Why does the humidifier make a stove's flame orange?

up vote
42
down vote

favorite

Blue flames Orange flames

Just like this guy's, the color of my stove's flames were affected by the humidifier as well.

Why does this happen?
Is it a good thing or a bad thing ?

edited yesterday

Chair

3,37472033

asked yesterday

Ilya Gazman

32339

1

Could you take a spectrum in some way? Easiest would be a transmission grating, which one can make from a (recordable) CD-disk by removing the metal layer (make a few scratches, then pull with Scotch tape). If it is sodium, then you should see a narrow band.
– Pieter
yesterday

5

You have accepted a IMO wrong answer. This is not sodium yellow, it is unsaturated reaction due to higher effective heat capacity of air due to water microdroplets (in combination with equipment that is designed to not work in tandem with a humidifyer. It could be done, but why.)
– Stian Yttervik
11 hours ago

1

@StianYttervik being right/wrong for this answer is far from having been proved. It's still waiting for someone with a humidifier+gas lighter/stove+spectroscope to confirm/refute this hypothesis.
– Ruslan
11 hours ago

6

@Ruslan Occam's razor would be a good start. The theory that makes the least assumptions should have preference awaiting test outcomes. A miniscule salt content in the air (we are talking ppb's) changing the color of a large flame? OR millions of tiny water droplets disturbing a delicate fuel/ox mix, when we know the water absorb heat, lowers adiabatic temperature and increases exhaust velocities? The simplest assumption is that the cause of water droplets is enough for the observed effect. Base the testing on that - don't buy a spectroscope just yet.
– Stian Yttervik
10 hours ago

1

@Ruslan Occam's razor nonetheless points out the theory which should be tested first. Water microdroplets is more than enough to produce yellow flames. This does not change with how you perceive a mobi-cam picture on your computer (mobile) screen. That is anectodtal at best - and easily countered by another person saying, to me it doesn't look like the sodium emission color at all. If you all want to test, that is fine, but to me it is fairly well explained by a simpler phenomena that requires less assumptions. And that is why I am of the opinion that the wrong answer has been accepted.
– Stian Yttervik
10 hours ago

|
show 4 more comments

up vote
42
down vote

favorite

Blue flames Orange flames

Just like this guy's, the color of my stove's flames were affected by the humidifier as well.

Why does this happen?
Is it a good thing or a bad thing ?

edited yesterday

Chair

3,37472033

asked yesterday

Ilya Gazman

32339

1

Could you take a spectrum in some way? Easiest would be a transmission grating, which one can make from a (recordable) CD-disk by removing the metal layer (make a few scratches, then pull with Scotch tape). If it is sodium, then you should see a narrow band.
– Pieter
yesterday

5

You have accepted a IMO wrong answer. This is not sodium yellow, it is unsaturated reaction due to higher effective heat capacity of air due to water microdroplets (in combination with equipment that is designed to not work in tandem with a humidifyer. It could be done, but why.)
– Stian Yttervik
11 hours ago

1

@StianYttervik being right/wrong for this answer is far from having been proved. It's still waiting for someone with a humidifier+gas lighter/stove+spectroscope to confirm/refute this hypothesis.
– Ruslan
11 hours ago

6

@Ruslan Occam's razor would be a good start. The theory that makes the least assumptions should have preference awaiting test outcomes. A miniscule salt content in the air (we are talking ppb's) changing the color of a large flame? OR millions of tiny water droplets disturbing a delicate fuel/ox mix, when we know the water absorb heat, lowers adiabatic temperature and increases exhaust velocities? The simplest assumption is that the cause of water droplets is enough for the observed effect. Base the testing on that - don't buy a spectroscope just yet.
– Stian Yttervik
10 hours ago

1

@Ruslan Occam's razor nonetheless points out the theory which should be tested first. Water microdroplets is more than enough to produce yellow flames. This does not change with how you perceive a mobi-cam picture on your computer (mobile) screen. That is anectodtal at best - and easily countered by another person saying, to me it doesn't look like the sodium emission color at all. If you all want to test, that is fine, but to me it is fairly well explained by a simpler phenomena that requires less assumptions. And that is why I am of the opinion that the wrong answer has been accepted.
– Stian Yttervik
10 hours ago

|
show 4 more comments

up vote
42
down vote

favorite

Blue flames Orange flames

Just like this guy's, the color of my stove's flames were affected by the humidifier as well.

Why does this happen?
Is it a good thing or a bad thing ?

edited yesterday

Chair

3,37472033

asked yesterday

Ilya Gazman

32339

Blue flames Orange flames

Just like this guy's, the color of my stove's flames were affected by the humidifier as well.

Why does this happen?
Is it a good thing or a bad thing ?

visible-light everyday-life physical-chemistry combustion

edited yesterday

Chair

3,37472033

asked yesterday

Ilya Gazman

32339

edited yesterday

Chair

3,37472033

asked yesterday

Ilya Gazman

32339

edited yesterday

Chair

3,37472033

edited yesterday

Chair

3,37472033

edited yesterday

Chair

3,37472033

asked yesterday

Ilya Gazman

32339

asked yesterday

Ilya Gazman

32339

asked yesterday

Ilya Gazman

32339

1

Could you take a spectrum in some way? Easiest would be a transmission grating, which one can make from a (recordable) CD-disk by removing the metal layer (make a few scratches, then pull with Scotch tape). If it is sodium, then you should see a narrow band.
– Pieter
yesterday

5

You have accepted a IMO wrong answer. This is not sodium yellow, it is unsaturated reaction due to higher effective heat capacity of air due to water microdroplets (in combination with equipment that is designed to not work in tandem with a humidifyer. It could be done, but why.)
– Stian Yttervik
11 hours ago

1

@StianYttervik being right/wrong for this answer is far from having been proved. It's still waiting for someone with a humidifier+gas lighter/stove+spectroscope to confirm/refute this hypothesis.
– Ruslan
11 hours ago

6

@Ruslan Occam's razor would be a good start. The theory that makes the least assumptions should have preference awaiting test outcomes. A miniscule salt content in the air (we are talking ppb's) changing the color of a large flame? OR millions of tiny water droplets disturbing a delicate fuel/ox mix, when we know the water absorb heat, lowers adiabatic temperature and increases exhaust velocities? The simplest assumption is that the cause of water droplets is enough for the observed effect. Base the testing on that - don't buy a spectroscope just yet.
– Stian Yttervik
10 hours ago

