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humidity question
#1
hey guys, i have a question about humidity. recently i read an article about absolute humidity, and how it's value changed with a temperature change. my question is this: if i have my humidor in a place where it's constantly at 65-68 degrees, and 67% relative humidity, what affect is this having on my sticks, if any? this article had a table on it, that showed if you lowered the temperature, the absolute humidity, as opposed to the relative humidity, was actually closer to 72-74% any truth in this, or should i not even worry? should i lower the rh in there? thanks!
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#2
I've always been curious about this myself.
I recall Skip talking about this back on SCv1.
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#3
scott81425 Wrote:hey guys, i have a question about humidity. recently i read an article about absolute humidity, and how it's value changed with a temperature change. my question is this: if i have my humidor in a place where it's constantly at 65-68 degrees, and 67% relative humidity, what affect is this having on my sticks, if any? this article had a table on it, that showed if you lowered the temperature, the absolute humidity, as opposed to the relative humidity, was actually closer to 72-74% any truth in this, or should i not even worry? should i lower the rh in there? thanks!

i think you have it backwards. Absolute humidity is a measurement of how much water is suspended in the air. Not relative to the capacity of what the air can hold (due to it's temperature). That is RH.

Here's the deal. Temperature is energy. This energy keeps the water in vapor form. Lower the temp and there may not be enough energy to keep the water in suspended form. The temperature at which this threshold is crossed is called the dew point. When you hear your weather man talk about being at the dew point, he is saying you are at 100% rh. If the temp goes lower, it rains.

Take this info inside of your humidor. If you are at 70/70 and without changing the amount of suspended water vapor (keep the AH constant) and lower the temp, the RH shoots up. I dont have the conversion in front of me but at 60 degrees you are likely to be at or slightly above 80% humidity. Simply because there is less energy so you are closer to the saturation point.

Think about the science here and you can see why a cold beer on a humid day sweats. The bottle is cold, too cold to support the humidity so it rains on the bottles skin.

The same can and will happen in your humidor. Lower the temperature drastically and quickly & your cigars will feel wet!

Keep the temp too low and maintain 64% humidity and your cigars will be too dry to smoke.

Temp is at least as important as humidity.
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#4
Interesting. My Brother likes to keep it kinda chilly in the house. One to save some money and two the heater actually isnt working like it should and he hasnt got it looked at. Heres my question, my humidity is always around 65-67%rh. Temperature lately has b een below 65 or around 65. Is that to cold? Should I look into keeping my babies warmer?
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#5
scott81425 Wrote:hey guys, i have a question about humidity. recently i read an article about absolute humidity, and how it's value changed with a temperature change. my question is this: if i have my humidor in a place where it's constantly at 65-68 degrees, and 67% relative humidity, what affect is this having on my sticks, if any? this article had a table on it, that showed if you lowered the temperature, the absolute humidity, as opposed to the relative humidity, was actually closer to 72-74% any truth in this, or should i not even worry? should i lower the rh in there? thanks!
As long as your sticks don't feel too dry or too wet I wouldn't worry about.
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#6
BaileyCAO Wrote:Interesting. My Brother likes to keep it kinda chilly in the house. One to save some money and two the heater actually isnt working like it should and he hasnt got it looked at. Heres my question, my humidity is always around 65-67%rh. Temperature lately has b een below 65 or around 65. Is that to cold? Should I look into keeping my babies warmer?
IMO that is perfect.  If you start cranking the heat it will be harder to control the RH because you will be producing dry air outside the humi.
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#7
 

DAMN Scott, you beat me to it.  LOL  I read an article a long time ago about the same thing.  I have been compiling #s for over a month.  Still in the salt environment the % numbers go crazy with the temp.  To me that means the calibration is not right and don't know what to trust.  I fluctuate the room from 64 to 77*.  The % from 61 to 75 in the salt test bag.



64.3   73%

66.8   72

67.3   69 

68.6   70

75.0   66

78.3   60

85.8   55

 
.

We cross our bridges when we come to them and burn them behind us, with nothing to show for our progress except a memory of the smell of smoke, and a presumption that once our eyes watered.

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