What's your humidity like?

_Sam_

Temperature 15C and humidity hovers around 70% if we do nothing, difficult to open windows now it is cold outside so not much ventilation except bathroom window and conservatory and doors opening/closing.

So we run dehumidifier when it is bright during the day (from solar energy), and now every night on the low rate electricity. Last night it lowered humidity to 50% and raised the temperature to 16.5C in the process (it's desiccant dehumidifier and returns heated air)

shiraz99

Deleted_User said:

ARainyDay said:

Hi all, I'd be very interested to know what everyone else's humidity is like in their houses. At the moment, my house is around 13.5- 15 degrees (we are in the UK) when we don't have the heating on, and humidity is around 70-78 in various rooms. We're waiting on a dehumidifier which will hopefully bring it down a bit (we're trying to limit the heating)- are these bad levels, or quite usual in today's climate and economy?

I have thermometer that also shows humidity and (from memory) it reports 'comfortable' up to somewhere in the mid sixties. It would definitely report 'wet' at 70 degrees.

We have recently installed a woodburner and that really dries out the air in the entire house. We always have a kettle of water on the stove, and washing is hung indoors to dry. Despite this, currently we're at 56% humidity and that's about the norm. I don't like it when it gets much drier than that.

One thing that I noticed earlier in the season is that humidity levels go up drastically when it's raining and not too cold. When it's cold the air holds less water so humidity SHOULD be lower. So 70 - 78 seems VERY high given that your house is quite cool?

But I'm no expert - this is just based upon observations in my own home. 

I can tell you that dehumidifiers work very well, but we found them a bit expensive to run. 

One more thing - are you certain that whatever you're using to monitor is accurate? I'd have thought it would feel damp at 78% - if it feels OK your readings might be wrong?

Depends on what sort you buy. Dessicant dehumidifiers can be relatively expensive in comparison to compressor dehumidifiers. The one I had, which was a compressor version, ran at 150Wh at it's max, most of the time much lower so only pennies to run.

Also a reading of 78% RH doesn't necessarily feel damp, you'd need to be in the high 80s for it to be noticeably damp, it would feel colder though.

FreeBear

shiraz99 said: Upstairs in a solid brick, 1920s house heating on to 18C mines reading 69%. It's generally around the 70%-75% mark.

Similar age and construction. Around 50% downstairs, and hovering around 70% upstairs. Temperature is around 19°C in most rooms.

Note - I have not calibrated the humidity sensors, so have no idea how accurate they are.

ss2020jd

I am currently running at between 49 and 55% in the bedroom. Heated between 17.5-19.0. 

It was higher - around 64%+ - before I started running a dehumidifier for an hour after I got up. I haven’t needed to do that for some time. I also have a refillable dehumidifier on the window ledges and bowls of salt in some other rooms. I do open the windows for ventilation when it’s dry (not at the same time as the dehumidifier). 

Downstairs is between 45 and 52% usually and I don’t really use the dehumidifier down there. 

newlywed

newlywed said:

17 degrees and heating on for a couple of hours a day… humidity varies between 64% (iif we have opened windows and it’s dry outside) and 80% if it’s raining outside.

similar humidity levels in October when it was 19-20 degrees indoors and no need of heating.

Heating has been on at 18 most of today, and window open slightly at times too for air flow, as we had a visitor… humidity is 65%.

so I would debate that raising the temperature a couple of degrees makes much difference.

[Deleted User]

@ARainyDay how does, all, this compare to your own thoughts ?

sevenhills

Is there a point to this thread, I thought it was going to be about black mould.
Not sure what mine is.

getmore4less

Bought a set of these(~£5 each, cheaper if you can wait for delivery from china)

https://buy.mi.com/uk/item/3204500023

current locations top/bottom of hall, living room, study and attached garage
House around 50%-55%   temp range has been 17c-22c  (hall stat set to 18.5 evening)
(our standby temp is 15c, not got that low yet) 

The one just outside the bathroom door on top of the architrave has peaked 85%, shower time.

Garage has been slowly dropping over the last week slipped under 8c overnight  65%-75%.

Apodemus

getmore4less said:

(our standby temp is 15c, not got that low yet) 

Garage has been slowly dropping over the last week slipped under 8c overnight  65%-75%.

Our standby temp is 12C in the bedroom...CH kicked in twice last night!

 ...and water in the garage is frozen this morning!  

Mutton_Geoff

_Sam_ said:

Last night it lowered humidity to 50% and raised the temperature to 16.5C in the process (it's desiccant dehumidifier and returns heated air)

These two readings are a function of each other. As the temperature is raised, as long as more moisture isn't added, then the relative humidity falls. For those with high (relative) humidity readings, all you need to do is raise the temperature a little.

The whole science of relative humidity, temperature and dewpoint (the temperature at which the water in the air condense) is how our weather works. The change of state from water vapour to water liquid gives up a lot of heat (it's why steam burns are very dangerous), conversely to get from a damp/wet house feeling to warm and dry takes a lot of energy to get there, then less to keep it there.

The structure of your house will thank you for it as all the materials used in house building absorb moisture like a sponger (timber, plasterboard, carpets, curtains etc).

https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/weather/learn-about/weather/types-of-weather/humidity

The science is called latent heat .. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latent_heat