I would be interested (and I think it would be interesting for others) to know what humidity it is in your houses, pipers with hygrometers! I’ll start the ball rolling with 72% in my Bradford kitchen. I saw on bbc.co.uk/weather that there was 92% humidity in Seattle! If this has all been done before, apologies.
Does anyone know what this means - what is 100% humidity? Presumably not the bottom of a lake . . . .
[quote=“giggleswicksam”] If this has all been done before, apologies.
[quote]
http://chiffboard.mati.ca/search.php?mode=results
279 times the word “humidity” came up in the UP forum, with the Search function.
Yep, it’s been done before, almost ad infinitum.
I was in Halifax Nova Scotia this summer just gone. I went from Darwen Lancashire where humidity was about 65-70% to Sauna of about 90 - 95% humidity.
The drone reeds and reg reeds didn’t fair too well but held up just .I was amazed at the chanter reed it has fine and spot on in tune.I am a great believer in a stronger reed, especially if you are going from climate to climate.
Dr Giggles from Giggleswick
Sorry - I didn’t realise I could search for old humidity stuff. Am duly sorry.
Hydrometer? We don’t need no stinkin’ hydrometer in stinkin’ Florida… it’s so humid (how humid is it?), that you need gills just to breath! 
My sunroom where I play the UPs and store my extra reed stays at 52% humidity year long. But if I open the hot-tub…then watchout it goes beyond 70% easily.
It’s usually around 50% in my house. THe lowest it gets is about 15% and the highest about 65% … but it’s mostly right around 50%. That’s Northern Los Angeles County ladies and gentleman. If I go 5 miles up the road everything changes, in either direction.
Patrick.
The digital hygrometer flat lines at around 20%, which it is doing right now, but AccuWeather says it’s about 15% outside. Gotta love our Santa Ana weather. 
I live about 50 miles East of Fr D’Arcy (what a book title!!) and it was 28% humidity yesterday afternoon. I have a small room humidifier; when on, it raised the relative humidity to 33%-35%, good enough to practice. When the Santa Ana winds get going, you might as well go and have a beer- I know I did
Kansas City 60-70% spring to fall, winter 25-50%
Jeff
We’re having some rather unusual weather over here in Santa Cruz, CA right now. It’s gorgeous, sunny, warm, and clear outside, but the 40% humidity isn’t being too kind on my chanter reed. It’s usually anywhere from 60-80% and overcast around this time of year.
I always wondered if it’s absolute or relative humidity that counts with regard to how the reeds behave. So, for a relative humidity of (say) 70%, the absolute humidity (the absolute mass of water per whatsit of air) will be higher at high temperature than at low temperature. Presumably the reed comes into equilibrium with the vapour pressure, which for identical relative humidity, changes with temperature.
I am leaning toward this train of thought. Here in my little corner of Florida, the absolute humidity (around 60-65%) does not seem to do a thing for my reeds in the colder winter mornings, but as the temps rise, my reeds become happier and the humidity hasn’t changed .
I suppose you folks in Australia are rolling into summer by now, and I am certain that affects the playability of your reeds significantly… just a guess however.
Oh man, I’m in Maine. What more can I say, except it swings to <20% easily in cold months, to >95% in freakin summer.
man, & we have a baby grand, harp, & acoustic guitars too..
what are we thinking!
Rich
for those needing to gauge RH on the cheap:
http://inventors.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?site=http://www.exploratorium.edu/exploring/hair/hair_activity.html
That’s funny.
From what I remember from studies (architecture) of comfort & climate control systems, humidity needs to be looked at as relative - to temperature. As air temp increases, its abilty to absorb moisture increases. And if I’m reading my old psychrometric chart correctly, air at 80F can hold over twice as much moisture as at 60F air.
What I have noticed living in Houston (Texas), within 50 miles of the balmy Gulf of Mexico is that humidity is good - as least as reed stability goes. I only have real trouble with reeds when cool/cold fronts move in and dry the air. But I have to wonder if the constant humidity is good for the reeds. They seem to reshape themselves and get sharper and sharper until they are beyond use.
So how cool does it get at night up in Portland, Maine or Portland, Oregon in the “heat” of summer? If the temp. difference between day and night is more than 10-15 degrees, at it is here, I don’t think you have really experienced humidity. An average summer day here will reach a high of at least 95F and might cool down to 80F at night - if you’re lucky.
So how humid it is here on the Gulf coast? It is so humid that beads of sweat form on the inside of a glass of ice water. Just ask that guy in Florida…he knows what suffering is.
Joseph
I suppose you folks in Australia are rolling into summer by now, and I am certain that affects the playability of your reeds significantly… just a guess however.
Yes, just starting to warm up here in Perth - up to 32deg day, down to 16 deg night (that’s degC of course). Our climate is more like S Calif, with rel. humidity quite low in summer. But, we use evaporative air conditioning, which raises the indoor humidity.
pudinka
From what I remember from studies (architecture) of comfort & climate control systems, humidity needs to be looked at as relative - to temperature.
Yes, true from personal comfort point of view, but not necessarily from point of view of a reed. (I hope someone will correct me if I’m wrong) but I think that, as I said earlier, it’s the absolute humidity that counts (i.e. the vapour pressure). What is important is the water content of the reed, which will establish as a state of dynamic equilibrium with the vapour in the atmosphere, with the water content of the reed therefore depending on the vapour pressure. So, if it is very cold, the water content of the air will be low even if the relative humidity is high, so the vapour pressure will be low and the reed water content will be low. Similarly if it is hot, the water content of the air can be higher even if the relative humidity is low, and so the reed can be quite wet ..etc.
Example:
40degC & 20%RH gives Vapour Pressure = 10.8 mmHg
20degC & 61%RH gives Vapour Pressure = 10.8 mmHg
20degC & 20%RH gives Vapour Pressure = 3.5 mmHg
So, if the logic above is correct, 20%RH at 40degC will have same effect on reed as 61%RH at 20degC. Also, at 20% RH, the water content of the air is 3 times higher at 40degC than at 20degC (and therefore, if the above is correct, the reed will hold 3 times more water at equilibrium).
The only way to see if this is true is for people to convert the RH level where they start to have trouble into vapour pressure, and see if there is a common troublesome vapour pressure level in hot and cold conditions.
http://members.nuvox.net/~on.jwclymer/rh.html
The vapour pressure argument makes some sense, but of course it assumes:
I have my doubts about #2. I would not be surprised if changes in the cane’s affinity for water partially cancel the effect of increased vapour pressure with temp.
Bill
Billh
- the cane is equally hygroscopic at different temperatures.
I have my doubts about #2. I would not be surprised if changes in the cane’s affinity for water partially cancel the effect of increased vapour pressure with temp.
You’re absolutely right with regard to some doubt about #2. I’ve just put forward a hypothesis, to suggest that it would be interesting from a scientific point of view to correlate ‘humidity’ problems with vapour pressure as well as relative humidity, to see which gives the better correlation.