S4 E4 Can it Really Rain Inside Your Building During Construction?

First, let's familiarize you with the basics of humidity.

I think we all know what temperature is.

It's either too hot, too cold, or comfortable, right? But humidity is something that I recently realized that not everyone really understands in the way that people with HVAC backgrounds do.

I actually encountered someone the other day that had zero understanding of what humidity even meant.

And it occurred to me that this could be the root of the problem that we often encounter in construction.

Us mechanical people, we think everybody knows what we know.

We intuitively understand because of our education why it's important, but we don't realize that not everybody gets it.

So let's talk about it a little bit today.

The measurement of humidity, often called relative humidity or written as RH, is the measurement of the amount of moisture in the air.

How much moisture is in the air or could potentially be in the air varies based on a variety of factors, including temperature.

Most of the United States, and indeed most of the planet, is in a constant state of humidity of about 50 to 60 percent or more.

There's a few exceptions to this, and my home state of Colorado is one of them, where the normal humidity range there is more like 20 to 40 percent, resulting in a lot of static electricity.

The range of human comfort, however... is 40 to 50 percent is kind of the sweet spot for human beings.

So depending on where you live, you might say it's too dry here or more likely it's too hot and too humid here.

We feel the temperature much, much differently when there's more humidity in the air than when there's less.

I often tell people that, you know, even when we have hot temperatures in Colorado and It's not the same.

Even when we have cold temperatures, it's not the same as you experience it in other parts of the country because the humidity is so low that 30 is fine for short sleeves and 90 isn't too hot to go outside and do something because the humidity is so low that you don't feel it in the same way that you feel those temperatures at 60, 70, 80% humidity.

Most climates are either too dry or too humid to be very comfortable for most people.

The higher the temperature, measured in centigrade or Fahrenheit, doesn't matter.

the more moisture the air can potentially hold.

And the lower the temperature, the less moisture it can hold, which is why your skin tends to get so dry in the wintertime.

And you get that pesky thing that I hate the most about dry climates and wintertime, which is static electricity zap every time you go to touch something.

It's my only complaint about Colorado.

In mechanical engineering, we have this really complicated chart called a psychrometric chart that looks more like an eye chart that was made by a drunk cross-eyed guy.

It looks a little more complicated than it really is, but what it tells you is at any given temperature, how much moisture measured in grains per pound of dry air or humidity can be held in the air.

First, let's familiarize you with the basics of humidity.

I think we all know what temperature is.

It's either too hot, too cold, or comfortable, right? But humidity is something that I recently realized that not everyone really understands in the way that people with HVAC backgrounds do.

I actually encountered someone the other day that had zero understanding of what humidity even meant.

And it occurred to me that this could be the root of the problem that we often encounter in construction.

Us mechanical people, we think everybody knows what we know.

We intuitively understand because of our education why it's important, but we don't realize that not everybody gets it.

So let's talk about it a little bit today.

The measurement of humidity, often called relative humidity or written as RH, is the measurement of the amount of moisture in the air.

How much moisture is in the air or could potentially be in the air varies based on a variety of factors, including temperature.

Most of the United States, and indeed most of the planet, is in a constant state of humidity of about 50 to 60 percent or more.

There's a few exceptions to this, and my home state of Colorado is one of them, where the normal humidity range there is more like 20 to 40 percent, resulting in a lot of static electricity.

The range of human comfort, however... is 40 to 50 percent is kind of the sweet spot for human beings.

So depending on where you live, you might say it's too dry here or more likely it's too hot and too humid here.

We feel the temperature much, much differently when there's more humidity in the air than when there's less.

I often tell people that, you know, even when we have hot temperatures in Colorado and It's not the same.

Even when we have cold temperatures, it's not the same as you experience it in other parts of the country because the humidity is so low that 30 is fine for short sleeves and 90 isn't too hot to go outside and do something because the humidity is so low that you don't feel it in the same way that you feel those temperatures at 60, 70, 80% humidity.

Most climates are either too dry or too humid to be very comfortable for most people.

The higher the temperature, measured in centigrade or Fahrenheit, doesn't matter.

the more moisture the air can potentially hold.

And the lower the temperature, the less moisture it can hold, which is why your skin tends to get so dry in the wintertime.

And you get that pesky thing that I hate the most about dry climates and wintertime, which is static electricity zap every time you go to touch something.

It's my only complaint about Colorado.

In mechanical engineering, we have this really complicated chart called a psychrometric chart that looks more like an eye chart that was made by a drunk cross-eyed guy.

It looks a little more complicated than it really is, but what it tells you is at any given temperature, how much moisture measured in grains per pound of dry air or humidity can be held in the air.