Comments
J3N0991 OP t1_j068w34 wrote
Northern hemisphere, Cambridge, UK. Turns out we had some missing tiles on the roof of our house on one side that have been replaced along with the flashing that connects to the house next door, and on the other side we had some damaged flint work where a previous owner had removed an old gas boiler and not plugged the hole properly so rain was getting in sideways and working it’s way down there too…
snash222 t1_j069c7d wrote
Good work. Water in basement is a pain and not healthy!
It looks like your humidity is varying daily as your heat comes on, making the relative humidity drop, when the heat turns off (at night?) it gets colder and RH goes up.
Has it been getting much colder outside the past couple weeks? If so, that will drop the humidity overall as well.
Hopefully it was your work that caused the drop!
J3N0991 OP t1_j06ao7x wrote
I think the nightly peak is caused by there being a bedroom in the basement so I think it’s a build up from the moist meat bag humans… 😂 In the daytime it’s just an office space for one. The first few days I had a dehumidifier running to hurry it along but that’s not even fired up in 4-5 days. Once other spaces are renovated it’ll just be an occasional guest bedroom so hopefully no peaks at all!
AnaphoricReference t1_j06bln3 wrote
That would be my guess. Humidity in my home dropped from 60 to 40 in that same period in the Netherlands as the weather changed from very wet to freezing all day.
quadrangle3136 t1_j06duav wrote
Use rh and temp to calculate absolute water per unit volume - that might be a straighter line and better measure
Reelplayer t1_j06efjl wrote
I don't know how basements are designed in the UK, but around me, surrounding a room with earth keeps the temperature from changing much, regardless of outdoor temp. At 6 feet deep you're looking at less than 4 degrees change at any point of the year, even in harsh winter climates like Minnesota.
J3N0991 OP t1_j06qepe wrote
Can confirm temperature has remained consistent day to day - the space is heated with the thermostat to maintain target temps to the same schedule. If more useful for comparison the dew point has been dropping and VPD increasing in line with the above which would indicate an actual decline in moisture.
iamthemosin t1_j073jwo wrote
You were 0.1% away from being hot and steamy in your basement.
thesoxpride11 t1_j07a61p wrote
> What you are showing here is probably a decline in average temperature.
While I agree relative humidity has its flaws, this isn't true. Assuming OP is in the northern hemisphere, temperature is indeed dropping. However, cold air stores less water, so the relative humidity for the same amount of water would go up, not down.
If OP is in the southern hemisphere, then I would question if what they are plotting is actually an improvement due to the remedial works or just a rise in temperature.
SunnyDayInPoland t1_j08oibb wrote
Interesting, according to my dehumidifier my house varies between 70 and 50% so guess I need to look into it (I am in Scotland though so there's that)
anonymous3850239582 t1_j08qc7v wrote
It won't. It will be much jaggier.
[deleted] t1_j08s6s0 wrote
anonymous3850239582 t1_j08sqhn wrote
We did the same, and it's so satisfying seeing the results.
In September we removed the drywall and added insulation and a vapour barrier as well as new energy-efficient windows. Before September we ran a dehumidifier (otherwise humidity was around 70%), and since the renovation we didn't have to use the dehumidifier at all.
Humidity went from >10g/m^3 to around 5g/m^3.
J3N0991 OP t1_j096c1k wrote
I’d always been aware that we had a humidity issue down there and we’d had spots of mildew appear behind picture frames and the like… I’d been wilfully ignoring it until recent high profile news stories around mould lung. With people sleeping down there it seemed sensible to throw the kitchen sink at it and get to the bottom of the issues - it had been tanked around 8 years ago so I was confident the issue wasn’t rising damp.
J3N0991 OP t1_j096mep wrote
Love it! Not needing the dehumidifier is the dream but I’m pleased to have it down there as a backup for now, saves my anxiety!
058Gekkehuus t1_j09gb5f wrote
What about temp? RH is relative to temp
J3N0991 OP t1_j0anzb3 wrote
Temperature is a consistent schedule each day which accounts for part of the daily variance (along with human usage of the space), the basement is well heated.
[deleted] t1_j068670 wrote
[removed]