this post was submitted on 01 Feb 2025
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I'm not an expert on thermodynamics, but we do have a humidifier.
My laypersons understanding is that it works by booking water to steam and kinda hoping some of the steam is absorbed by the air to become humidity, rather than condensing to water vapour as it cools.
It tries to maximise the humidity by having this internal chamber to mix steam with air and catch condensation but of course some steam escapes.
That I'd to say, I think it's possible for some humidifiers to produce more humidity with less water given that inefficient humidifiers produce more steam as a waste product.
Some humidifiers use an oscillating diaphragm to mechanically aerosolize the water. No heat, No steam.
Others are just a huge wick and a fan, also known as swamp coolers. Aprilaire whole house humidifiers work this way. Those are quite effective as well, and no heat or steam.
Yeah this is the ultrasonic type. The diaphragm is basically a waterproof speaker fed with a signal in the 3-5 MHz range. I don't get how the fine liquid bubbles don't coalesce. Are they all similarly charge or something?
Where does this steam "waste product" go?
Ok Mr Snarky pants...
Where do you think it goes?
Into the air. Which results in the air having more water in it, ie. more humidity.
Steam is not humidity.
If there's no puddle forming around the humidifier, doesn't that mean all the water is dissolved in the air? Where else could it go?
The steam condenses into vapour when it comes into contact with the ceiling, walls, and windows.
For a cowboy from a place with no atmosphere you understand atmosphere pretty well... sus...
It depends a bit on what you want to optimize for, as there's drawbacks to all the major methods:
You're right, a space heater using "too much" power would have been irrefutable.
Omg several years back so many people on UK sub reddits just didn't understand that 2kw of heating is the same regardless of what it comes out of and it was so frustrating. Pretty sure it was precovid, at least now there is a useful technology connections video to point people at.