Since you are trying the desiccant idea, and regenerating it with solar energy what you really need is a way to cool it down after it is regenerated, that way you aren't increasing the heat load on your A/C. Since you don't want it adsorbing moisture the after it is regenerated it needs to be sealed from the air. My thought is find a high temp stable plastic bag, or maybe a metal pan with an air tight lid, then keep it outside at night. In essence you would have a three step system. The desiccant adsorbs moisture from the air inside, then you would move it to the solar oven which heats air (decreasing the RH) that is then moved over the desiccant to recharge it, then the desiccant is moved to an airtight container with a large surface area to cool down during the night, after it is cooled it is moved again to inside the house to start the process over.

60 or so years ago, but yes, saw with my own eyes.

Pop had the nylons hung over a coal bucket in the coal bin (still heated with gravity coal furnace in those days, $3/ton for lump coal, we hauled from the mine.

The chloride continually dripped water into the bucket, never needed to replace the chloride, just empty the bucket.

After pop finished the basement, got an electric dehumidifier as I slightly recall there was some residual odor from the chloride method. The water is also slightly corrosive and not friendly to cast iron plumbing.

DEnd, good ideas, yes I was thinking of having a pot just sit on the solar cooker with a one way valve letting air/water vapor out, and let it sit through the night cooling it down to use the next day. I don't run any dehumidifiers at night, so night time running isn't needed.
I will start experimenting as soon as the salt arrives tomorrow.

Though I am still planning on the heat pump build as well. Just to see which is the easiest/cheapest/best.
I only used 17 kwh of power yesterday. Finally getting into a good green range, though I did have to paint the roof white...... :eek: :D

more soon,
Shalom

Regeneration of the strong solution by using waste heat sounds like a great idea. Whatever you do, use something nonmetallic for a heat exchanger. The calcium chloride solution corrodes metal for breakfast.

Well it's not really waste heat, but it is very cheap heat, Lol so PVC to PVC exchanger?

The rig (a solar still) I built looked like this design:
https://ecorenovator.org/forum/attac...1&d=1591543008
EDIT: different picture with more elaborate feed path. Mine fed directly inside the unit. Drain was the submersible fountain pump.

If you heated the drain water from the indoor water collector, it would only help. At night, the glass would fog up even more and might offset no solar gain.

I think there are some things missing from your last post Jeff.

I was just thinking that the bottom of my borehole is 59F right now. What if I drilled another well even lower and just ran a air-water exchanger? I should be able to make condensate down to about 40% RH with 60F water right? I could do a closed loop system with a very slow flow pump. Insulate the crap out of the pipes and make water!
Just another crazy idea.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dew_point

As long as the indoor water-grabbing part doesn't contain a whole lot of fluid mass or a high flow rate, heat gain shouldn't be a problem. My indoor collector had maybe an 8 by 12 inch footprint, and was a rock stairstep waterfall. The pump fed a few gallons per hour of strong solution into the top, and the solution descended the stairwell and drained through a toilet-style overflow tube. The thing worked a lot better than I thought it would.

If you really want to cool the strong solution on its way inside, I would definitely do it somehow so the pipe doesnt clog up with salt crystals. It wouldn't be impossible for the saturated liquid to try to change phase in the heat exchange zone. It would suck to have a borehole clog up with no easy way to unclog it.

What's you indoor air temp?

at 75°F (at sea level) to pull water out of the air at 45%RH you need to get the heat exchanger down to about 51°F. Which means you need the borehole water to be below that. Because to affect just a RH change if the water coming out of the heat exchanger is above that then we are not removing as much water as we could. If we can get the RH in the dehumidifier up to 70% at 75°F then we can use 60°F borehole water, with a temperature rise to 65°F (at least at sea level).

My indoor air temp is 80F, and humidity tops at 57%. 1-2 gallons of water will drop that to 47ish%.

I think I have decided to build what I KNOW how to do and ponder of salt magic fountains at a later date.

SO new parts and fun stuff have arrived. I got a outside mini split condenser (unknown size, will know tomorrow). And a nice 70 pint dehumidifier. Both free.
My idea/s. Outside condenser with a 12v fan from the greenhouse. Maybe adding another coil (or 2) if it will fit. I want HIGH efficiency, with LOW fan speed if possible. Even if a have 3-4 tons of coils in the condenser... the more the better right?
The compressor will be from a window unit (r22 6,000 btu) and mounted outside in the mini split condenser.
The dehumidifier will be inside where I will tie both coils together in series, and add as much coil as will fit.
CONCERNS!!! I had NO idea the coils on dehumidifiers where SO small...... I don't want this things freezing up on me. I can wire in some controls so at a certain temp the indoor fan kicks into high gear but I'm still not sure if that will keep it from frosting up.

Ideas? Are there other more WAY over the top complicated designs that I can waste DAYS deciding that are WAY to much trouble or have I gone over board enough on this one?

Again the main goal is DE HUMIDIFICATION, cooling is just a plus.

Thanks guys. I'm ready to build so pics coming soon!