this post was submitted on 14 Jul 2023
34 points (94.7% liked)
Asklemmy
43856 readers
2110 users here now
A loosely moderated place to ask open-ended questions
Search asklemmy ๐
If your post meets the following criteria, it's welcome here!
- Open-ended question
- Not offensive: at this point, we do not have the bandwidth to moderate overtly political discussions. Assume best intent and be excellent to each other.
- Not regarding using or support for Lemmy: context, see the list of support communities and tools for finding communities below
- Not ad nauseam inducing: please make sure it is a question that would be new to most members
- An actual topic of discussion
Looking for support?
Looking for a community?
- Lemmyverse: community search
- sub.rehab: maps old subreddits to fediverse options, marks official as such
- !lemmy411@lemmy.ca: a community for finding communities
~Icon~ ~by~ ~@Double_A@discuss.tchncs.de~
founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
There is a difference between healthy and unhealthy relative humidity. The annual average here is 80% which promotes mold growth. Healthy is between 40-60% which even with A/C is hard to achieve in the wet season. A dehumidifier creates a winter-like environment for significantly less costs than running the A/C (and its compressor).
When I researched this subject I found humidifiers to be very popular. Hard to believe when the average relative humidity is 80%. They are used to grow marihuana indoors (in growing tents).
All my friends here are on it (dehumidifiers, weed they already had) now too. Not easy to find because the little stock you'll find is sold out quickly. Low budget 1L-a-day dehumidifiers are plenty available though, but they won't do much unless you're living in a closet.
What's considered "healthy" and "optimal" by research conducted by and on folks living in the higher and drier northern latitudes doesn't always match what people in the tropics "feel".
The annual average for humidity is 77% where I grew up, and highest humidity is around 88% during the monsoons. Well outside your healthy range. My childhood home doesn't have air conditioning to this day, so I do feel these humidities whenever I'm there. And I like it, unless it's peak summer (I adore the monsoons - it's my favourite season, and I miss that I don't really have "proper" monsoon rains where I live now). Most friends who still live there also adore the monsoon weather - though they hate that their clothes takes days to dry after a wash, and other inconveniences. None of them use dehumidifiers, or complain of humidity outside the summer sweating season.
The annual average where I currently live is 55%. Which is pretty high on your healthy range. But my skin feels dry AF, even with daily moisturization, my lips crack if I drink < 5L water per day, and my hair has this brittle texture I don't like. All of which disappears after a week in my childhood home.
So high humidity might promote mould growth (though I have never encountered it myself, it's entirely possible we will find some if we break the walls down), but to people who grew up with it, it can also feel comfortable. Hence the market for humidifiers, with air conditioning on the rise - rather than dehumidifiers.
Everything you say goes against science. Good luck with it.