Relative humidity and thermal comfort

In this activity, students measure the relative humidity in their classroom and in a sheltered playground location and relate the relative humidity and temperature in the classroom to thermal comfort levels.

By the end of this activity, students should be able to:

• explain the meaning of the terms relative humidity and dewpoint

• describe the evaporative cooling effect that lies behind the wet bulb/dry bulb temperature differences

• relate evaporative cooling present in this setting to the latent heat of vaporisation of water

• give a simple explanation of the role relative humidity and temperature play in establishing satisfactory thermal comfort levels in classrooms.

Download the Word file (see link below) for:

• introduction/background notes

• what you need

• what to do

• student handouts.