The Very-Many-Questions-Not-Worth-Their-Own-Thread Thread XXXIV

[Zkribbler]

My parents had pet birds, they gave them free range in the house. They generally pooped in their perching areas...

Birds poop when they take off. Lesser weight allows them to gain altitude faster.
Later, they're poopless.

 

[Takhisis]

I have a smart thermostat and sensors throughout my home, and I have been paying attention to the numbers over the last couple days in an effort to try to make things more efficient around here.

I don't know about the humidity, but why do you have a thermostat?

 

[warpus]

I don't know about the humidity, but why do you have a thermostat?

Is it weird that I have one? The thermostat tells me what the temperature in the livingroom is and allows me to access cooling & heating options.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

I don't know about the humidity, but why do you have a thermostat?

Thermostats are ubiquitous in Canadian homes and buildings. How else would we adjust the temperature indoors?

 

[Michkov]

I have a smart thermostat and sensors throughout my home, and I have been paying attention to the numbers over the last couple days in an effort to try to make things more efficient around here.

The various graphs and reports also show me outdoor temperature. I have noticed that humidity shoots up way high at night (up to 90%+ even), but then goes down in the morning. Or at least that's what happened the last 2 nights and pretty sure the night before that too. Humidity indoors is not nearly as high but follows similar patterns.

What's responsible for this and does it happen every night?

Is it relative humidity that is shown? The value is telling you how much water is in the air compared to the maximum it can hold. This is temperature dependent with warm air being able to hold more water than cold. So if the amount of the water stays the same and the air temperature goes down, as I would expect at night, the rel. humidity should go up.

 

[warpus]

Is it relative humidity that is shown? The value is telling you how much water is in the air compared to the maximum it can hold. This is temperature dependent with warm air being able to hold more water than cold. So if the amount of the water stays the same and the air temperature goes down, as I would expect at night, the rel. humidity should go up.

I'm not sure. But for example if you look here right now where I live the humidity is reported as being 83%. Maybe that's just how it's reported here. Humidity makes a huge impact on our summers though (and winters I guess). All the great lakes are all around here, so I assume that's why it gets so humid. Earlier in the day it was 27C but it felt like 36C. I didn't realize it got so much more humid at night.

Your explanation makes sense to me though, thanks!

edit: I am attaching a screenshot of what I'm talking about

Green line is outdoors humidity, white line is indoors humidity. Right in the middle of the day the humidity is the lowest, but at night it at times even goes up to 90%+ levels.

I guess looking at this again the indoors humidity does not follow the outdoors pattern

 

[Takhisis]

Is it weird that I have one? The thermostat tells me what the temperature in the livingroom is and allows me to access cooling & heating options.

Thermostats are ubiquitous in Canadian homes and buildings. How else would we adjust the temperature indoors?

Well, I've never been to Canada so I don't know how really cold it gets there, nor whether your apartment buildings have central heating or there are CHPs or, well, how you deal with the whole issue.

 

[Michkov]

Warpus have you got an outside temperature graph for the time period as well?

 

[Valka D'Ur]

Well, I've never been to Canada so I don't know how really cold it gets there, nor whether your apartment buildings have central heating or there are CHPs or, well, how you deal with the whole issue.

I should say that proper homes have thermostats that are more adjustable. With me, it's either on or it's off. There was a time this past winter when I was freezing even though it was set to 90F. Then enough tenants complained that the management decided to do something about it... and it became like a sauna on my floor. I had to turn the thermostat off.

Right now it's off, the balcony door is open to let in the cool air, and that's probably how things are going to stay for the next several months. My windows all face west, so it can get uncomfortably hot here. Maddy's already taken to napping on the kitchen floor because the tiles are cooler than the carpet.

 

[Cutlass]

Well, I've never been to Canada so I don't know how really cold it gets there, nor whether your apartment buildings have central heating or there are CHPs or, well, how you deal with the whole issue.

Essentially all living spaces built in the past 50-60 years or so will have their own thermostat. And most work spaces as well. And most older than that will as well. Not having one is very much the exception.

 

[warpus]

Well, I've never been to Canada so I don't know how really cold it gets there, nor whether your apartment buildings have central heating or there are CHPs or, well, how you deal with the whole issue.

How do you control the air temperature without a thermostat? Whether in the summer (AC) or winter (heating). Every home here has one, and most apartment buildings I've been in have them as well.

