Humidity changes !!

sev112 · April 2023

70% on Friday and the highest daily rainfall in March for 102 years

today, 31% !!!

Mellish · April 2023

That's OK mate.

As long as the low RH reading is short, your guitars will be fine.

sev112 · April 2023

It’s been in low 30s all day, only in the last hour has it hit 40 . Never seen such a big change in such a short time

Tannin · April 2023

70% to 30% is not really a worry. Both levels are a bit outside the recommended range, but not very far outside. Neither will do any harm if the time is limited.

Most parts of the world are "guitar friendly" in that sense. The obvious (but not only) exception is the USA which has two different interacting risk factors (a) a very peculiar climate with massive extremes of heat and cold (this is a consequence of its geography - essentially the mountain ranges down each coast act as a funnel which amplifies Arctic blasts way down into what would normally be tropical and sub-tropical regions, so you end up with huge variations - and (b) a cultural addiction to over-heating and over-cooling. Throw in their liking for under-built guitars and you get real problems. But most other places are less troublesome.

I am intrigued by how stable the RH is inside our house. (I don't know if other houses are similar or not.) As a rule of thumb, you can halve the change in outside RH - e.g., if it goes from 50% to 80% outside, inside might go to 65%. Yep, the structure of the house and its thermal inertia evens out the changes to air temperature, I can get my mind around that OK, but I'm intrigued by the way humidity is so (relatively) stable.

Tannin · April 2023

And yes, the weather is screwy. All over the world strange stuff is happening more and more often. Scary.

thomasross20 · April 2023

Also seen wild swings here... 38 to 65 over last few months. Have now got a humidifier as well as a dehumidifer!

deejayen · April 2023

31% seems really low. Are you in the UK?

I'm in Scotland, and it's been around 70% to 80% in recent weeks, but has dropped to around 65% at times this week.

When I was looking at cheapish hygrometers recently, most seemed to be accurate to within 3 to 5%, so perhaps that accounts for some of the numbers.

bertie · April 2023

my - not overly dry (as in we suffer with condensation a lot) - cottage always ranges between 45 and 60, - you are taking these measurements indoors arent you ? unless of course you keep your guitars in the garden

deejayen · April 2023

Yes, in the kitchen. I only bought my acoustic recently, so I've been keeping the guitar there as it's usually a little bit warmer. I put the hygrometer in the guitar case once, and it measured something like 66%. I've ordered some of those Boveda high absorbency things!

Whistler · April 2023

deejayen said:

31% seems really low. Are you in the UK?

The OP's location says Winchester. The last time I was there it is was in the UK.

sev112 · April 2023

Whistler said:

deejayen said:

31% seems really low. Are you in the UK?

The OP's location says Winchester. The last time I was there it is was in the UK.

Wokingham in fact

deejayen · April 2023

I worked in Wokingham for a wee while, and it did feel like the Sahara compared to Inverness!

DavidR · April 2023

52% now chez nous (W. Essex)

bertie · April 2023

deejayen said:

Yes, in the kitchen. I

sorry, that was for @sev112 ;;;

buuuuut, the kitchen, like the bathroom is the most humid room of the house

Mellish · April 2023

RH 53% here in S Lincolnshire.

FWIW, I use Humidipaks in the case, cigar hygrometer in the room, and in summer I use a dehumidifier to prevent RH getting too high. And that's about it really, except I may add moisture if stubbornly low.

sev112 · April 2023

Back up to 53 this morning , so a jump from 31 in 2 days !

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Humidity changes !!

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