1

@Ruslan Occam's razor nonetheless points out the theory which should be tested first. Water microdroplets is more than enough to produce yellow flames. This does not change with how you perceive a mobi-cam picture on your computer (mobile) screen. That is anectodtal at best - and easily countered by another person saying, to me it doesn't look like the sodium emission color at all. If you all want to test, that is fine, but to me it is fairly well explained by a simpler phenomena that requires less assumptions. And that is why I am of the opinion that the wrong answer has been accepted.
– Stian Yttervik
10 hours ago

|
show 4 more comments

1

Could you take a spectrum in some way? Easiest would be a transmission grating, which one can make from a (recordable) CD-disk by removing the metal layer (make a few scratches, then pull with Scotch tape). If it is sodium, then you should see a narrow band.
– Pieter
yesterday

5

You have accepted a IMO wrong answer. This is not sodium yellow, it is unsaturated reaction due to higher effective heat capacity of air due to water microdroplets (in combination with equipment that is designed to not work in tandem with a humidifyer. It could be done, but why.)
– Stian Yttervik
11 hours ago

1

@StianYttervik being right/wrong for this answer is far from having been proved. It's still waiting for someone with a humidifier+gas lighter/stove+spectroscope to confirm/refute this hypothesis.
– Ruslan
11 hours ago

6

@Ruslan Occam's razor would be a good start. The theory that makes the least assumptions should have preference awaiting test outcomes. A miniscule salt content in the air (we are talking ppb's) changing the color of a large flame? OR millions of tiny water droplets disturbing a delicate fuel/ox mix, when we know the water absorb heat, lowers adiabatic temperature and increases exhaust velocities? The simplest assumption is that the cause of water droplets is enough for the observed effect. Base the testing on that - don't buy a spectroscope just yet.
– Stian Yttervik
10 hours ago

1

@Ruslan Occam's razor nonetheless points out the theory which should be tested first. Water microdroplets is more than enough to produce yellow flames. This does not change with how you perceive a mobi-cam picture on your computer (mobile) screen. That is anectodtal at best - and easily countered by another person saying, to me it doesn't look like the sodium emission color at all. If you all want to test, that is fine, but to me it is fairly well explained by a simpler phenomena that requires less assumptions. And that is why I am of the opinion that the wrong answer has been accepted.
– Stian Yttervik
10 hours ago

Could you take a spectrum in some way? Easiest would be a transmission grating, which one can make from a (recordable) CD-disk by removing the metal layer (make a few scratches, then pull with Scotch tape). If it is sodium, then you should see a narrow band.
– Pieter
yesterday

You have accepted a IMO wrong answer. This is not sodium yellow, it is unsaturated reaction due to higher effective heat capacity of air due to water microdroplets (in combination with equipment that is designed to not work in tandem with a humidifyer. It could be done, but why.)
– Stian Yttervik
11 hours ago

@StianYttervik being right/wrong for this answer is far from having been proved. It's still waiting for someone with a humidifier+gas lighter/stove+spectroscope to confirm/refute this hypothesis.
– Ruslan
11 hours ago

@Ruslan Occam's razor would be a good start. The theory that makes the least assumptions should have preference awaiting test outcomes. A miniscule salt content in the air (we are talking ppb's) changing the color of a large flame? OR millions of tiny water droplets disturbing a delicate fuel/ox mix, when we know the water absorb heat, lowers adiabatic temperature and increases exhaust velocities? The simplest assumption is that the cause of water droplets is enough for the observed effect. Base the testing on that - don't buy a spectroscope just yet.
– Stian Yttervik
10 hours ago

@Ruslan Occam's razor nonetheless points out the theory which should be tested first. Water microdroplets is more than enough to produce yellow flames. This does not change with how you perceive a mobi-cam picture on your computer (mobile) screen. That is anectodtal at best - and easily countered by another person saying, to me it doesn't look like the sodium emission color at all. If you all want to test, that is fine, but to me it is fairly well explained by a simpler phenomena that requires less assumptions. And that is why I am of the opinion that the wrong answer has been accepted.
– Stian Yttervik
10 hours ago

|
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5 Answers
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oldest

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up vote
43
down vote

accepted

The explanation I furnish below will stand or fall on the outcome of an experiment I and others here have suggested which is also outlined in my response. I promise to edit or delete my answer per the recommendations of the moderators here if that experiment shows it to be wrong.

Humidifiers that operate on the "cold" principle- mixing tiny droplets of water thrown from the blades of a fan with a blast of air- produce a mist of water vapor-enriched air mixed with the partially-dried remains of water droplets that are enriched in salts by evaporative attrition.

Those salt-enriched specks, when drawn into a hot gas flame, then emit light at frequencies corresponding to the line spectra of the salt constituents. In the case of sodium chloride (the most common salt in tap water), the sodium produces a yellow-orange glow when it hits the flame.

This phenomenon forms the basis of a chemical analysis technique called flame spectroscopy, in which a platinum wire is dipped into a solution containing an unknown mixture of salts, and then stuck into a hot flame. The colors emitted as the salts in the solution are heated are then used to identify the chemical constituents of those salts.

(Since sodium is ubiquitous, and this test is so sensitive to it, the platinum wire must be dipped in hydrochloric acid, heated to redness, quenched in the acid again and reheated several times to rid it of sodium before running the test on the sample.)

This mechanism can be ruled in our out by observing the flame through a grating that separates out the primary sodium line and I invite anyone here who has a gas range (which I do not) and a grating (which I also do not, sorry) to perform the experiment and report back to us here.

