Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by buu700 1694 days ago
TIL the term "wet-bulb temperature": https://www.iflscience.com/environment/why-is-everybody-talk...

tl;dr: It's essentially just a humidity-adjusted temperature, like wind chill factor for hot weather. The important figure to know is that a wet-bulb temperature of 35°C / 95°F (equivalent to that temperature at 100% humidity, or higher temperatures with lower humidities) will kill everyone.

This makes me wonder if it is (or will become) economical for cities to use renewable energy to dehumidify the outdoors, and if so whether the yield of water would actually be useful.

1 comments

> This makes me wonder if it is (or will become) economical for cities to use renewable energy to dehumidify the outdoors, and if so whether the yield of water would actually be useful.

Well people will likely first start cooling and lowering the humidity indoors with their ACs. The condensate might be used to feed the household hydroponic systems.

For places where people have AC, which isn't everywhere, and which will make the situation even worse (as of now, and in the foreseeable future, ACs will use not fully carbon free electricity in most places, and will contribute to the warming everyone is trying to avoid directly with hot air and indirectly with CO2).