April sunshine

Forget the showers, this last week or so has been sunshine 9 days in succession. How often is April like this? In fact it's another bright day today.

When the sun is shining the solarventi panel has reduced the bathroom humidity; 7am bath is run, humidity climbs to near 100%; with the panel operating in full sun, by 8:30 am the bathroom is registering humidity down to 45%, (bathroom norm by midday on an overcast day is still 65%) .

When I return at 5:30pm (before evening baths) the hygrometer is still measuring the bathroom at 50% humidity, and upstairs along from the bathroom the temp. has still been 23-24 degrees C. This is long after the sun has moved round the house away from the panel.
Downstairs away from the benefit of the hot air from the panel it has been cooler i.e. at the house norm of 20.

I find it very pleasant upstairs. The house is not normally as warm as 24 at 5:30pm even on a warm summer's day. The house doesn't have large south facing windows.

All this and temperatures outside the house have been moderate, between 10 and a max. of 18 degrees C.

So I am pleased with performance these last few weeks.

Hygrometer

On Saturday we had scattered showers, no make that storm clouds, (occasional heavy hail) with the odd patch of blue sky. The hygrometer in the bathroom confirmed the solarventi panel had been in action. When I returned from my travels over lunch, the relative humidity still registered 40%, and temp was 21.7 degrees C. even though the sun was not out that much.

The house "norm" is 55-60% and our central heating is set at 20 degrees.

(Fig 1. Bathroom ceiling, with input vent from Solarventi panel.)

OK, so my hygrometer has fallen from it's mounting, as you can see to the right, it now rests on the wall cabinet (far right, behind the Johnson's baby shampoo bottle). The readings are none the less encouraging. Sunday was dry and bright. The images were taken that afternoon.

As I stood peering at the hygrometer, my breath caused the humidity reading to rise from 23 to 27 in seconds. Humans are a major cause of damp in houses too. Just breathing adds moisture to the atmosphere.

The two temperature readings are internal 27.9, and external 18.4. The wire runs outside to a sensor on the wall behind the solarventi panel. The general outside temp was 10 degrees at the time, or so the car instrumentation said as we drove home from church. So the external temp is boosted by being in proximity to the panel.