Since any dust in the kitchen would likely have salt in it, if the humidifier fan is blowing dust into the flame it would make the flame yellow as well. This can be tested by running the humidifier without water in it.

edited 10 hours ago

answered yesterday

niels nielsen

13.3k42240

9

How much salt is in your tap water? I find it unlikely that drinkable tap water would be brackish enough to show noticeable sodium colouring in a flame.
– Anders Sandberg
yesterday

12

@AndersSandberg: Then again, the sodium spectral line is very strong, and it takes very little salt to make it show up nice and bright. Back when I was doing flame tests in first-year inorganic chemistry lab, we'd spend quite a bit of time making sure to remove all sodium from the sample before even trying to test for any other elements, because if there was even the slightest trace of sodium left, it would overwhelm pretty much everything else. Oh, and don't touch the platinum wire with your fingers after cleaning it, because human sweat has lots of sodium in it.
– Ilmari Karonen
yesterday

4

This answer is almost certainly wrong. You can get exactly the same effect by holding the tip of a knife in the flame, or any other object.
– Maury Markowitz
yesterday

7

With all respect, the answer is almost certainty incorrect. The orange flame color is obtained in a gas flame in heating tubes in restaurants and public plazas by fuel-rich mixing. I took a pocket spectroscope to these, and their spectrum is indeed continuous. This is a thermal radiation from soot, not the Na line. I live near the ocean in a so salty air that all my tools corrode if I don't oil them for storage, as do guitar strings--and still my range flame is blue. I am very, very skeptical the OP's humidifier concentrates trace Na+ in air to express its telltale line suddenly so brightly!
– kkm
21 hours ago

5

@kkm : Then that simply gives two competing explanations, each of which would seem to produce the same result with a naive observing device like the eye and/or digital camera. The only way this could be analyzed more conclusively is, thus, to conduct an empirical investigation with an experiment to try and reproduce the effect as achieved with a humidifier nearby as in the OP,with spectrometer present to see if it is line emission or continuous (thermal) spectrum in that particular circumstance. It's entirely possible for the same (esp. naively) observed effect to have multiple etiologies.
– The_Sympathizer
19 hours ago

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up vote
30
down vote

The water cools the flame to the point where you get incomplete combustion, just like a candle. The yellow light is from glowing carbon, a.k.a. soot.

answered yesterday

StessenJ

1,214134

9

Soot gives a black-body spectrum, salt gives the Na atomic lines at 589 nm. So this would be easy to decide experimentally. Look at the flame through a grating. Or a CD disk.
– Pieter
yesterday

3

Also, sodium yellow is a fairly recognizable flame colour. The more orange colour in the photo, assuming camera colour correction have not completely changed it, looks much more like incomplete combustion than sodium to me.
– Anders Sandberg
yesterday

2

the original Golden Gate Bridge overhead lights were low-pressure sodium, which produced an intense orange color that is very similar to the orange tint in the OP's photo. modern high-pressure sodium lights are whiter in color because they have a thermal spectrum superimposed on the line spectrum.
– niels nielsen
yesterday

1

@nielsnielsen I'm an experimentalist (in fact a spectroscopist) and a large part of me hopes that no one has done the experiment byt he time I get home tonight. I lack a spectrometer at home but dont lack old CDs, cameras, or lenses, so could bodge something.
– Chris H
10 hours ago

1

@EricDuminil With a transmission grating in front of your eye (or in front of the lens of the mobile phone camera), you would see the flame spectra on both sides of the flame. If it is sodium, you would see exact images left and right of the flame with the same color. If it is soot, you would see bands from the red. Maybe I can try something here today with an ultrasonic humidifier and a Bunsen burner. But that would not be the same as your stove and your humidifier.
– Pieter
6 hours ago

|
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up vote
9
down vote

The accepted answer is not correct.

I have a gas stove in the basement which I have to do periodic maintenance on. This requires you to remove a bunch of fake logs, which are made out of some very lightweight material, I think something similar to rockwool but more solid. After maintenance I turn it on to be sure it's still working, and noticed that if the "logs" are not in, the flame is pure blue. This piqued my interest, so I replaced the logs and noticed that the flame turns orange after a short period, which corresponds visibly to the "logs" beginning to glow red. For instance, here is the stove shortly after starting (as quickly as I could run from the thermostat to the stove) and then again about two minutes later:

enter image description here

Not a huge difference, but you can see it. The flame along the front has no "log" over it so it remains blue. There used to be some rockwool insulation here but I removed it thinking it was left over from the installation.

It is not entirely clear how the "logs" do this, but it is clear this is purely due to the temperature of the flame. For further proof, I took these two photos of our cooktop:

enter image description here

As you can see, simply inserting something cold into the flame causes it to turn orange. Now a huge effect here either, but that's because I was one-handing the photo and the knife isn't properly positioned. The humidifier does this by inserting a mist of water over the entire area.

answered yesterday

Maury Markowitz

2,695521

2

Your theory is plausible, but your evidence is also explainable by sodium; the knife will have sodium on it (and is made of a bunch of other metals). How do you know it's the temperature and not the sodium (or other chemical) in both cases? Does the effect go away if you preheat the knife in the oven?
– Richard Tingle
yesterday

11

"the knife will have sodium" - of come on, at the absolute best-case limit it will not be enough to be visible, and especially not enough to explain the fact that it will continue to be orange all day long if you care to hold it in that long. And what do you think is happening in the stove? Those "logs" are almost 30 years old and burn orange as long as the stove is running. The sodium explaination is completely implausible in both instances, or the hundreds of other objects you might try. Have you actually tried this, with anything?
– Maury Markowitz
yesterday

Ilmari suggests the sodium line is very strong. physics.stackexchange.com/questions/441648/…. And as long as the knife and logs continue to exist they are clearly made of something. Not saying you're wrong, just that you've not really proved your theory right either (and of course I haven't tried it, I'm neither the OP nor an answerer)
– Richard Tingle
yesterday

3

@MauryMarkowitz "especially not enough to explain the fact that it will continue to be orange all day long if you care to hold it in that long" .. if the temperature of the object really was the reason, shouldn't it have heated up enough for the flame to lose that orange colour by then?
– muru
13 hours ago

2

This is the most correct answer. Add a little more and I'll +1 you: Water droplets not only decreases the adiabatic flame temperature, as you say (perhaps to the point of causing improper reaction in and by itself). It also increases exhaust velocities for the same inlet velocities, at a lower temperature (steam production). As the velocities increase there will be a Reynolds number that threatens to cause turbulent flows, which would explain incomplete combustion - turbulence causes imbalance to a rather delicate fuel/oxidizer mix -> yellow flame.
– Stian Yttervik
10 hours ago

|
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up vote
3
down vote

Little bit of every thing here. But I would certainly not ignore CO. Remember gas comes out under pressure, and if any passes through the heat of the flame before being completely oxidized, you get CO. Presence of sodium could contribute, I would test with distilled water first. But water droplets would cool the flame faster by drawing heat to evaporate. Get a CO meter, and open the windows!

answered yesterday

Robert DiGiovanni

311

New contributor

add a comment |

up vote
-1
down vote

The humidifier increases the percentage of water vapour in the air, which decreases the percentage of oxygen. The deficit of oxygen makes the burning of the gas less efficient, with the orange flame that also indicates a higher amount of CO in the exhaust gas.

