We all know about 70F/70RH, but sticking firmly to 70% relative humidity while ignoring temperature could be a recipe for disaster. This video demonstrates how temperature has a huge impact on the true amount of moisture in your humidor. In this video, you will look well beyond RH and learn how to control your cigar storage environment in a way to ensure the safe storage of your cigars.
NOTES
- The Psychrometric chart is copyrighted, I believe by Carrier Corporation. It is virtually impossible to get an unblemished copy without paying for it. The laminated chart I use in the video was around US$17.
- I’m pretty proud of my attempt to explain the Psychrometric chart in about one minute – it is a complex, but amazing, tool to see the relationship between temperature and humidity.
- Moisture packs that are mentioned work on a 2-way transfer of humidity. The paper material is engineered to maintain a specific humidity level (let’s say 69%). If your humidor drops below 69% RH, the vapor pressure on the inside of the pack is greater than your humidor, so it pushes moisture (in the vapor state) out of the pack, into the humidor. If your humidor becomes overly humid (which can happen if the surrounding temperature goes up) the vapor pressure from the higher moisture level in your humidor will get sent back into the moisture pack. Important – this process works slowly, so if you have severe changes in your humidor temperature, the moisture pack will have difficulty keeping up.
- Toward the end of the video, I use a demonstration to explain moisture transfer through paper – I failed to mention that paper transfer what is called “latent heat,” which is temperature and humidity. Humidity is actually latent, or “stored” – heat, at least from an energy standpoint.
Wow, I really got into the weeds there…anyway, I hope you got something out of this video.
