Nonscientific newbie RH experiment

[jdm61]

This was not at my house where I am doing my first ghetto grow, but at my elderly father's brand new house here in central Florida. I was over there this weekend for his birthday and he had the AC running pretty good because the grandkids were coming over. He just happened to have left his little digital thermometer/hygrometer from his humidor on top of the cabinet. In a closed up south facing front room away from the big air intake, it was reading 77F with 40% RH. Outside, it was 92F with an RH of like 62% which is maybe a tad low for this time of year. yeah, 62% is low. . All in all, not bad. These modern heat pumps do work pretty well when it comes to drying out the air. On a really hot and humid day, you can go outside and the extracted water will be running from the drain pipe like a leaky faucet. Some days at my house, I will be blue jays drinking out of the puddle below the pipe. This got me to wondering. Are most of the heat/humidity problems that people have with indoor grows because the lights, etc are overwhelming their HVAC system or is it because they either have inadequate AC or none at all? In the case of my house, it is old with some leaky windows that have needed replacing for a while, but it has a relatively modern and properly sized central HVAC unit. I have no trouble keeping the hose cool and sem-dry. It just costs a lot more than it should this time of year.

 

[Arthur]

I have high RH in winter, low (like 18) in summer.
A humidifier is needed with a/c in summer, and a dehumidifier in winter if I run dense, mold prone strains.

 

[jdm61]

My experience in cold weather has been just the opposite. It gets so dry inside that my hair straightens and my skin puckers up. What I am seeing with modern central A/C or split units is RH that feels abort like British humidor humiditywhich is to say in the low to mid 50 % range or so. (Americans like their cigars a bit damper apparenlty so we go for like 65-70%) Theory san andhari happened wit forced air heat. Idon;t remember what it was like with leaky radiate heat in boating school back in the old days, just that it was miserable. LOL Because of where I live, the humidity is almost always an issue, so the heat pump is usually working hard. I will never see an indoor temp swing of more than like 5 or 6 dregees all year unless something breaks. I see low 70's when the heater is friunnngin, high 70;s with the AC.
MY next place will likely have modern mini-split units. I am looking forward to see how they do. I have stayed in a new house in Cancun that had them and they worked great even in May which is miserable humid down there. My brother has them in part of his house where the duct run was too long. He is very happy with them and plans to switch the whole house over when the current central unit give up the ghost, but that is still a few years off.