Make sure to increase ventilation when you see orange tips on the flames.

answered yesterday

Douglas Held

20116

1

I doubt it, I find the explanation with the salt more likely. But this is easy to check experimentally by taking a spectrum: soot gives a black-body spectrum, salt gives the Na atomic lines at 589 nm.
– Pieter
yesterday

10

The humidifier surely isn't displacing any significant amount of oxygen.
– David Richerby
yesterday

2

If you're going to disagree with me, do it with metrics.
– Douglas Held
yesterday

8

That's why there are so many reports of humidifier deaths, right?
– immibis
16 hours ago

1

@DouglasHeld: There is 21 % of Oxygen in air. The saturation vapor pressure for humidity corresponds to approx 3 % of absolute concentration at room temp. (beyond that there will be "rain"). So there will not be a significant decrease of oxygen. It is not possible. Practically the humidifier will also not be able to come even close to the 3% (more likely between 1 - 2 %).
– Andreas H.
3 hours ago

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5 Answers
5

active

oldest

votes

5 Answers
5

active

oldest

votes

up vote
43
down vote

accepted

edited 10 hours ago

answered yesterday

niels nielsen

13.3k42240

9

How much salt is in your tap water? I find it unlikely that drinkable tap water would be brackish enough to show noticeable sodium colouring in a flame.
– Anders Sandberg
yesterday

12

@AndersSandberg: Then again, the sodium spectral line is very strong, and it takes very little salt to make it show up nice and bright. Back when I was doing flame tests in first-year inorganic chemistry lab, we'd spend quite a bit of time making sure to remove all sodium from the sample before even trying to test for any other elements, because if there was even the slightest trace of sodium left, it would overwhelm pretty much everything else. Oh, and don't touch the platinum wire with your fingers after cleaning it, because human sweat has lots of sodium in it.
– Ilmari Karonen
yesterday

4

This answer is almost certainly wrong. You can get exactly the same effect by holding the tip of a knife in the flame, or any other object.
– Maury Markowitz
yesterday

7

With all respect, the answer is almost certainty incorrect. The orange flame color is obtained in a gas flame in heating tubes in restaurants and public plazas by fuel-rich mixing. I took a pocket spectroscope to these, and their spectrum is indeed continuous. This is a thermal radiation from soot, not the Na line. I live near the ocean in a so salty air that all my tools corrode if I don't oil them for storage, as do guitar strings--and still my range flame is blue. I am very, very skeptical the OP's humidifier concentrates trace Na+ in air to express its telltale line suddenly so brightly!
– kkm
21 hours ago

5

@kkm : Then that simply gives two competing explanations, each of which would seem to produce the same result with a naive observing device like the eye and/or digital camera. The only way this could be analyzed more conclusively is, thus, to conduct an empirical investigation with an experiment to try and reproduce the effect as achieved with a humidifier nearby as in the OP,with spectrometer present to see if it is line emission or continuous (thermal) spectrum in that particular circumstance. It's entirely possible for the same (esp. naively) observed effect to have multiple etiologies.
– The_Sympathizer
19 hours ago

|
show 12 more comments

up vote
43
down vote

accepted

edited 10 hours ago

answered yesterday

niels nielsen

13.3k42240

9

How much salt is in your tap water? I find it unlikely that drinkable tap water would be brackish enough to show noticeable sodium colouring in a flame.
– Anders Sandberg
yesterday

12

@AndersSandberg: Then again, the sodium spectral line is very strong, and it takes very little salt to make it show up nice and bright. Back when I was doing flame tests in first-year inorganic chemistry lab, we'd spend quite a bit of time making sure to remove all sodium from the sample before even trying to test for any other elements, because if there was even the slightest trace of sodium left, it would overwhelm pretty much everything else. Oh, and don't touch the platinum wire with your fingers after cleaning it, because human sweat has lots of sodium in it.
– Ilmari Karonen
yesterday

4

This answer is almost certainly wrong. You can get exactly the same effect by holding the tip of a knife in the flame, or any other object.
– Maury Markowitz
yesterday

7

With all respect, the answer is almost certainty incorrect. The orange flame color is obtained in a gas flame in heating tubes in restaurants and public plazas by fuel-rich mixing. I took a pocket spectroscope to these, and their spectrum is indeed continuous. This is a thermal radiation from soot, not the Na line. I live near the ocean in a so salty air that all my tools corrode if I don't oil them for storage, as do guitar strings--and still my range flame is blue. I am very, very skeptical the OP's humidifier concentrates trace Na+ in air to express its telltale line suddenly so brightly!
– kkm
21 hours ago

5

@kkm : Then that simply gives two competing explanations, each of which would seem to produce the same result with a naive observing device like the eye and/or digital camera. The only way this could be analyzed more conclusively is, thus, to conduct an empirical investigation with an experiment to try and reproduce the effect as achieved with a humidifier nearby as in the OP,with spectrometer present to see if it is line emission or continuous (thermal) spectrum in that particular circumstance. It's entirely possible for the same (esp. naively) observed effect to have multiple etiologies.
– The_Sympathizer
19 hours ago

|
show 12 more comments

up vote
43
down vote

accepted

edited 10 hours ago

answered yesterday

niels nielsen

13.3k42240

edited 10 hours ago

answered yesterday

niels nielsen

13.3k42240

edited 10 hours ago

answered yesterday

niels nielsen

13.3k42240

answered yesterday

niels nielsen

13.3k42240

answered yesterday

niels nielsen

13.3k42240

9

How much salt is in your tap water? I find it unlikely that drinkable tap water would be brackish enough to show noticeable sodium colouring in a flame.
– Anders Sandberg
yesterday

12

@AndersSandberg: Then again, the sodium spectral line is very strong, and it takes very little salt to make it show up nice and bright. Back when I was doing flame tests in first-year inorganic chemistry lab, we'd spend quite a bit of time making sure to remove all sodium from the sample before even trying to test for any other elements, because if there was even the slightest trace of sodium left, it would overwhelm pretty much everything else. Oh, and don't touch the platinum wire with your fingers after cleaning it, because human sweat has lots of sodium in it.
– Ilmari Karonen
yesterday

4

This answer is almost certainly wrong. You can get exactly the same effect by holding the tip of a knife in the flame, or any other object.
– Maury Markowitz
yesterday

