Beverly,

My basement is quite humid as that's where the tank room is.
The tank room is kept between 50% and 60% depending on the outside temp/humidity. The rest of the basement in this weather (10 Degrees today) is about 50%. I use a humidifier in the basement to keep the humidity alway's above 45%. That's purly for my fleet of guitars I have.

When it was cold last week the humidifier was on quite a bit to keep that 45% mark in the basement.

The rest of the house is about 10% to 20% lower than the basement.


When I purchased my humidifier mesurer thingy I got the good old fashioned type with the temp/humidity guage on it. I went into the store and compared the 20 or so they had on the shelf and picked the ones that were reading the same.

Oh with regards to the ice question. I have no ice in my main 2 level of my house. in the basement I get a little bit because the humidifier. In the tank room, when it's cold outside, there is always ice or condensation on the window.

I also get condensation on the lino floor that's glued to the concrete :lol:

The mechanical ones do seem to do better at producing consistent readings, but the flip side is they are slow to react to changes, and are not supposed to last very long. That said, I have one that is probably about as old as Canadian Man :razz: and I can still use it to track day to day changes although I don't rely on it to tell me absolute values.