience here is limited, but produce brings more than moisture to the equation. Many molds do fine at far lower than 50% AVERAGE humidity...

The risk:reward relationship is too far out of whack for me to consider storing them together in a confined space.
art

canned foods and a can opener for survival room. No need for humidity. Lots of bottled water too