7

With all respect, the answer is almost certainty incorrect. The orange flame color is obtained in a gas flame in heating tubes in restaurants and public plazas by fuel-rich mixing. I took a pocket spectroscope to these, and their spectrum is indeed continuous. This is a thermal radiation from soot, not the Na line. I live near the ocean in a so salty air that all my tools corrode if I don't oil them for storage, as do guitar strings--and still my range flame is blue. I am very, very skeptical the OP's humidifier concentrates trace Na+ in air to express its telltale line suddenly so brightly!
– kkm
21 hours ago

5

@kkm : Then that simply gives two competing explanations, each of which would seem to produce the same result with a naive observing device like the eye and/or digital camera. The only way this could be analyzed more conclusively is, thus, to conduct an empirical investigation with an experiment to try and reproduce the effect as achieved with a humidifier nearby as in the OP,with spectrometer present to see if it is line emission or continuous (thermal) spectrum in that particular circumstance. It's entirely possible for the same (esp. naively) observed effect to have multiple etiologies.
– The_Sympathizer
19 hours ago

|
show 12 more comments

9

How much salt is in your tap water? I find it unlikely that drinkable tap water would be brackish enough to show noticeable sodium colouring in a flame.
– Anders Sandberg
yesterday

12

@AndersSandberg: Then again, the sodium spectral line is very strong, and it takes very little salt to make it show up nice and bright. Back when I was doing flame tests in first-year inorganic chemistry lab, we'd spend quite a bit of time making sure to remove all sodium from the sample before even trying to test for any other elements, because if there was even the slightest trace of sodium left, it would overwhelm pretty much everything else. Oh, and don't touch the platinum wire with your fingers after cleaning it, because human sweat has lots of sodium in it.
– Ilmari Karonen
yesterday

4

This answer is almost certainly wrong. You can get exactly the same effect by holding the tip of a knife in the flame, or any other object.
– Maury Markowitz
yesterday

7

With all respect, the answer is almost certainty incorrect. The orange flame color is obtained in a gas flame in heating tubes in restaurants and public plazas by fuel-rich mixing. I took a pocket spectroscope to these, and their spectrum is indeed continuous. This is a thermal radiation from soot, not the Na line. I live near the ocean in a so salty air that all my tools corrode if I don't oil them for storage, as do guitar strings--and still my range flame is blue. I am very, very skeptical the OP's humidifier concentrates trace Na+ in air to express its telltale line suddenly so brightly!
– kkm
21 hours ago

5

@kkm : Then that simply gives two competing explanations, each of which would seem to produce the same result with a naive observing device like the eye and/or digital camera. The only way this could be analyzed more conclusively is, thus, to conduct an empirical investigation with an experiment to try and reproduce the effect as achieved with a humidifier nearby as in the OP,with spectrometer present to see if it is line emission or continuous (thermal) spectrum in that particular circumstance. It's entirely possible for the same (esp. naively) observed effect to have multiple etiologies.
– The_Sympathizer
19 hours ago

How much salt is in your tap water? I find it unlikely that drinkable tap water would be brackish enough to show noticeable sodium colouring in a flame.
– Anders Sandberg
yesterday

@AndersSandberg: Then again, the sodium spectral line is very strong, and it takes very little salt to make it show up nice and bright. Back when I was doing flame tests in first-year inorganic chemistry lab, we'd spend quite a bit of time making sure to remove all sodium from the sample before even trying to test for any other elements, because if there was even the slightest trace of sodium left, it would overwhelm pretty much everything else. Oh, and don't touch the platinum wire with your fingers after cleaning it, because human sweat has lots of sodium in it.
– Ilmari Karonen
yesterday

This answer is almost certainly wrong. You can get exactly the same effect by holding the tip of a knife in the flame, or any other object.
– Maury Markowitz
yesterday

With all respect, the answer is almost certainty incorrect. The orange flame color is obtained in a gas flame in heating tubes in restaurants and public plazas by fuel-rich mixing. I took a pocket spectroscope to these, and their spectrum is indeed continuous. This is a thermal radiation from soot, not the Na line. I live near the ocean in a so salty air that all my tools corrode if I don't oil them for storage, as do guitar strings--and still my range flame is blue. I am very, very skeptical the OP's humidifier concentrates trace Na+ in air to express its telltale line suddenly so brightly!
– kkm
21 hours ago

@kkm : Then that simply gives two competing explanations, each of which would seem to produce the same result with a naive observing device like the eye and/or digital camera. The only way this could be analyzed more conclusively is, thus, to conduct an empirical investigation with an experiment to try and reproduce the effect as achieved with a humidifier nearby as in the OP,with spectrometer present to see if it is line emission or continuous (thermal) spectrum in that particular circumstance. It's entirely possible for the same (esp. naively) observed effect to have multiple etiologies.
– The_Sympathizer
19 hours ago

|
show 12 more comments

up vote
30
down vote

The water cools the flame to the point where you get incomplete combustion, just like a candle. The yellow light is from glowing carbon, a.k.a. soot.

answered yesterday

StessenJ

1,214134

9

Soot gives a black-body spectrum, salt gives the Na atomic lines at 589 nm. So this would be easy to decide experimentally. Look at the flame through a grating. Or a CD disk.
– Pieter
yesterday

3

Also, sodium yellow is a fairly recognizable flame colour. The more orange colour in the photo, assuming camera colour correction have not completely changed it, looks much more like incomplete combustion than sodium to me.
– Anders Sandberg
yesterday

2

the original Golden Gate Bridge overhead lights were low-pressure sodium, which produced an intense orange color that is very similar to the orange tint in the OP's photo. modern high-pressure sodium lights are whiter in color because they have a thermal spectrum superimposed on the line spectrum.
– niels nielsen
yesterday

1

@nielsnielsen I'm an experimentalist (in fact a spectroscopist) and a large part of me hopes that no one has done the experiment byt he time I get home tonight. I lack a spectrometer at home but dont lack old CDs, cameras, or lenses, so could bodge something.
– Chris H
10 hours ago

1

@EricDuminil With a transmission grating in front of your eye (or in front of the lens of the mobile phone camera), you would see the flame spectra on both sides of the flame. If it is sodium, you would see exact images left and right of the flame with the same color. If it is soot, you would see bands from the red. Maybe I can try something here today with an ultrasonic humidifier and a Bunsen burner. But that would not be the same as your stove and your humidifier.
– Pieter
6 hours ago

|
show 5 more comments

up vote
30
down vote

The water cools the flame to the point where you get incomplete combustion, just like a candle. The yellow light is from glowing carbon, a.k.a. soot.

