Humidity

[giggleswicksam]

I would be interested (and I think it would be interesting for others) to know what humidity it is in your houses, pipers with hygrometers! I'll start the ball rolling with 72% in my Bradford kitchen. I saw on bbc.co.uk/weather that there was 92% humidity in Seattle! If this has all been done before, apologies.

Does anyone know what this means - what is 100% humidity? Presumably not the bottom of a lake . . . .

[brianc]

[quote="giggleswicksam"] If this has all been done before, apologies.
[quote]

http://chiffboard.mati.ca/search.php?mode=results

279 times the word "humidity" came up in the UP forum, with the Search function.

Yep, it's been done before, almost ad infinitum.

[benwalker]

I was in Halifax Nova Scotia this summer just gone. I went from Darwen Lancashire where humidity was about 65-70% to Sauna of about 90 - 95% humidity.
The drone reeds and reg reeds didn't fair too well but held up just .I was amazed at the chanter reed it has fine and spot on in tune.I am a great believer in a stronger reed, especially if you are going from climate to climate.

Dr Giggles from Giggleswick

[giggleswicksam]

Sorry - I didn't realise I could search for old humidity stuff. Am duly sorry.

[Joseph E. Smith]

Hydrometer? We don't need no stinkin' hydrometer in stinkin' Florida... it's so humid (how humid is it?), that you need gills just to breath!

[KDMARTINKY]

My sunroom where I play the UPs and store my extra reed stays at 52% humidity year long. But if I open the hot-tub...then watchout it goes beyond 70% easily.

[Patrick D'Arcy]

It's usually around 50% in my house. THe lowest it gets is about 15% and the highest about 65% ... but it's mostly right around 50%. That's Northern Los Angeles County ladies and gentleman. If I go 5 miles up the road everything changes, in either direction.

Patrick.

[John Mulhern]

The digital hygrometer flat lines at around 20%, which it is doing right now, but AccuWeather says it's about 15% outside. Gotta love our Santa Ana weather.

[fel bautista]

I live about 50 miles East of Fr D'Arcy (what a book title!!) and it was 28% humidity yesterday afternoon. I have a small room humidifier; when on, it raised the relative humidity to 33%-35%, good enough to practice. When the Santa Ana winds get going, you might as well go and have a beer- I know I did

[anima]

Kansas City 60-70% spring to fall, winter 25-50%

Jeff

[MikeyLikesIt]

We're having some rather unusual weather over here in Santa Cruz, CA right now. It's gorgeous, sunny, warm, and clear outside, but the 40% humidity isn't being too kind on my chanter reed. It's usually anywhere from 60-80% and overcast around this time of year.

[An píobaire fánach]

I always wondered if it's absolute or relative humidity that counts with regard to how the reeds behave. So, for a relative humidity of (say) 70%, the absolute humidity (the absolute mass of water per whatsit of air) will be higher at high temperature than at low temperature. Presumably the reed comes into equilibrium with the vapour pressure, which for identical relative humidity, changes with temperature.

[Joseph E. Smith]

I always wondered if it's absolute or relative humidity that counts with regard to how the reeds behave. So, for a relative humidity of (say) 70%, the absolute humidity (the absolute mass of water per whatsit of air) will be higher at high temperature than at low temperature. Presumably the reed comes into equilibrium with the vapour pressure, which for identical relative humidity, changes with temperature.

I am leaning toward this train of thought. Here in my little corner of Florida, the absolute humidity (around 60-65%) does not seem to do a thing for my reeds in the colder winter mornings, but as the temps rise, my reeds become happier and the humidity hasn't changed .

I suppose you folks in Australia are rolling into summer by now, and I am certain that affects the playability of your reeds significantly... just a guess however.

[rgouette]

Oh man, I'm in Maine. What more can I say, except it swings to <20% easily in cold months, to >95% in freakin summer.

man, & we have a baby grand, harp, & acoustic guitars too..
what are we thinking!

Rich

[myrddinemrys]

for those needing to gauge RH on the cheap:
http://inventors.about.com/gi/dynamic/o ... ivity.html