Warpus have you got an outside temperature graph for the time period as well?

Spoiler :

You can more or less ignore the indoor temperature. It's the average of whichever sensors are active in the house, so it always changes. If we're hanging out downstairs, the average is just of downstairs and the thermostat, if we're upstairs, it doesn't include downstairs in the calculations, etc.

 

[Hrothbern]

I have a smart thermostat and sensors throughout my home, and I have been paying attention to the numbers over the last couple days in an effort to try to make things more efficient around here.

The various graphs and reports also show me outdoor temperature. I have noticed that humidity shoots up way high at night (up to 90%+ even), but then goes down in the morning. Or at least that's what happened the last 2 nights and pretty sure the night before that too. Humidity indoors is not nearly as high but follows similar patterns.

What's responsible for this and does it happen every night?

oops already been answered

Could be the same reason as early morning dew
Assuming it is the relative humidity that is shown: defined as water vapor divided by max water vapor for a given temperature. Whereby noted that at higher temperature the max water vapor goes up.
Assuming no wind:
The amount of water vapor in the air stays constant over the night and the temperature decreases over the night your relative water humidity goes up and could even reach 100% at which moment dew starts.

 

[Michkov]

How do you control the air temperature without a thermostat? Whether in the summer (AC) or winter (heating). Every home here has one, and most apartment buildings I've been in have them as well.

Spoiler :

You can more or less ignore the indoor temperature. It's the average of whichever sensors are active in the house, so it always changes. If we're hanging out downstairs, the average is just of downstairs and the thermostat, if we're upstairs, it doesn't include downstairs in the calculations, etc.

Gonna stick with my original answer. There are two big jumps in the early morning evening that correlate quite nicely with that. You want to read up on dew point and related topics if you want to know more.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dew_point

 

[civvver]

That's why in the winter you also have to keep the relative humidity in your house way down or else you get drops all over your windows where your hot humid air touches a cold surface.

 

[Farm Boy]

If you have forced air heating that's probably more a matter of accidentally humidifying the air too much through overcorrection? I know nicer newish forced air natural gas furnaces tend to have a tray on them where you add water to the air or something, right?

 

[warpus]

That's why in the winter you also have to keep the relative humidity in your house way down or else you get drops all over your windows where your hot humid air touches a cold surface.

You know what, I had this problem, but never really sat down and thought about it. I have a dehumidifier in the basement, it's attached to something in my furnace room (the vents?), and it needs to be set at the beginning of winter to one setting, and to another setting at the beginning of summer. This is just sort of automatic in my brain, so I never really thought about what's going on, nor did I even remember this until you mentioned it. A couple times I forgot to set this thing and ended up with water all over the place. Luckily I caught it in time

 

[civvver]

If you have forced air heating that's probably more a matter of accidentally humidifying the air too much through overcorrection? I know nicer newish forced air natural gas furnaces tend to have a tray on them where you add water to the air or something, right?

Yes, as warpus said:

You know what, I had this problem, but never really sat down and thought about it. I have a dehumidifier in the basement, it's attached to something in my furnace room (the vents?), and it needs to be set at the beginning of winter to one setting, and to another setting at the beginning of summer. This is just sort of automatic in my brain, so I never really thought about what's going on, nor did I even remember this until you mentioned it. A couple times I forgot to set this thing and ended up with water all over the place. Luckily I caught it in time

It's a humidifier. It adds moisture to the air. When air is heated in a forced air system, usually by burning natural gas, it burns moisture out of the air and gets drier. The humidifier is just a mesh or grate that water trickles down and the air is pushed through so moisture is re added to the warmer air. Also outside cold air introduced to the system, cus all systems need a fresh air intake as well as returns, can't hold as much moisture as warm air.

The summer mode is to bypass the humidifier. You usually turn the water flow off as well. Most have a knob to dial in how much water flows through. You don't need it in the summer cus you aren't running a dry heating element.

 

[Farm Boy]

Ah, I miss some parts of conversations. Thanks for the catch up!

 

[Mouthwash]

Can someone tell me what the song from 0:00 to 1:52 is? I think it's Elder Scolls, but I'm not totally certain.

 

[Lohrenswald]

I have a feeling it's called "Inuyasha's lullaby", and that this is the full version of it