Do radiators raise or lower room humidity?

Lysander

Lysander

Lysander

Capodecina
Soldato
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Flatland
Yes OK, a lot of people will think this is a daft question but so what. If you turn a radiator on, does the relative humidity in the room increase or decrease? I'm guessing it decreases but I may be wrong.
 
I don't think it would have any effect at all, except that warmer air can hold more moisture.

It's a sealed system.
 
Not sure, it could increase it, the fabric of the room and items in it will warm up, likely driving moisture in them into the air.
 
It would have no effect unless there was a source of water within the room in which case as the air temp increased the humidity would increase with it (the warmer air gets the greater the moisture it can hold). As soon as the air temp drops moisture would condense on any surface that is cooler than relative air temp *.

* Providing its on a treadmill.
 
Lysander said:
If you turn a radiator on, does the relative humidity in the room increase or decrease?
Click to expand...

Absolute humidity is the measure of how much water vapour there is in the air.

Relative humidity is the ratio of current water vapour to max (saturation) for the current temperature.

Hot air can hold more water than cold air, so relative humidity will go down as the temperature increases (assuming the absolute humidity [amount of water vapour in the air] stays the same).
 
div0 said:
Absolute humidity is the measure of how much water vapour there is in the air.

Relative humidity is the ratio of current water vapour to max (saturation) for the current temperature.

Hot air can hold more water than cold air, so relative humidity will go down as the temperature increases (assuming the absolute humidity [amount of water vapour in the air] stays the same).
Click to expand...

This is what I was thinking, it's the relative humidity I'm interested in.

Nice Angus Higgins use of brackets, by the way.
 
lol @ the colour. (BTW: Black is apparently more efficient for radiators, but that probably wouldn't make them look very good in a new house).

Why don't you find out? http://www.****.co.uk/bhp/humidity-tester

Replace stars with a popular auction site that I don't think I'm allowed to link? (Don't belive OcUK sell humidity testers?!!?!)

EDIT: Most informative answer is by div0!
 
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