The outside temperature was somewhere between the hot and cold that blows on the inside through the car's vents. I know the condensate is on my side because I can reach forward and write on it with my finger. When I blow hot air on it, it stays there, but when I blow cold air on it, it disappears. I would have thought blowing hot air on it would give the water molecules enough energy to escape the surface and blowing cold air would cause water vapor molecules in the air to lose energy and get 'stuck' to the surface, but the reality is the opposite of what I expected. Can anyone explain?
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Condensation has to do with two factors, temperature and humidity. Specifically, in order for condensation to occur, you need a body of warm, humid air (humidity is necessary because otherwise there wouldn't be any water to condense) and a cold surface (the window), specifically colder than the dewpoint of the humid air, on which the condensation is to take place. With a car window, this can happen on either side. In your case, you're getting condensation on the inside of the window because the interior air is warm and humid, but the outside air keeps the window cooler than the dewpoint of the inside air. So as long as you blow warm air on the window, you're just feeding it with more water to condense. In order to make the condensation evaporate by heating it, you'd have to be blowing enough air at a high enough temperature on the window to override the effect of the outside air and significantly heat up the window itself; your car's heating system probably isn't capable of doing that. (At least not while you're driving.) In contrast, as you pointed out in your comment, blowing cool air (cooler than the outside air) on the window means that the dewpoint of the inside air is necessarily less than the temperature of the window, so you don't get any condensation occurring. And as long as the air is less than 100% humid, any existing condensation will evaporate. This is especially likely if you're running the air conditioner, since it doubles as a dehumidifier. The reverse situation occurs if it's hot and humid outside; you'll probably be running the air conditioner, so the cold air inside the car will cool down the window. Since the window is cooler than the outside air, you'll get condensation occurring on the outside. The solution in this case is to run the defroster to heat up the window and the condensed water molecules, giving them enough energy to evaporate. |
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Please correct my answer if its wrong: I think that condensation of water inside the car has to do with taking into consideration the temperature and humidity outside and inside your car. You only get condensation whenever its colder outside, I think. Outside is colder than Inside: So, I think that your car acts as an insulator of heat. Your car's air temperature inside is hotter than the outside, and therefore water is evaporating and expanding in all directions. However, there's no where for the water to go, so it builds up on your windows. If you blow hot air, you'd end up heating the inside car's air temperature even more and end up with more condensation. If you blow cold air, you make the inside car's air temperature to be closer to the outside and therefore the water molecules have less energy and won't expand out in all directions and end up condensing on your windows. I think that if you open your windows and let the inside temperature and outside temperature of air to come to equilibrium, you'll end up with no condensation on your windows from the inside. Please test this and tell me if I'm wrong. Thank you. |
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