Basement Feels OK

Interesting weather with some risky physics. It has been chilly and wet day outside, look at these numbers:

08:54	8.8 C	47.8 F	81%
10:39	9.1 C	48.4 F	82%
14:17	10.4 C	50.7 F	72%

Cold and very wet, slowly drying. Still, even 72% is like a rainforrest.

I worried about basement floor, if it gets too humid there, will I have some major issues … moist walls, floors, etc? I have a dehumidifier there which helps, but I would have to turn it on. And today I decided to risk it and keep it off. And being such a risk taker, I also decided to go crazy and open the basement windows.

Wet humid air gets inside from outside, it is almost 80% humid, but basement is warmer now than outside, so it should remove some humidity and dry it, right? Unless it starts getting cold there too … I don’t remember how humidity and temperature numbers exactly relate, but when you warm up air, it should get drier, so humidity should go down. Just a theory, I know, but I did it, opened the windows there and walked away. And let’s see …

Here is the result:

11:07	21.0 C	69.8 F	45%
17:59	20.0 C	68.0 F	37%

Window was open for about 7 hours. Temperature dropped down tiny bit, 70 to 68. And humidity? Down from 45% to dry 37% – excellent victory!

I got this wet air in and it feels very fresh there now and also dry. Of course it could have gone the other way and basement would now be wet and chilly, but all is good! Window is now closed, I would not leave it open over night.