CHAPTER-FIVE

Humidity
After completing this Lesson, you will be able to answer:

1. What is humidity?
2. What is relative humidity?
3. How relative humidity is measured?
4. What is a Hygrometer?
5. How Wet- and Dry Bulb Psychrometer and Hair Hygrometer measure relative
humidity?
 Relative humidity

Humidity refers to the amount of moisture (water vapor) in the surrounding

air.

We are very sensitive to humidity. Sweating keeps our body cool and maintain
its current temperature.

If the air is at 90% relative humidity, sweat will not evaporate into the air. As
a result, we feel much hotter than the actual temperature when the relative
humidity is high.

If the relative humidity is low, we can feel much cooler than the actual
temperature because our sweat evaporates easily, cooling the body.
 Humidity

Moisture content of the atmosphere.

 The atmosphere always contains some moisture in the form of water
vapor;

 The maximum amount depends on the temperature/amount of vapor that will saturate the
air increases with a rise in temperature/

 example At 4.4° C , 454 kg of moist air contains a maximum of 2 kg of water vapor; at

37.8° C , the same amount of moist air contains a maximum of 18 kg of water vapor.

 When the atmosphere is saturated with water, the level of discomfort is high, because
the evaporation of perspiration with its attendant cooling effect is impossible.
 The "wetter or damper" you feel,, the higher is the relative humidity. If you feel the
air is dry around you, the relative humidity is low.
 Temperature Humidity Index

 The temperature-humidity index (THI) /the discomfort index/ expresses in numerical

values the relationship between comfort or discomfort and temperature and humidity.
 It provides an apparent temperature, or how hot the air feels. example, an air temperature
of 38° C and a relative humidity of 60 percent produces an apparent very hot temperature,
or THI, of 54° C. When the index is 20° C , most people are comfortable; an index of 25°
C means that half are uncomfortable.
 To determine the heat index or THI, first we have to find the temperature and then find the
dew point. Then read down the dew point column and across the temperature row to where
the two axes intersect to find the heat index.
 Value < 80 is considered comfortable. Value > 90 is considered extreme.
 Value >100 is considered hazardous. Value > 110 is considered dangerous.
 Heat Index Chart
Dew Point (°C)
Temp 10 12.8 15.6 18.3 21 24 26.7 29.4
(°C)
18.3 62.7 63.8 65.0 66.6 - - - -
21 67.8 68.7 69.8 71.1 72.6 - - -
24 73.1 73.9 74.8 75.9 79.2 80.7 - -
26.7 79.8 80.6 81.6 82.8 84.4 86.9 90.9 -
29.4 83.5 84.7 86.1 88.0 90.5 94.0 99.0 106.6
32.2 87.9 89.4 91.2 93.6 96.9 101.2 107.2 115.6
35 92.9 94.5 96.7 99.6 103.4 108.4 115.2 124.3
37.8 98.1 99.9 102.4 105.6 109.8 115.3 122.7 132.3
40.6 103.4 105.4 108.1 111.6 116.1 122.0 129.7 139.7
43.3 108.7 110.9 113.8 117.5 122.3 128.4 136.3 146.5
 Humidification
Is accomplished by either water or steam.
 There are four methods of using water as a humidifying agent:

1. Wetted element- by passing air over wetted surfaces of water a hygroscopic element is
partially submerged in a water bath , used for lowest capacity air conditioning
2. Evaporative pan - by force passing over pan filled water having energy supply to evaporate,
used for medium capacity AC.
3. Water spray method- by mixing pressurized water with compressed air and is used for large
capacity AC systems
4. Steam method- by passing live steam through a separator to remove condensate, and then
over a drying chamber, use sterilized water, applicable for medium to large scale AC systems.
 Dehumidification
 The need to control the amount of water vapor in the air is felt in all industrial,
commercial, and institutional facilities.
 Humidity control is important to human health and comfort.
 Humidity control also improves the reliability of equipment, production
processes, and materials by controlling static electricity, corrosion, and other
factors.
 In designing dehumidification systems, one of the most important tasks is to
quantify the water vapor loads that must be removed by the system.
Types of dehumidification systems
Moisture can be removed from the air by
i. Refrigerant dehumidification method
(cooling air below the dew point temperature so condensation occurs by air-to-air
heat exchangers, which bring in dryer outside air, or
 ii. Chemical methods,
 A. Refrigerant Dehumidifier
 Is an air to air type heat exchanger
 Is the most common dehumidifier used.
 It is cheap,
 easy to operate and effective in most domestic and commercial applications.
 The primary benefit of a refrigerant dehumidifier is that it performs exceptionally
well when used in warm, humid conditions.
 is essentially a re-arranged portable air conditioning unit, where the air is first
passed across the evaporator coil to cool it, then across the condenser coil to
heat it.
The air becomes both warmer and drier.
The cold evaporator coil reduces the air temperature to a point where condensation
occurs. Condensation formed on the cold coil then drips into a collection tray.
 Water is either drained away or collected in a container in the base of the unit.
 B- Chemical dehumidification
 is carried out through the use of sorbent materials called desiccants, which are solids or
liquids that can extract moisture from the air and hold it.
 Desiccants naturally absorb moisture that's why we find little packets of silica gel in new
shoes or electronic goods.
 Because desiccant dehumidifiers don't need to cool air before dehumidifying it, this
technology is really ideal for sub-zero conditions.
There are two classifications of sorbents:
 Adsorbents which do not experience a phase change. Moisture is deposited
on the surface of the dry desiccant. Most adsorbents are solids.
 Types of dry solid adsorbents :Silica gel, Titanium gel , Dry lithium
chloride, Zeolites, Synthetic zeolites (molecular sieves), Activated alumina,
Synthetic polymers
Cont.………
 Absorbents—which change physically, chemically, or both during the sorption
process. Most absorbents are liquids or solids that become liquid as they absorb
moisture.
Liquid desiccant /absorption/ dehumidifier
 Liquid desiccant dehumidification operates on the principle of chemical
absorption of water vapor from the air.
 Some of the absorbents/liquid desiccant solutions used for dehumidification are:
Lithium chloride (LiCl), Lithium bromide (LiBr), Calcium chloride (CaCl2), Triethylene glycol
(TEG) , Propylene glycol
 Liquid absorption dehumidification is very similar to a chilled water air-washer
system.
 When the air passes through the washer, its dew point approaches the
temperature of the water supplied.
 Air that is more humid is dehumidified, and air that is less humid is humidified.
 Humidity Measurement Methods
 Hygrometer is a common name given to instruments used to measure atmospheric
humidity.

Types of hygrometers- Mechanical, dry&wet thermometer and dew point hygrometer

Mechanical Hygrometers

 A simple form of hygrometer, used in houses and offices, utilizes the change in length in
an organic fiber (often a single human hair) brought about by the absorption of moisture.
 The fiber tends to lengthen in damp air, and the apparatus is so arranged that the change
in length of the fiber moves a pointer across a dial, which is calibrated to give a reading
in percent relative humidity.
 This type of hygrometer gives only an approximate indication of humidity and is not
used for accurate, quantitative determinations.
 Humidity stretches the hair (human / animal / synthetic) while dryness shortens it.
 Cont.…..

 The hygrometer has the job of stretching a hair between a fixed and a
movable point to measure humidity over time.
 Psychrometer /wet and dry bulb Hygrometer

The two common psychrometer types are aspiration and whirling

psychrometer.
Is the instrument most commonly used in laboratories to measure the
relative humidity. whirling psychrometer
• Aspiration psychrometer
Psychrometer /wet and dry bulb Hygrometer/
 Two similar thermometers are mounted side by side; one, the dry bulb,
has its bulb exposed to the atmosphere, and the bulb of the other, the wet
bulb, is wrapped in a suitable material, which is immersed in water and
serves as a wick.
 The wet bulb is cooled by evaporation of the water, the amount of
evaporation and consequent cooling of the thermometer depending on the
humidity of the atmosphere—the drier the atmosphere, the faster the
water evaporates
A table accompanying the instrument gives the relative humidity in terms of
the readings of the wet-bulb and dry-bulb thermometers
Relative humidity
 Cont.…..

• The difference in temperatures, and the absolute temperature of the wet

thermometer can be used to calculate the relative humidity of the air.

pw is the experimental partial vapour pressure of water

ps is the saturation vapour pressure at temperature Tw
A is the psychrometer constant (typically, values of A, for Tw above 0°C is
≈6.66X10-4 ºC-1
P is the total pressure
TD is the dry bulb temperature
TW is the wet bulb temperature
 Cont.…….
 The dew-point hygrometer measures relative humidity by means of
the dew point.
 A small amount of ether is placed in a highly polished, thin, metallic
cup, and the evaporation of the ether, accelerated by blowing air
through it, lowers the temperature of the cup.
 When the dew point of the surrounding air is reached, a film of
moisture suddenly appears on the surface of the cup.
• The temperature is read by means of a thermometer, and a table
accompanying the instrument gives the relative humidity in terms of the
atmospheric and dew-point temperatures.