Moisture represents the presence of a liquid containing trace amounts of water. Humidity, on the other hand, is the concentration of water vapor in a gaseous state, present in the air.
What is the difference between moisture and humidity?
The terms moisture and humidity are often misused when trying to describe one and other because the two are very similar. To understand the difference, we first need to examine what each of them is and what causes them.
Moisture
If you use the term moisture in a technical sense, you are defining the presence of liquid in an environment. Although the word encompasses all liquids, it generally means water and typically in trace amounts.
The trace amount of water could be in wood, food products, or just about anything. It’s not technically wrong to use the term moisture to indicate the presence of water in the air, but the term humidity is more accurate.
For example,
High moisture content can cause damage to a building and may even cause health problems for the occupants.
For instance, too much moisture can cause mold to grow. Mold can grow on practically any type of surface, including cardboard, carpets, drywall, insulation, wooden furniture, magazines, to name a few.
Also, continuous exposure to moisture can cause the metal to corrode or rust, wood to rot, which can weaken the structure of a home.
Humidity
Humidity is a technical term to indicate the amount of water vapor that is present in the air. Keep in mind that water in its gaseous state is typically invisible to the naked eye. Meteorologists often monitor humidity levels as it may pave the way for a better prediction of fog, dew, or precipitation.
When measuring humidity, three types are widely employed. There’s the specific, relative, and absolute.
Specific humidity indicates the ratio of the total air within an area and the water vapor mass within the same range. Absolute humidity describes the amount of water present in the air. Often it is expressed in grams per kilogram or cubic meter. Relative humidity indicates the current absolute humidity concerning the maximum humidity for the specific temperature. Often it is expressed in terms of percentage.
For example,
An animal that is dependent on sweating as a means of regulating body temperature, high humidity environment can impair the process as it can affect the organism’s natural heating or cooling process. The humidex, or also known as the heat index table, better describes the various effects of humidity on an organism.