answered yesterday

StessenJ

1,214134

9

Soot gives a black-body spectrum, salt gives the Na atomic lines at 589 nm. So this would be easy to decide experimentally. Look at the flame through a grating. Or a CD disk.
– Pieter
yesterday

3

Also, sodium yellow is a fairly recognizable flame colour. The more orange colour in the photo, assuming camera colour correction have not completely changed it, looks much more like incomplete combustion than sodium to me.
– Anders Sandberg
yesterday

2

the original Golden Gate Bridge overhead lights were low-pressure sodium, which produced an intense orange color that is very similar to the orange tint in the OP's photo. modern high-pressure sodium lights are whiter in color because they have a thermal spectrum superimposed on the line spectrum.
– niels nielsen
yesterday

1

@nielsnielsen I'm an experimentalist (in fact a spectroscopist) and a large part of me hopes that no one has done the experiment byt he time I get home tonight. I lack a spectrometer at home but dont lack old CDs, cameras, or lenses, so could bodge something.
– Chris H
10 hours ago

1

@EricDuminil With a transmission grating in front of your eye (or in front of the lens of the mobile phone camera), you would see the flame spectra on both sides of the flame. If it is sodium, you would see exact images left and right of the flame with the same color. If it is soot, you would see bands from the red. Maybe I can try something here today with an ultrasonic humidifier and a Bunsen burner. But that would not be the same as your stove and your humidifier.
– Pieter
6 hours ago

|
show 5 more comments

up vote
30
down vote

The water cools the flame to the point where you get incomplete combustion, just like a candle. The yellow light is from glowing carbon, a.k.a. soot.

answered yesterday

StessenJ

1,214134

The water cools the flame to the point where you get incomplete combustion, just like a candle. The yellow light is from glowing carbon, a.k.a. soot.

answered yesterday

StessenJ

1,214134

answered yesterday

StessenJ

1,214134

answered yesterday

StessenJ

1,214134

answered yesterday

StessenJ

1,214134

9

Soot gives a black-body spectrum, salt gives the Na atomic lines at 589 nm. So this would be easy to decide experimentally. Look at the flame through a grating. Or a CD disk.
– Pieter
yesterday

3

Also, sodium yellow is a fairly recognizable flame colour. The more orange colour in the photo, assuming camera colour correction have not completely changed it, looks much more like incomplete combustion than sodium to me.
– Anders Sandberg
yesterday

2

the original Golden Gate Bridge overhead lights were low-pressure sodium, which produced an intense orange color that is very similar to the orange tint in the OP's photo. modern high-pressure sodium lights are whiter in color because they have a thermal spectrum superimposed on the line spectrum.
– niels nielsen
yesterday

1

@nielsnielsen I'm an experimentalist (in fact a spectroscopist) and a large part of me hopes that no one has done the experiment byt he time I get home tonight. I lack a spectrometer at home but dont lack old CDs, cameras, or lenses, so could bodge something.
– Chris H
10 hours ago

1

@EricDuminil With a transmission grating in front of your eye (or in front of the lens of the mobile phone camera), you would see the flame spectra on both sides of the flame. If it is sodium, you would see exact images left and right of the flame with the same color. If it is soot, you would see bands from the red. Maybe I can try something here today with an ultrasonic humidifier and a Bunsen burner. But that would not be the same as your stove and your humidifier.
– Pieter
6 hours ago

|
show 5 more comments

9

Soot gives a black-body spectrum, salt gives the Na atomic lines at 589 nm. So this would be easy to decide experimentally. Look at the flame through a grating. Or a CD disk.
– Pieter
yesterday

3

Also, sodium yellow is a fairly recognizable flame colour. The more orange colour in the photo, assuming camera colour correction have not completely changed it, looks much more like incomplete combustion than sodium to me.
– Anders Sandberg
yesterday

2

the original Golden Gate Bridge overhead lights were low-pressure sodium, which produced an intense orange color that is very similar to the orange tint in the OP's photo. modern high-pressure sodium lights are whiter in color because they have a thermal spectrum superimposed on the line spectrum.
– niels nielsen
yesterday

1

@nielsnielsen I'm an experimentalist (in fact a spectroscopist) and a large part of me hopes that no one has done the experiment byt he time I get home tonight. I lack a spectrometer at home but dont lack old CDs, cameras, or lenses, so could bodge something.
– Chris H
10 hours ago

1

@EricDuminil With a transmission grating in front of your eye (or in front of the lens of the mobile phone camera), you would see the flame spectra on both sides of the flame. If it is sodium, you would see exact images left and right of the flame with the same color. If it is soot, you would see bands from the red. Maybe I can try something here today with an ultrasonic humidifier and a Bunsen burner. But that would not be the same as your stove and your humidifier.
– Pieter
6 hours ago

Soot gives a black-body spectrum, salt gives the Na atomic lines at 589 nm. So this would be easy to decide experimentally. Look at the flame through a grating. Or a CD disk.
– Pieter
yesterday

Also, sodium yellow is a fairly recognizable flame colour. The more orange colour in the photo, assuming camera colour correction have not completely changed it, looks much more like incomplete combustion than sodium to me.
– Anders Sandberg
yesterday

the original Golden Gate Bridge overhead lights were low-pressure sodium, which produced an intense orange color that is very similar to the orange tint in the OP's photo. modern high-pressure sodium lights are whiter in color because they have a thermal spectrum superimposed on the line spectrum.
– niels nielsen
yesterday

@nielsnielsen I'm an experimentalist (in fact a spectroscopist) and a large part of me hopes that no one has done the experiment byt he time I get home tonight. I lack a spectrometer at home but dont lack old CDs, cameras, or lenses, so could bodge something.
– Chris H
10 hours ago

@EricDuminil With a transmission grating in front of your eye (or in front of the lens of the mobile phone camera), you would see the flame spectra on both sides of the flame. If it is sodium, you would see exact images left and right of the flame with the same color. If it is soot, you would see bands from the red. Maybe I can try something here today with an ultrasonic humidifier and a Bunsen burner. But that would not be the same as your stove and your humidifier.
– Pieter
6 hours ago

|
show 5 more comments

up vote
9
down vote

The accepted answer is not correct.

