Help, we need DRY heat!

[uncle_bob]

Hi

Last time I checked, dew point and RH at a specific temperature had a pretty tight relationship ..... If the trailer is at a constant 65 degrees and you change the RH from 50% to 90%, the dew point most certainly changes ( from 45F to 62F).


Bob

[Silvr_Bullet]

Originally Posted by IcemanTX

Her is a description of the catalytic heater "heating" process.

http://https://www.epa.gov/sites/def...ic-heaters.pdf



A byproduct of the catalytic heat is water or moisture. So, it will produce a "wet heat". Whereas an electric heater of a typical gas fired furnace is a straight adiabatic heating process and decreases the relative humidity.



Ken

You’re absolutely right, hot air heat with no humidifier and furniture joints will come apart over time.

[Jeffndaile]

Originally Posted by uncle_bob

Hi

Not at all sure that tacking onto a 5 year old thread will get this information viewed by many folks. Typically everybody involved in a thread like this has moved on to other things. Stuff at the end of dead thread gets missed.

Bob

Well I can say as the original poster of this thread it’s not missed by me anyway. This is a topic that I am constantly interested in. I will say this though in the winter months, we leave our vents cracked a little bit for ventilation. Which solves the asphyxiation problem. But the water vapor is absolutely atrocious in a new airstream and will make a very big mess of those pretty curtains. From my own experience.

[Jcondon]

Originally Posted by uncle_bob

Hi

Last time I checked, dew point and RH at a specific temperature had a pretty tight relationship ..... If the trailer is at a constant 65 degrees and you change the RH from 50% to 90%, the dew point most certainly changes ( from 45F to 62F).


Bob

The last time I checked the dew point is only changed by adding and removing moisture. Your example using a constant temperature with a rising relative humidity requires the addition of moisture. Condensation happens at dew point. This is what should be discussed not relative humidity. Because the moisture content the air can contain is relative to the temperature. It means nothing.

[amschind]

Originally Posted by uncle_bob

Hi

Not at all sure that tacking onto a 5 year old thread will get this information viewed by many folks. Typically everybody involved in a thread like this has moved on to other things. Stuff at the end of dead thread gets missed.

Bob

I'm sorry; I saw it on the first page of the subforum and assumed that standard practice here was to keep replying on a similar topic rather than making a new thread. Next time I'll create a new thread instead of replying to an old one.

As for the catalytic heater replies, I appreciate the explanation and it makes sense to me now. My issue isn't that I didn't grasp that people were burning hydrocarbons in an enclosed space for heating. That strikes me as incredibly dangerous given the consumption of oxygen and generation of CO2 (neither of which can be mitigated by the more complete combustion of a catalytic heater).