Question about air conditioner

Debussychopin

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Hi this is a dumb question but does air conditioning (running) de-humidify the air?

I always figured it was heating I had to look out for but today I had my cordoba w me in my car and I had the air conditioning running all afternoon (it is warm today and I was on the road all day) and I just realized that maybe the air conditioning...maybe bad?

Thanks.
 
Cooler air holds less moisture than warmer air. So, yes, I would expect it to have some effect relative to the non-cooler air. How much depends on a lot of factors. If you do that often I would get a hygrometer if you don't have one. Obviously, don't leave your case in the hot car.
 
Yes air conditioned air is very dry and pulls moisture from the air. I worked in water damage restoration and if someone had a flood in their house we always told them to run the AC full blast. If your car windows are ever foggy inside turning on the AC clears them up real fast.
 
Ok thanks. I'm using my cordoba uke, by using it as a guinea pig for how durable a uke can be.
 
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Ok thanks. I'm using my cordoba uke, by using it as a guinea pig for how durable a uke can be.

Is your Cordoba a laminate or all solid wood. I am a sales rep and I am on the road all day. It does get hot in the summer and my AC in the car is always running full blast. I have an Islander AS4 laminate for my car ukes and it has been fine.
 
Yes air conditioned air is very dry and pulls moisture from the air. I worked in water damage restoration and if someone had a flood in their house we always told them to run the AC full blast. If your car windows are ever foggy inside turning on the AC clears them up real fast.

In fact, I believe that for most, if not all cars, running the defroster engages the AC compressor.
 
So how much does the ukulele dry out over the course of an afternoon in an air conditioned car, and how long does it take to re-hydrate it after you take it out? Day after day there is sure to be some cumulative effect, but what does one afternoon do? I mean, is there a point where one has to take special precautions in that regard if they go off on a three day road trip in the heat of summer? Or more precautions if one takes off for a week? I have never thought about it before, but I guess that if someone is really worried about it, they could just stick an Oasis in the case with it and it would be good. In fact, now that it has come to my attention, that is what I'm going to do.

But that brings me to another question. I like ukulele festivals and I go to as many as I can. And even if it isn't a ukulele festival, I take my ukulele with me on road trips. So I drive all day in with my air conditioning on. Then I take out of the car and put it in my camper, with no air conditioning. Then I go out and play it. But then maybe I am in a hotel, and the hotel is heated in the winter, air conditioned in the summer. You get the picture. The bottom line I guess is that my motto is, "Have ukulele, will Travel," and while I am very careful about hydration when it is sitting at home, I've never given it a second thought when I travel. This has gotten me to thinking about it now though.
 
I really don't worry about it that much. I have a Pono tenor, cedar and macassar ebony that I have had for over two years now. I goes to uke jams, to other people's houses, camping, road trips, cottages. Plans, trains and automobiles.........you get the idea. When im finished playing I put it away in its hard case, no problems. A little tip......keep the case closed at all times, this preserves the built up humidity level in the case.

I certainly won't leave it laying around in the back seat of a car all day long, that's what laminates are for. Even then I keep that one in a gig bag.
 
I really don't worry about it that much. I have a Pono tenor, cedar and macassar ebony that I have had for over two years now. I goes to uke jams, to other people's houses, camping, road trips, cottages. Plans, trains and automobiles.........you get the idea. When im finished playing I put it away in its hard case, no problems. A little tip......keep the case closed at all times, this preserves the built up humidity level in the case.

I certainly won't leave it laying around in the back seat of a car all day long, that's what laminates are for. Even then I keep that one in a gig bag.
Which takes us to another subject that we have discussed before, but I keep my Mainland in the hard case all the time. The first summer I had it I thought that if I didn't leave it out that I wouldn't play it. But as winter came I started putting it in the case with the humidifier. When spring rolled around again I was in the habit, so it has stayed in the case when I don't play it. But it has not seemed to keep me from getting it out and playing it though. While I don't know how much humidity is retained inside the case when you open it, it makes sense that just the protection from air circulating around and through the ukulele would help the wood retain a certain amount of moisture.
 
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So how much does the ukulele dry out over the course of an afternoon in an air conditioned car, and how long does it take to re-hydrate it after you take it out? Day after day there is sure to be some cumulative effect, but what does one afternoon do?.. .

