[CAUT] Re: Temperature and Humidity

[Fred Sturm]

On 1/16/06 10:18 AM, "Alan McCoy" <amccoy@mail.ewu.edu> wrote:

> Jim, Ron and Fred have nailed the issue pretty well. The thing that
> administrators don't seem to get is that 67 degrees at 45% RH feels vastly
> more comfortable than 67 at 25%. Thus, by simply allowing the temperature to
> vary from, say 67 in the winter to 75 in the summer, you can moderate the
> seasonal shifts in RH without any attempt at humidification at all. Instead
> most institutions keep it so blasted hot in the winter you come to work in
> short sleeves and shorts and then in summer they keep it so cold you need a
> sweater and all the secretaries need space heaters. Talking to the powers
> that be about this issue is like talking to a brick. Can you tell I'm a bit
> frustrated by this issue?!
> 
> By all means let the temperatures vary seasonally within a "comfortable"
> range. This will moderate the seasonal RH shift and actually help to save on
> energy costs. But these cost savings are not enough to balance out the money
> you'll need to spend for humidification if you want to narrow the RH range
> further than can be achieved through just allowing the temperature to vary.
> 
> Alan
    Alan just stated something I was going to add to the discussion: that we
should make clear that we (and the pianos) would be very happy with a
seasonal variance in temp, in keeping with energy conservation. 67 winter to
75 summer is just great, for the reasons stated. If humidity control is
being operated as well, the dew point targets should be adjusted
accordingly, meaning that system is cheaper to run as well.
    Another thing I would point out to the administration on the same lines
(saving operational money): it is more important to maintain a minimum RH in
winter than cap it in the summer (within reason). I think maintaining 30 or
even 25% in the winter would be heaven for many of us, and it isn't that
expensive to run those misters, especially compared with the energy needed
to do the super-cooling commonly used for dehumidification. And in practical
terms, I think the Dampp-Chaser heating rods (with enough wattage) can
handle spikes above 60 - 70% better than the humidifier can handle extreme
lows below 25%. When you get into single digits, especially, they just don't
put out enough to keep up.
    It makes a lot of "political" sense to work with the bean counters in
coming up with the least expensive approach, and that attitude is more
likely to lead to better communication/consultation over the long term, and
to a system that continues to operate (and isn't shut down to save money).
Regards,
Fred Sturm
University of New Mexico