Fan hitting singles

[Westside Threat]

I'm sure this has been discussed before but darn if I could find the thread!

I'm currently organizing a large scale converted wine cooler and positioning my fans.  Everywhere I want to put the fans, my single cigars seem to be in the cross hairs of the moving air.  I have them in wooden bins but there are slots that allow circulation, they are not fully protected inside boxes.  My common sense is telling me these cigars, exposed to moving air, will dry out quicker and potentially become brittle. 

Thoughts?

[oliverdst]

@PigFish 

[Spanishcedar]

Humidor in your humidor, might be a solution of you do notice them getting too dry.

[PigFish]

Your cigars are always exposed to moving air. Forced air will typically convey a change based on differential temperature or rH at a higher rate. However in a uniform environment (generally stable for the sake of argument) airflow should have little affect on a cigar. Dry moving air then will dry a cigar faster than static air, and wet moving air will moisten a cigar faster than static moist air. Uniform air, where there is no delta will have not deleterious effect.

While this is a bit of a silly analogy, you don't feel cooler when high rH air hits your body due to the fact that high rH air does not aid in the evaporation of sweat on your body. If the air is saturated with water, there is no room for the sweat on your body to move from your skin to the environment. No differential rH then no evaporation and therefore no endothermic action, making you feel cooler.

Where you don't want airflow in your cooled humidor, is random airflow over controlled surfaces such as the cooling coil, or a reservoir for water. What you don't want is uncontrolled evaporation, cooling or changes in climate that you don't want accelerated by (again) differential airflow changed by an uncontrolled appliance.

Cheers! -Piggy

[Guest Nekhyludov]

I had a similar concern when I was setting up my cabinet. I ended up just moving my singles to a desktop humidor and reserving the cabinet for boxes. 

I also rotate my boxes quarterly; if a desktop isn't an option, regular rotation may help your singles to avoid becoming overexposed to the fan. 

[PigFish]

I disagree with some of what I see here.

I have prepared another short video displaying a measurement of rH in and outside of airstreams in the same humidor. It just so happens that I have been locating a data logger in an airstream in one of my humidors for a considerable time now. While PMC is of course a matter of both temperature and rH, for the sake of clarity I have left temperature out of the video.

Rates of change are correlated to air flow. The ultimate PMC of a cigar, is a matter temperature and rH regardless of airflow. Air is not necessary for water to be suspended in space. And in many cases in a sealed, well homogenized humidor, the recording of deltas in rH are more the result of temperature deltas than actual changes in aH, or absolute humidity.

Water vapor in an airstream is not created nor destroyed by the airstream. What an airstream can do, is move water off a substrate, such as a wick or wet space to create a 'wet' airstream. Regardless, I hope you enjoy the video.

 

-Piggy

[whatsinmybag]

Nice post piggy, bringing the facts and definitely informative.

Sent from my LG-D800 using Tapatalk

[canadianbeaver]

Loved the video. As often with Ray video, the bottom line for me is what is at my house. Wet wine fridge in hot season, fix'er up baby.

CB

[hoffmr3]

On 7/6/2017 at 2:33 AM, PigFish said:

While this is a bit of a silly analogy, you don't feel cooler when high rH air hits your body due to the fact that high rH air does not aid in the evaporation of sweat on your body. If the air is saturated with water, there is no room for the sweat on your body to move from your skin to the environment. No differential rH then no evaporation and therefore no endothermic action, making you feel cooler.

Out of sheer curiosity, how do the misting fans work that are used in college and NFL football games? Based on your explanation, it would seem that these machines would be useless in humid climates like Tampa and Miami. Sorry for the tangent...

[PigFish]

2 hours ago, hoffmr3 said:

Out of sheer curiosity, how do the misting fans work that are used in college and NFL football games? Based on your explanation, it would seem that these machines would be useless in humid climates like Tampa and Miami. Sorry for the tangent...

The smaller the delta rH, the less effective the systems are.

Evaporation is endothermic. This means that if the atomized droplets do be come water vapor, they take some energy out of the air to free the water and break the water to water bond. This system will cool the air, but at 100rH, it simply won't work and the space is already saturated with water vapor.

These systems will work better at lower ambient rH levels. There is more room for water, and more energy will transfer will occur. Yet the system will still work at say 85rH levels, just not as well.

With the money in the NFL, I don't understand why they just don't use portable AC units!

-Piggy