Winter Humidity, commercial
Winter Humidity, commercial
(OP)
Going to evaluate a newly renovated commercial building. The building has two sides. One half is fine, the other is experiencing elevated humidity somewhere around 60%. I haven't visited the site yet but my gut feeling is that the building is leaky and they probably dont have the thermostat low enough. Any opinions or input? Any opinions on how to fix the problem?





RE: Winter Humidity, commercial
RE: Winter Humidity, commercial
RE: Winter Humidity, commercial
RE: Winter Humidity, commercial
It's a common problem with hospitals in cold climates because when humidity drops below 30% there is a strong correlation to increased health problems. So they add moisture to the air. However, even at 70F and 35%, northwest facing window's temperature can drop low enough to cause condensation/frost on the inside of the window if the window does not have direct heat (air or radiation).
RE: Winter Humidity, commercial
RE: Winter Humidity, commercial
RE: Winter Humidity, commercial
RE: Winter Humidity, commercial
If it is real winter, and the space is 60% RH it sounds like there is a shortage of ventilation air. Lowering t'stat temperature will increase the _relative_ humidity in the space.
Without active humidification, the only latent load in the winter should be people (or a fountain I'm sure you would have mentioned). At a dewpoint of anything below 55F code required ventilation should have no problems keeping the indoor humidity below 50%.