Humidity Questions

[Poseidon]

Okay, in my never ending quest to reduce power consumption, I am trying to reduce or eliminate the amount of time I actually HAVE to run the dehumidifier.

At my old house, I had a bathroom "fart fan" that ran 24/7 and it seemed to work ok, but I would like to refine that a bit at my new place. I have a couple of ideas:

Use a duct fan like this one, connected to a Dehumidistat like this and then outside via a louvered dryer vent. (I know that is a 6" fan, but for the difference in cost I would use it and reduce it to a 4" before the vent.)

This would, in theory anyway reduce humidity by removing air from the basement to be replaced by outside air, which in the winter time should work like a charm, however what about summer?

My other option is to use the same duct fan, but just tie it into the existing ductwork, and have it force basement air upstairs thru the existing ductwork. This would spread the high humidity air throughout the house, which again in winter with the furnace running, is not a bad idea, but what about summer? (There has to be a draw back to this too.)

3rd option is to cover the sump as tightly as possible, to reduce evaporation in the basement. This is not my favorite option, because I count on evap to add kalk to the tank, via an ATO.

Am I missing a fourth option?

Thanks!

[Lucid]

Hmm, I would think your idea of swapping with outside air during winter would work best. Not in the summer though maybe. The only other possible option I can think of would be resins or desiccant type of materials to use. Something 'rechargeable'.

[Poseidon]

Are you thinking of that "Silica Gel" type packet that you see in product packaging? Is that stuff available in LARGE quantities that would work for a basement?

[Lucid]

Hehe, yes that and other type of resins. I'm not sure that particular type is available cheap enough in large volumes, but I do know industries use many type of resins for de-humidifying. Dang, I can't recall, but there used to be a panel that would remove moisture and it'd turn a blue color. Then one could recharge it...