Humidity question

[kilcan]

In my house we heat exclusively with a wood stove. This dries out the air something fierce and recently has given me alot of sinus troubles. I was thinking of putting my humidifer in my room on high (at night). My computer will also be in my bedroom, and I'm worried that the humidity might bther the computer somehow? It will be turned off at night, but I don't want to kill it somehow. Anyone know about humidity and computers? Thank you!

 

[Tarrant64]

Humidifiers(sp?) shouldn't cause any problems with your computer. As a matter of fact at my old job we had a humidifier in the server room to reduce issues we had with a large APC cooling unit.

 

[corkyg]

Computers live in Florida quite happily - they often have tropical humidity. It is not a problem.

Actually, extreme dryness, like we have here in Arizona, can cause more problems because static electricity is rampant.

 

[Rubycon]

Humidity should be around 45%.

It can be a lot higher but continuous exposure to humidities in excess of 90% can cause problems.

When the outdoor air temp is very low and you heat your house without any humidification the humidity can drop to less than 10%! This is extremely dry and you can accumulate a charge in excess of 100,000 volts just by walking across a rug! You touch something metal and a spark zips out over an inch long. That can kill sensitive electronics instantly and if not dramatically shorten their life. If you touch something electronic and feel the static shock and the equipment freezes or restarts you have affected it.

 

[corkyg]

Originally posted by: MS Dawn
When the outdoor air temp is very low and you heat your house without any humidification the humidity can drop to less than 10%! This is extremely dry and you can accumulate a charge in excess of 100,000 volts just by walking across a rug!

Welcome to life in Arizona, Dawn. And, winter in Alaska can be just as dry indoors.

 

[Oyeve]

Humidity is fine. Although living near a beach and the salty humid air could potentially cause rot. A friend of mine lives near coney island beach and his PCs are always croaking on him. Even the leaves on the trees have holes in them from the salty sea air.

 

[Rubycon]

Originally posted by: corkyg

Welcome to life in Arizona, Dawn. And, winter in Alaska can be just as dry indoors.

[/quote]

The humidity outside is 97% and inside it's 52%. Not bad eh?

The main problem I have with high outdoor humidity is taking pictures. My SLR fogs up instantly when I go out on deck with 90%+ humidity because the dewpoints can be in the 70's and 80's even and the camera has been sitting inside where it's around 70F. I need an oven to keep it stowed with the temp around 95F. LOL

 

[kilcan]

Thanks for the replies guys. Actually we do have trouble with static electricity and our computers. In the past I have blown PSU because of it. Maybe I will set up two humidifiers (one down one up) to regulate things a bit better. I just didn't want condensation or someting to fry the computer. But I guess since the air is dry enough to begin with, that isn't an issue.