enter image description here

It is not entirely clear how the "logs" do this, but it is clear this is purely due to the temperature of the flame. For further proof, I took these two photos of our cooktop:

enter image description here

answered yesterday

Maury Markowitz

2,695521

2

Your theory is plausible, but your evidence is also explainable by sodium; the knife will have sodium on it (and is made of a bunch of other metals). How do you know it's the temperature and not the sodium (or other chemical) in both cases? Does the effect go away if you preheat the knife in the oven?
– Richard Tingle
yesterday

11

"the knife will have sodium" - of come on, at the absolute best-case limit it will not be enough to be visible, and especially not enough to explain the fact that it will continue to be orange all day long if you care to hold it in that long. And what do you think is happening in the stove? Those "logs" are almost 30 years old and burn orange as long as the stove is running. The sodium explaination is completely implausible in both instances, or the hundreds of other objects you might try. Have you actually tried this, with anything?
– Maury Markowitz
yesterday

Ilmari suggests the sodium line is very strong. physics.stackexchange.com/questions/441648/…. And as long as the knife and logs continue to exist they are clearly made of something. Not saying you're wrong, just that you've not really proved your theory right either (and of course I haven't tried it, I'm neither the OP nor an answerer)
– Richard Tingle
yesterday

3

@MauryMarkowitz "especially not enough to explain the fact that it will continue to be orange all day long if you care to hold it in that long" .. if the temperature of the object really was the reason, shouldn't it have heated up enough for the flame to lose that orange colour by then?
– muru
13 hours ago

2

This is the most correct answer. Add a little more and I'll +1 you: Water droplets not only decreases the adiabatic flame temperature, as you say (perhaps to the point of causing improper reaction in and by itself). It also increases exhaust velocities for the same inlet velocities, at a lower temperature (steam production). As the velocities increase there will be a Reynolds number that threatens to cause turbulent flows, which would explain incomplete combustion - turbulence causes imbalance to a rather delicate fuel/oxidizer mix -> yellow flame.
– Stian Yttervik
10 hours ago

|
show 5 more comments

up vote
9
down vote

The accepted answer is not correct.

enter image description here

It is not entirely clear how the "logs" do this, but it is clear this is purely due to the temperature of the flame. For further proof, I took these two photos of our cooktop:

enter image description here

answered yesterday

Maury Markowitz

2,695521

2

Your theory is plausible, but your evidence is also explainable by sodium; the knife will have sodium on it (and is made of a bunch of other metals). How do you know it's the temperature and not the sodium (or other chemical) in both cases? Does the effect go away if you preheat the knife in the oven?
– Richard Tingle
yesterday

11

"the knife will have sodium" - of come on, at the absolute best-case limit it will not be enough to be visible, and especially not enough to explain the fact that it will continue to be orange all day long if you care to hold it in that long. And what do you think is happening in the stove? Those "logs" are almost 30 years old and burn orange as long as the stove is running. The sodium explaination is completely implausible in both instances, or the hundreds of other objects you might try. Have you actually tried this, with anything?
– Maury Markowitz
yesterday

Ilmari suggests the sodium line is very strong. physics.stackexchange.com/questions/441648/…. And as long as the knife and logs continue to exist they are clearly made of something. Not saying you're wrong, just that you've not really proved your theory right either (and of course I haven't tried it, I'm neither the OP nor an answerer)
– Richard Tingle
yesterday

3

@MauryMarkowitz "especially not enough to explain the fact that it will continue to be orange all day long if you care to hold it in that long" .. if the temperature of the object really was the reason, shouldn't it have heated up enough for the flame to lose that orange colour by then?
– muru
13 hours ago

2

This is the most correct answer. Add a little more and I'll +1 you: Water droplets not only decreases the adiabatic flame temperature, as you say (perhaps to the point of causing improper reaction in and by itself). It also increases exhaust velocities for the same inlet velocities, at a lower temperature (steam production). As the velocities increase there will be a Reynolds number that threatens to cause turbulent flows, which would explain incomplete combustion - turbulence causes imbalance to a rather delicate fuel/oxidizer mix -> yellow flame.
– Stian Yttervik
10 hours ago

|
show 5 more comments

up vote
9
down vote

The accepted answer is not correct.

enter image description here

It is not entirely clear how the "logs" do this, but it is clear this is purely due to the temperature of the flame. For further proof, I took these two photos of our cooktop:

enter image description here

answered yesterday

Maury Markowitz

2,695521

The accepted answer is not correct.

enter image description here

It is not entirely clear how the "logs" do this, but it is clear this is purely due to the temperature of the flame. For further proof, I took these two photos of our cooktop:

enter image description here

answered yesterday

Maury Markowitz

2,695521

answered yesterday

Maury Markowitz

2,695521

answered yesterday

Maury Markowitz

2,695521

answered yesterday

Maury Markowitz

2,695521

2

Your theory is plausible, but your evidence is also explainable by sodium; the knife will have sodium on it (and is made of a bunch of other metals). How do you know it's the temperature and not the sodium (or other chemical) in both cases? Does the effect go away if you preheat the knife in the oven?
– Richard Tingle
yesterday

11

"the knife will have sodium" - of come on, at the absolute best-case limit it will not be enough to be visible, and especially not enough to explain the fact that it will continue to be orange all day long if you care to hold it in that long. And what do you think is happening in the stove? Those "logs" are almost 30 years old and burn orange as long as the stove is running. The sodium explaination is completely implausible in both instances, or the hundreds of other objects you might try. Have you actually tried this, with anything?
– Maury Markowitz
yesterday

Ilmari suggests the sodium line is very strong. physics.stackexchange.com/questions/441648/…. And as long as the knife and logs continue to exist they are clearly made of something. Not saying you're wrong, just that you've not really proved your theory right either (and of course I haven't tried it, I'm neither the OP nor an answerer)
– Richard Tingle
yesterday

3

@MauryMarkowitz "especially not enough to explain the fact that it will continue to be orange all day long if you care to hold it in that long" .. if the temperature of the object really was the reason, shouldn't it have heated up enough for the flame to lose that orange colour by then?
– muru
13 hours ago

