HUMIDITY CONTROL What’s hot in humidity
In this Q&A, John Barker, Managing Director at Humidity Solutions, explains how the company is helping customers in sectors like food storage and research labs, while expanding into new markets.
Can you give us an update on what’s new at Humidity Solutions? Recent years have been energising as we have grown year on year. This growth has primarily been driven by our commitment to customer service, which has ensured that we have gained a signifi cant number of planned maintenance customers, providing the company with a stable base. In addition, we have developed our dehumidifi er off ering, which to a certain extent compliments our industrial and commercial humidifi ers, but has also led us to new markets which we are expanding by using our business model of design, supply, installation and lifetime planned maintenance to make the purchase and operating of our systems as easy as possible for our customers.
How does eff ective humidity con- trol contribute to systems’ longev- ity and maintenance requirements? Humidity control manages ever-changing natural environmental conditions and, with the addition or subtraction of moisture, ensures a stable condition for manufacturing, researching, storing, or working. The growing frequency of extreme conditions is amplifying the severity and visibility of fl uctuations, showing that in uncontrolled environments, the results are equally erratic, impacting quality, safety, and profi tability. On several levels, our sales team are more akin to system designers. We employ graduate engineers who we then develop and train with our in-house team and with the equipment manufacturers to become the best they can be. This also means that we have engineers talking to our clients’ engineers, talking the same language, so that between them they can gather the information required to be able to specify the right solution for the application. Retrofi tting is a major part of our after-sales
off ering. The key to managing the challenges on- site is the quality of the personnel you employ. Since bringing the installation process in-house, we’ve tripled the growth in this area. The reason is that there is a shortage of skilled on-site workers, so by investing in and training our team, we can deliver the niche product that is humidity control for contractors and end users alike.
10 September 2025 •
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We have many case studies as examples, such
as where a desiccant dehumidifi er in a car storage facility in Berkshire demonstrated how brake discs didn’t corrode, saving replacement and cleaning. But the most memorable application recently is where we installed precise humidity control in mosquito breeding rooms. The mosquitoes are bred to enable research into the control of malaria. Being kept at the correct and stable humidity decreased the amount of time the insects require to reproduce, which increased productivity and profi t for the organisation – it also helped in driving the eradication of malaria, although I would never state that humidity control saves lives!
Which technologies are you most excited about? The breadth of range is the most exciting, because it means that as an engineering company, we can off er the best solution to the enormously wide range of applications we get asked to assist with. From very low energy ultrasonic humidifi ers to sterile steam humidifi ers, ultradry dehumidifi cation and water treatment – by selecting the right equipment from quality manufacturers and by combining humidifi cation and dehumidifi cation technology with water treatment, we can get the best results. This could be measured by control
tolerance, energy or water consumption, ease of installation, maintenance requirements or capital cost, depending on the client’s specifi cation and how humidity control should be linked with the HVAC requirements in the building or process. There are many diff erent opportunities to reduce
energy. Firstly, we can look at the humidity control equipment itself. An evaporative humidifi er will use less energy than a steam humidifi er. If the adiabatic evaporative humidifi er is used, then it shall provide some cooling to the HVAC system. In manufacturing, this adds even greater energy effi ciency as it takes load off the cooling systems. However, if cooling is not required, then additional heat should be added to overcome this, in which case the steam humidifi er comes back into play as a component of the most energy-effi cient system. Dehumidifi ers preventing ice build-up in cold
stores is another example of humidity control positively aff ecting the energy effi ciency of a system by reducing defrost cycles, improving health and safety as no ice on the fl oor and ensuring product quality with boxes remaining intact and produce kept in the ideal conditions. Sensors are providing better and better control
and repeatability compared to a few years ago. Controls that provide reliable data via Modbus or BACnet to increasingly more sophisticated BMS
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