Generally materials will absorb or diffuse moisture faster at higher temps and greater differences in % humidity. As they reach saturation (max molecular space for water to fit into the material) it slows down absorption or speeds up diffusion as well. In other words it depends on all three things but generally hot and dry would dry it out faster.

You can experiment yourself. Take a piece of similar wood and dry it out. Then weigh it. As it sits in the conditions you are checking, reweigh. You are looking for accuracy down to a few % so you'll need a piece of wood and scale that can pick that up. You can re-dry and repeat as many times as you want. Finish will be a factor but all that does is slow it down a bit.
 
The drying part of the experiment I mentioned is just to know how much moisture you add before you experiment. If you dry wood, remember it's flamible.
 
Generally materials will absorb or diffuse moisture faster at higher temps and greater differences in % humidity. As they reach saturation (max molecular space for water to fit into the material) it slows down absorption or speeds up diffusion as well. In other words it depends on all three things but generally hot and dry would dry it out faster.

You can experiment yourself. Take a piece of similar wood and dry it out. Then weigh it. As it sits in the conditions you are checking, reweigh. You are looking for accuracy down to a few % so you'll need a piece of wood and scale that can pick that up. You can re-dry and repeat as many times as you want. Finish will be a factor but all that does is slow it down a bit.
Yes, hot and dry, isn't that what my clothes dryer does? I think that concept is pretty well established. But I do think that there are more than three factors involved in real life situations, and you would have to control them all to really find out anything useful.
 
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I didn't read the whole thread so I apologize if this bit of trivia was already mentioned.

Air conditioning was actually first developed in order to dehumidify the air in large newspaper printing factories. It helped the newsprint dry faster therefore preventing the text from smudging.

It wasn't until after employees were seen taking their lunches near the AC outlets (it was hot and humid after all) did anyone start scaling the systems down for residential cooling. That in turn made places of the southwest and Florida far more comfortable and ushered in a migration of older folks to those areas thereby altering the sociopolitical make up of those places.

I saw that on some PBS show about inventions and their impact our society.
 
Yes, hot and dry, isn't that what my clothes dryer does? I think that concept is pretty well established. But I do think that there are more than three factors involved in real life situations, and you would have to control them all to really find out anything useful.

Yes you have to control them. That is why you dry and weigh first. If you don't know the weight of the 'witness' piece it doesn't help you use it to
determine if a specific condition (such as the OP mentioned) changes the moisture content. It is essentially the same technique we use in the lab when researching material properties. Once dried and weighed, the witness would stay with the Uke long enough to experience and reach the same moisture content (probably weeks). Then it can be removed weighed again and then exposed to the condition you are checking. Re-weigh afterwards and you will know if that will effect your uke for the duration and exposure you are concerned about.
 
They do, indeed.

We've converted a garage into our jam pad, and we use a Whynter ARC-14S (which you can read more about here) and it comes pre-equipped with a very capable dehumidifier. To be very honest, humidity was an even more important factor to us than heat itself. As, we regularly hear about all the horror stories about the things that a high amount of humidity can do to instruments and accessories.
 
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Summers, as they grow, tend to make the atmosphere heat to an extent that it gets really frustrating to have a good sleep at night. Especially in humidity driven areas, it's the worse!!. AC is there as an alternative but it is very costly product. But there is an alternative available for AC. It is the portable air conditoners. It is the best and cheap alteranative to the expensive air conditioner fitting. Here you will get all the information about Portable AC.
 
moisture caused my air conditioner to stop working quickly

Yes, you can sometimes get an icing problem with units. Especially window or wall units. Turn it off, let it melt and then run it a little less cold.

Dehumidifiers are similar to air conditioners, but the entire unit is indoors, so it will heat up the room as it runs. They are designed to collect the water removed from the air. Note if you run the A/C in a car on a humid day you will leave a trail of water under the car that was removed from the air.
 
I think it mostly depends on the air conditioner itself. I see the thread is from 2017, maybe that older models had flaws in terms of dehumidifying the air. My 2020 LG does the job well. Perhaps you got the problems coz of lack of cleaning? Dirt could disrupt the aircon working. Twice a year, I do air conditioner chemical wash, and I haven't spotted any problems. Also, I can set the value of air humidity on the air conditioner control panel by analogy with the air temperature. In the automatic mode, my air conditioner selects the most comfortable ratio of temperature and humidity in the room, depending on the parameters of the air outside.
 
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