What’s your humidity?

thermionic

The relative humidity in my living room has been at 45% for the last three days, despite all day rain yesterday. It’s been between 42% and 49% for the last six weeks. Makes a nice change from a constant 65%-70% when I’m worrying about tops bellying up and the action getting too high!

Kilpy

Been pretty cold here, humidity pretty low.

sev112

south east, has been in low 40s certainly since xmas if not longer 

drofluf

Been between 41% and 49% over the last week. 

ToneControl

I set my humidifiers to come on below 50%.
I think 45% is the bottom of the recommended range for most acoustics.

For anyone unaware, low humidity in a UK house in the winter can damage your acoustic guitars more permanently than high humidity in typical UK houses.

Also, my guitars are noticeably out of tune with the wrong neck relief below 45%. You can hear them going gradually more out of tune below 50%

drofluf

Any recommendations for a humidifier? I’m getting by with a rolled up tea towel on a radiator at the moment but probably need a better solution. 

I’m guessing “Poor” will be the response but what are the £30 Amazon ones like? Will be for occasional use in the room where my guitars live. 

MikeP

Lower temperature should increase rh

ElectricXII

37% RH here in my home office today, and it's been around 40-45% for a couple of months. My J-35 on its stand seems fine though.

chickenbonejohn

drofluf said:

Any recommendations for a humidifier? I’m getting by with a rolled up tea towel on a radiator at the moment but probably need a better solution. 

I’m guessing “Poor” will be the response but what are the £30 Amazon ones like? Will be for occasional use in the room where my guitars live. 

I've got a Meaco humidifier and have been using it for about a month or so. They are about £100, so not super cheap. One thing I'm now certain of is that digital hygrometers (digital moister meters) cannot be relied on, or certainly the ones I've got. I've had three (including a digital weather station with a 2nd sensor) and the all show wildly different readings. I tried checking them (there are methods on the web about how to do this) and none of them came anywhere near the control humidity that they were supposed to be at, and none of them can be calibrated to adjust them to a known humidity level. I've concluded that I'll probably need to get a traditional wet/dry bulb hygrometer to get accurate humidity readings.

thermionic

How much are they off? I have sometimes thought about getting another of a different make/model to see if there's any difference - I could at least take an average of the two (although that may not necessarily be better).

sev112

just leave the door open in whichever room you re drying your washing in, that helps.  Conversely in akte summer when humdity in southeast hits 65-70, switch on the dehumidifier, esp when the washing isnt outside

chickenbonejohn

thermionic said:

How much are they off? I have sometimes thought about getting another of a different make/model to see if there's any difference - I could at least take an average of the two (although that may not necessarily be better).

Typically they are reading about 10-15% low. They are so inconsistent that they cannot be trusted at all. One is a GreenBlue weather station, and there's about 15% difference between the main sensor and the remote unit even when they are in the same location. The worst is a Screwfix one, which is so far off that at what I reckon will be around least 45% humidity it doesn't even register properly, it shows 10% as an "unreadably low"  default reading then when it does react it reads about 25% low. The most accurate is an old Aldi weatherstation but unfortunately the battery terminals have corroded,  it doesn't have a separate mains adaptor power supply, and the remote sensor on that has packed up. Having the remote sensor was handy, as I could monitor my office and my workshop to determine the best environment to store timber and finished guitars, but these electronic gizmos have left me disappointed and pretty much in the dark. Because of this experience, I'm not convinced how accurate the readout on the humidifier is, so to monitor things  I think I'll buy an old fashioned wet/dry bulb hygrometer, or a decent German-made traditional dial hygrometer- apparently the ones made with a human hair are the most accurate! To my mind, and from what I've read and researched,  you need to be able to calibrate a digital humidity meter, but very few of them have this facility, and I'm fed up with throwing good money after bad on cheap digital meters.

drofluf

I’ve got a couple of these https://amzn.eu/d/9qHwCWZ which matched to a few percent when I tested them using this method https://www.stevejenkins.com/blog/2014/06/how-to-calibrate-a-hygrometer-humidity-sensor-using-the-salt-test/ except I used a Tupperware container rather than a bag. 

The meters I linked to can connect to a phone app so you can monitor remotely (within the house) and can also store a year’s history.  

DavidR

43% this morning.

Happy with anything between 40 and 70 and have hardly ever found it to be outside that range since I put up a meter in about 2010. Humidity rarely a problem in UK I think. 

Alterlifeson

We are relatively stable in the UK, humidity wise. I am a member of another guitar forum where those in the southern US have real issues with it being too dry in the winter months and then very high humidity in the summer.

Personally, I have a hygrometer on a shelf where all of my guitars are kept out of interest more than anything. I have the radiator turned down a tad in that room so it doesn't get quite as warm when we have the heating on which does dry out the air. 

Bowks

It's 42% in the room, but I'm getting 50-52% on my hygrometers in the guitar cases (mix of D'Addario Humiditraks and Govees)

I usually have the 50% Humidipaks in side the guitars too.

tomjax

Been in the low 40s for a week or more. And I now have a guitar suffering as a result. I leave most of my guitars on wall hangers all year round. Never had a problem before, but my McIlroy now has proud fret ends, so there's clearly some fret board drying out going on.

Fingers crossed it will recover with a bit of increased humidity, and avoid a fret dress. 

thermionic

I've noticed it creeping up recently - was around 50-52% for most of last week and now it's at 55%. Been pretty dry and sunny outside for most of the last week, and not as cold so the heating hasn't been on as much. I expect it will be around 65% for months now. My Martin has gone back in the case!

drofluf

About 50% so in the acceptable range for me

Tannin

3 o'clock in the afternoon here: outdoors: 31 degrees, 28%. Indoors (no aircon, just double-glazing) 24 degrees and 56%. I've never quite worked out why the indoor humidity is so much more stable than outdoors - we don't actually do anything other than open and close windows to get a comfortable temperature. 

chickenbonejohn

Tannin said:

3 o'clock in the afternoon here: outdoors: 31 degrees, 28%. Indoors (no aircon, just double-glazing) 24 degrees and 56%. I've never quite worked out why the indoor humidity is so much more stable than outdoors - we don't actually do anything other than open and close windows to get a comfortable temperature. 

Simply being a human indoors pumps out loads of moisture into the building, that's the main source of humidity in a house.