What a simple, yet important device that should be part of everyone's home or office. Place it in an easily readable location in the middle of your home (out of direct sunlight and away from heat sources). This highly accurate digital monitor displays changes instantly, records them in a daily high and low and even shows how the temp and humidity are trending up or down.

Features & benefits

• Helps control indoor air — by monitoring humidity and temperature, you can avoid excessive moisture or dryness and its negative effects in your home or office as well as on your body, pets, plants, artwork, flooring, cabinetry, furniture and much more
• Accurate — within +/-2% of temperature, and +/-3 to 5% humidity; (analogue monitors are accurate within +/-10%)
• Realtime digital — LCD display shows temp in Celsius or Fahrenheit and relative humidity in % instantly; (analogue monitors are slow to reflect abrupt changes taking up to an hour to reflect accurate readings.)
• Wireless — uses one AA Alkaline battery (not included)
• Humidity comfort icon — convenient display of Low (below 25%), High (above 55%) and Ideal (everything in between)
• Trend arrows — show how humidity and temp are trending--up, down or constant (the arrow curves up, down or is straight)
• Daily high and low — records temp and humidity over 24 hour period (resets after power off)
• 1-year warranty — limited for manufacturing defects
• Easy to setup — insert battery and set "C" or "F"

Understanding the effects of humidity

Knowing the humidity levels in your home or office is essential to improving indoor air quality and the overall health and comfort of you and your home. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) suggests maintaining proper indoor relative humidity (RH) levels to reduce the effects of many of unwanted conditions associated with poor indoor air quality.

What do humidity levels do to us?

Too much humidity in a home or office can cause an increase in biological pollutants, like mold, bacteria, viruses, fungi, and dust mites that can trigger respiratory health ailments. Not enough humidity can lead to nosebleeds, painful skin irritation, difficulty breathing and damaging static electricity.

How to Maintain a Healthy Balance

If you’re concerned about the humidity level in your home, check it regularly with AcuRite's Digital Humidity and Temperature Monitors. The picture of the house will show an overall comfort reading of:

• LOW = Humidity Level is less than 25% RH. Humidity level is low relative to the temperature. This makes for a dry environment.
• OK = Humidity Level is between 25% to 55% RH. Humidity level is OK relative to the temperature. This makes for a comfortable environment.
• HIGH = Humidity Level is above 55% RH. Humidity level is high relative to the temperature. This makes for a humid environment.

How to Protect your Home & Valuables

Aside from the important health effects, extreme levels of house humidity can cause permanent damage to your home and furnishings. A hygrometer is an essential tool for homeowners, hobbyists, collectors, musicians and lifestyle enthusiasts concerned with protecting their investment.

• In your home — wood furniture, cabinetry and flooring and can dry out and warp with too little humidity. And with too much persistent humidity, mold and mildew can permanently damage your home leading to costly repairs.
• Photography collectors — high humidity can lead to fading, discoloration, and silvering, as well as mold growth and insect infestations. Extremely low humidity leads to photographs becoming brittle or the emulsion flaking off.
• Art collectors — fluctuations in temperature and humidity can damage artwork over time. Paint cracks, separates, and peels. Paper molds, tears, and fades. Antique veneers separate and warp. Fine papers and textile arts are particularly sensitive.
• Wine enthusiasts — maintaining the correct balance of temperature and humidity preserves your wine collection. Too much humidity and mold can grow, and cellar woods and wine labels can be damaged. If your collection is too dry, the cork will crack and air will leak into the bottle ruining the wine.
• Cigar aficionados— the ideal condition for storing cigars is relative humidity of approximately 68-74%. Desirable cigar flavors evolve in these conditions. Dry cigars become fragile and burn faster developing an unpleasant and slightly bitter taste. Damp cigars will burn unevenly and produce a heavy and acidic flavor.
• Musicians — natural wood is still the preferred material used to craft musical instruments because of its pleasing tonal qualities, but all varieties of wood expand and contract with changes in relative humidity. Humidity causes damage to instruments when internal stresses, created by expansion or contraction, cause glue joints to fail or the wood to crack.
• Indoor gardeners — your plants will love you for maintaining the proper level of humidity. Most houseplants thrive with humidity levels around 60%. Native desert plants prefer a much lower relative humidity (30-35%), while tropical plants favor more moisture (up to 90%).

Understanding Humidity?

Humidity is the amount of water vapor (water that has turned from a liquid to an invisible gas) in the air. Absolute humidity is the actual amount of water vapor in a specified volume of air. Relative humidity is the ratio of moisture in the air as compared to the maximum amount of moisture the air can hold, which varies depending on the air temperature. Hotter air, for example, can hold more moisture.

Humidity affects the way we perceive a given temperature; in other words, at the same temperature, higher humidity will generally make us feel warmer, while lower humidity will make us feel cooler. This is because the body's cooling mechanism is perspiration; when the air holds more moisture, the dampness on our skin can’t evaporate as easily.

Knowing the relative humidity indoors is important because humidity affects comfort, health and the condition of household possessions. When indoor humidity is too high (above 55%), people tend to consider the room to be hot and stuffy, even though the temperature may be at a level that is normally comfortable. When the indoor humidity drops below 25%, the dry air also reduces comfort. Keeping humidity in the optimal range indoors helps to control bacteria, viruses, fungi (including mold), allergies and asthma. Humidity monitoring provides a way to check how well humidifiers, dehumidifiers, and air conditioners are working. Proper humidity control can also help equipment performance and reduce energy consumption.

Outdoor humidity also makes a difference in what a particular temperature feels like. It's more difficult for our bodies to handle hot weather when the humidity is high. While unfortunately humidity control is impossible outdoors, knowing the relative humidity level can help us to understand how warm or cool the air will feel at a given temperature. Using a humidity monitoring device outdoors can also alert you to rain, snow or reduced visibility. When the relative humidity is 100%, the air becomes saturated, meaning it can’t hold any more moisture at that temperature. If it cools down even a little, the air will release water in the form of dew on the ground, fog or mist in the air, or precipitation from the clouds.

Alert: Make sure the thermometer is placed out of direct sunlight and away from any heat sources or vents. • Make sure unit is positioned away from areas of excessive moisture.

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