It's Not the Humidity, It's the Cold

[digitS']

It's both ... but let's go from there - as I try to get this straight while tapping it out with my poor digitS' .

Reality is frozen Earth with infrequent snow and rain this winter. The result is Freezing Fog, days and days of it!

So, it's 27°f outdoors with a dew point of 27° ... 100% humidity, right? Fog. So, with 100% humidity why is it very dry indoors? (blame @lesa & @majorcatfish for getting me thinking about this ).

It is easiest for me to focus on the dew point. Indoors, the furnace is heating it so it's now 70° air so, hey (!), it sure isn't 100% humidity! That air, now indoors, still has a dew point of 27°. The air is very dry. Moisture never really amounted to much and relative humidity indoors has fallen below 20%. The doctors say that most people begin to experience discomfort when humidity is below 25%. It isn't just cracked digitS', of course. Kof. Upper respiratory problems. Bad enuf - annoying static cling!

Dewpoint Temperature Humidity Calculator

Steve

 

[majorcatfish]

it's so dry in the house, dw fake plants have shriveled up and died...
it's so dry in the house, it makes the mojave desert look like a tropical paradise.
it's so dry in the house, the ice maker dispenses dry ice.
dw finally put out the old crock pot and filled with water set to low we shall see if it helps........

 

[so lucky]

I've never even thought about using the crockpot to heat water. I used to boil water in a pot on the range every evening, but after just about every other pot full of water boiled out, I would have to de-lime the pot. (We really have hard water here!)
With our new furnace system, the inside air doesn't dry out as much. I hate to get shocked every time I touch something. Which reminds me, I have a certain pair of shoes that, if I wear them to Walmart, every time I touch something I get shocked. Not just a little tingle, either!

 

[Chickie'sMomaInNH]

i have fish tanks here that i have to keep filling a few gallons every couple weeks because of the water loss. my 55 gallon tank is the most obvious when it's loosing water because there is a slight while line where the tank was originally filled up to, and it has a plastic hood that allows more to evaporate than the glass Versa-Top covers on the 20 and 10 gal tanks.

 

[Smart Red]

Shocking! I can't even pet a cat without the pain of static shock. Fortunately, it is the cat that gets most of the shocks. Shocking!

 

[seedcorn]

For me-humidity. Real cold, all is ok. Let it get to 30's and humidity go up, EVERY bone and joint in body SCREAMS at me.

During winter, allow air from electric drier vent in house. Makes a huge difference.

 

[CanadianLori]

We have a good humidifier but it was still so dry last week that my chapped lips went so red I looked like a sock monkey. HONESTLY! !!

gave me the giggles every time I saw my reflection. ..

 

[digitS']

I'm thinking of bringing up the little humidifier from the basement shelves. Every year since DD left, and it was more commonly used, I have had that thought. It's noisy tho', so DW doesn't like it.

Drier vent into the house? Hadn't thought of that but it's only functioning about every 3 days. When I first moved here, I was determined to dry clothes in the basement. There's a fair amount of air movement down there because of the gas furnace & water heater. Apparently, not enuf! Clothes smelled bad ...

I guess I was thinking too much about adding moisture to the air and simmered my veggie broth for 2 hours plus, instead of 90 minutes! It reduced 50%. I'll blame DW. Since she was napping right around the corner on the sofa, I was staying out of the kitchen .

We had a crock pot that was missing a lid, broken or something. I wonder if that thing is still around.

Steve

 

[AMKuska]

@Smart Red Pet the cat with a dryer sheet. It gets rid of static nicely and the cat will probably feel better. ;-)

 

[baymule]

On letting the dryer vent in the house.....put panty hose over the end of the dryer vent to keep lint from flying all over the house.