As we get used to working here in the Reinventorium, we’re getting better at adjusting the office climate. Ye olde office up on Fitzroy Street varied between too-cold and too-hot over the years, but the humidity was always pleasant. Here in the new place the heat varies betwen too-hot and much-too-hot (there’s a service call about this imminent), and the humidity is airplane-like.

To attach to metrics to this, I invested in a thermometer hygrometer combination over the weekend ($9 at Canadian Tire) and what I found was this:

That’s about 23 degrees and 24% humidity (and the temperature was lower than usual because I’d had the window open for a while).

I went back to Canadian Tire on Sunday afternoon and bought a Honeywell humidifier, one advertised as being good for “medium-sized rooms” (with no definition of what that meant), for $46 and left it running overnight. When I came into the office this morning the humidity was up to 30%, but with no signs of going any higher. The office was more pleasant, but the hygrometer was still in the “very dry” zone.

So I returned the humidifier, and found another Honeywell across the parking lot at Future Shop, for $49, that was advertised as suiting “large rooms.” It’s been running for the last 3 hours, and the humidity is now up to 42%:

It’s not quite as high as I’d like it, but 42% humidity is much, much more comfortable to work in than 24% humidity, so I’ll leave the new humidifier in place overnight and see where we’re at in the morning.

If I can get things to 45% humidity and down in the 20 degrees range, I’ll be a happy worker.

Apologies to my father for mocking his seeming obsession with humidity when I was a kid: our house was full of hygrometers and humidifiers and dehumidifiers and I believe there may have been graph paper involved at times. I had no idea what the fuss was all about. Now I do.