Humidifier

Dehumidifier

A dehumidifier is a household appliance that reduces the level of humidity in the air, usually for health reasons, as
humid air can cause mold and mildew to grow inside homes, which has various health risks. Relative humidity is
preferably 30 to 50%. Very high humidity levels is also unpleasant for human beings. There are two types of
dehumidifiers

Mechanical/refrigerative dehumidifier
Mechanical/refrigerative dehumidifiers, the most common type, usually work by drawing moist air over a
refrigerated coil with a small fan. Since the saturation vapor pressure of water decreases with decreasing
temperature, the water in the air condenses, and drips into a collecting bucket. The air is then reheated by the
warmer side of the refrigeration coil. This process works most effectively with higher ambient temperatures with a
high dew point temperature. In cold climates, the process is less effective. They are most effective at over 45%
relative humidity, higher if the air is cold.

Desiccative dehumidifier
A desiccant dehumidifier is a device that employs a desiccant material to produce a dehumidification effect.
Desiccant materials have a high affinity for water vapor. An example of dessicant material is silica gel. Typically
their moisture content is a function of the relative humidity of the surrounding air. The process involves exposing the
desiccant material to a high relative humidity air stream, allowing it to attract and retain some of the water vapor and
then exposing the same desiccants to a lower relative humidity air stream which has the effect of drawing the
retained moisture from the desiccant. The first air stream is the air that is being dehumidified while the second air
stream is used only to regenerate the desiccant material so that it is ready to begin another cycle. Note that the first
air stream's water vapor content is reduced while the second air stream's water vapor content is increased. Typically
the low relative humidity air stream is air taken from any available source and heated to reduce its relative humidity.
Hence desiccant dehumidifiers consume heat energy to produce a dehumidifying effect.

Exhaust fan
A mechanical fan is an electrically powered device used to produce an airflow for the purpose of creature comfort
(particularly in the heat), ventilation, exhaust, or any other gaseous transport. Mechanically, a fan can be any
revolving vane or vanes used for producing currents of air. Fans produce air flows with high volume and low
pressure, as opposed to a gas compressor which produces high pressures at a comparatively low volume. Typical
applications include climate control, cooling systems, personal comfort (e.g., an electric table fan), ventilation (e.g.,
an exhaust fan), removing dust (e.g. sucking as in a vacuum cleaner), drying (usually in addition to heat) and to
provide draft for a fire.

Exhaust fans in a building can create additional infiltration as the makeup air to replace the exhausted air must enter
the building as outside air.

Kitchen chimney

A chimney is a structure for venting hot flue gases or smoke from a boiler, stove, furnace or fireplace to the outside
atmosphere. Chimneys are typically vertical, or as near as possible to vertical, to ensure that the gases flow
smoothly, drawing air into the combustion in what is known as the stack, or chimney, effect. When coal, oil, natural
gas, wood or any other fuel is combusted in a stove, oven, fireplace, hot water boiler or industrial furnace, the hot
combustion product gases that are formed are called flue gases. Those gases are generally exhausted to the ambient
outside air through chimneys.
A good chimney must provide containment for the heat and fire so that house structures cannot become overheated
and they must safely and adequately convey combustion by-products outside the building without adversely
affecting the combustion process itself.

The chimney height (the vertical distance between where air enters the system and the top where it leaves) creates a
natural draft. This draft manifests itself as a negative pressure at the lower end (the fireplace draft control or
opening) since the top end is exposed to ambient atmospheric pressure. This negative pressure causes air to be
sucked into the draft opening on the appliance. There will usually be a natural "chimney effect" even without a fire
going since warm house air wants to rise and uses the chimney as the easiest way to rise out of the heated room.

Chimney cross-sectional area is also important in proper chimney design. In general, the area of the flue should be
no less than one tenth of the largest open area of the fireplace. This is to make sure that all by-product gases are able
to get out of the fireplace under all conditions.

Psychrometric chart

A psychrometric chart is a graph of the physical properties of moist air at a constant pressure (often equated to an
elevation relative to sea level). The chart graphically expresses how various properties relate to each other, and is
thus a graphical equation of state. The thermophysical properties found on most psychrometric charts are:
 Dry-bulb temperature (DBT) is that of an air sample, as determined by an ordinary thermometer, the
thermometer's bulb being dry. It is typically the x-axis, the horizontal axis, of the graph. The SI units for
temperature is Celsius.
 Wet-bulb temperature (WBT) is that of an air sample after it has passed through a constant-pressure, ideal,
adiabatic saturation process, that is, after the air has passed over a large surface of liquid water in an
insulated channel. In practice, this is the reading of a thermometer whose sensing bulb is covered with a
wet sock evaporating into a rapid stream of the sample air. The WBT is the same as the DBT when the air
sample is saturated with water. The slope of the line of constant WBT reflects the heat of vaporization of
the water required to saturate the air of a given relative humidity.

 Dew point temperature (DPT) is that temperature at which a moist air sample at the same pressure would
reach water vapor saturation. At this saturation point, water vapor would begin to condense into liquid
water fog or (if below freezing) solid hoarfrost, as heat is removed. The dew point temperature is measured
easily and provides useful information, but is normally not considered an independent property.

 Relative humidity (RH) is the ratio of the mole fraction of water vapor to the mole fraction of saturated
moist air at the same temperature and pressure. RH is dimensionless, and is usually expressed as a
percentage. Lines of constant RH reflect the physics of air and water: they are determined via experimental
measurement.

 Humidity ratio is the proportion of mass of water vapor per unit mass of dry air at the given conditions
(DBT, WBT, DPT, RH, etc.). It is also known as moisture content, mixing ratio, or specific humidity. It is
typically the y-axis, the vertical axis, of the graph. For a given DBT there will be a particular humidity ratio
for which the air sample is at 100% relative humidity: the relationship reflects the physics of water and air
and must be measured. Humidity ratio is dimensionless, but is sometimes expressed as grams of water per
kilogram of dry air or grains of water per pound of air.

 Specific enthalpy symbolized by h, also called heat content per unit mass, is the sum of the internal (heat)
energy of the moist air in question, including the heat of the air and water vapor within. In the
approximation of ideal gasses, lines of constant enthalpy are parallel to lines of constant WBT. Enthalpy is
given in (SI) joules per kilogram of air or BTU per pound of air.

 Specific volume, also called inverse density, is the volume per unit mass of the air sample. The SI units are
cubic meters per kilogram of air.