2

This is the most correct answer. Add a little more and I'll +1 you: Water droplets not only decreases the adiabatic flame temperature, as you say (perhaps to the point of causing improper reaction in and by itself). It also increases exhaust velocities for the same inlet velocities, at a lower temperature (steam production). As the velocities increase there will be a Reynolds number that threatens to cause turbulent flows, which would explain incomplete combustion - turbulence causes imbalance to a rather delicate fuel/oxidizer mix -> yellow flame.
– Stian Yttervik
10 hours ago

|
show 5 more comments

2

Your theory is plausible, but your evidence is also explainable by sodium; the knife will have sodium on it (and is made of a bunch of other metals). How do you know it's the temperature and not the sodium (or other chemical) in both cases? Does the effect go away if you preheat the knife in the oven?
– Richard Tingle
yesterday

11

"the knife will have sodium" - of come on, at the absolute best-case limit it will not be enough to be visible, and especially not enough to explain the fact that it will continue to be orange all day long if you care to hold it in that long. And what do you think is happening in the stove? Those "logs" are almost 30 years old and burn orange as long as the stove is running. The sodium explaination is completely implausible in both instances, or the hundreds of other objects you might try. Have you actually tried this, with anything?
– Maury Markowitz
yesterday

Ilmari suggests the sodium line is very strong. physics.stackexchange.com/questions/441648/…. And as long as the knife and logs continue to exist they are clearly made of something. Not saying you're wrong, just that you've not really proved your theory right either (and of course I haven't tried it, I'm neither the OP nor an answerer)
– Richard Tingle
yesterday

3

@MauryMarkowitz "especially not enough to explain the fact that it will continue to be orange all day long if you care to hold it in that long" .. if the temperature of the object really was the reason, shouldn't it have heated up enough for the flame to lose that orange colour by then?
– muru
13 hours ago

2

This is the most correct answer. Add a little more and I'll +1 you: Water droplets not only decreases the adiabatic flame temperature, as you say (perhaps to the point of causing improper reaction in and by itself). It also increases exhaust velocities for the same inlet velocities, at a lower temperature (steam production). As the velocities increase there will be a Reynolds number that threatens to cause turbulent flows, which would explain incomplete combustion - turbulence causes imbalance to a rather delicate fuel/oxidizer mix -> yellow flame.
– Stian Yttervik
10 hours ago

Your theory is plausible, but your evidence is also explainable by sodium; the knife will have sodium on it (and is made of a bunch of other metals). How do you know it's the temperature and not the sodium (or other chemical) in both cases? Does the effect go away if you preheat the knife in the oven?
– Richard Tingle
yesterday

"the knife will have sodium" - of come on, at the absolute best-case limit it will not be enough to be visible, and especially not enough to explain the fact that it will continue to be orange all day long if you care to hold it in that long. And what do you think is happening in the stove? Those "logs" are almost 30 years old and burn orange as long as the stove is running. The sodium explaination is completely implausible in both instances, or the hundreds of other objects you might try. Have you actually tried this, with anything?
– Maury Markowitz
yesterday

Ilmari suggests the sodium line is very strong. physics.stackexchange.com/questions/441648/…. And as long as the knife and logs continue to exist they are clearly made of something. Not saying you're wrong, just that you've not really proved your theory right either (and of course I haven't tried it, I'm neither the OP nor an answerer)
– Richard Tingle
yesterday

@MauryMarkowitz "especially not enough to explain the fact that it will continue to be orange all day long if you care to hold it in that long" .. if the temperature of the object really was the reason, shouldn't it have heated up enough for the flame to lose that orange colour by then?
– muru
13 hours ago

This is the most correct answer. Add a little more and I'll +1 you: Water droplets not only decreases the adiabatic flame temperature, as you say (perhaps to the point of causing improper reaction in and by itself). It also increases exhaust velocities for the same inlet velocities, at a lower temperature (steam production). As the velocities increase there will be a Reynolds number that threatens to cause turbulent flows, which would explain incomplete combustion - turbulence causes imbalance to a rather delicate fuel/oxidizer mix -> yellow flame.
– Stian Yttervik
10 hours ago

|
show 5 more comments

up vote
3
down vote

answered yesterday

Robert DiGiovanni

311

New contributor

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up vote
3
down vote

answered yesterday

Robert DiGiovanni

311

New contributor

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up vote
3
down vote

answered yesterday

Robert DiGiovanni

311

New contributor

answered yesterday

Robert DiGiovanni

311

New contributor

answered yesterday

Robert DiGiovanni

311

New contributor

answered yesterday

Robert DiGiovanni

311

answered yesterday

Robert DiGiovanni

311

New contributor

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up vote
-1
down vote

Make sure to increase ventilation when you see orange tips on the flames.

answered yesterday

Douglas Held

20116

1

I doubt it, I find the explanation with the salt more likely. But this is easy to check experimentally by taking a spectrum: soot gives a black-body spectrum, salt gives the Na atomic lines at 589 nm.
– Pieter
yesterday

10

The humidifier surely isn't displacing any significant amount of oxygen.
– David Richerby
yesterday

2

If you're going to disagree with me, do it with metrics.
– Douglas Held
yesterday

8

That's why there are so many reports of humidifier deaths, right?
– immibis
16 hours ago

1

@DouglasHeld: There is 21 % of Oxygen in air. The saturation vapor pressure for humidity corresponds to approx 3 % of absolute concentration at room temp. (beyond that there will be "rain"). So there will not be a significant decrease of oxygen. It is not possible. Practically the humidifier will also not be able to come even close to the 3% (more likely between 1 - 2 %).
– Andreas H.
3 hours ago

|
show 1 more comment

up vote
-1
down vote

Make sure to increase ventilation when you see orange tips on the flames.

answered yesterday

Douglas Held

20116

1

I doubt it, I find the explanation with the salt more likely. But this is easy to check experimentally by taking a spectrum: soot gives a black-body spectrum, salt gives the Na atomic lines at 589 nm.
– Pieter
yesterday

10

The humidifier surely isn't displacing any significant amount of oxygen.
– David Richerby
yesterday

2

If you're going to disagree with me, do it with metrics.
– Douglas Held
yesterday

8

That's why there are so many reports of humidifier deaths, right?
– immibis
16 hours ago

1

@DouglasHeld: There is 21 % of Oxygen in air. The saturation vapor pressure for humidity corresponds to approx 3 % of absolute concentration at room temp. (beyond that there will be "rain"). So there will not be a significant decrease of oxygen. It is not possible. Practically the humidifier will also not be able to come even close to the 3% (more likely between 1 - 2 %).
– Andreas H.
3 hours ago

|
show 1 more comment

up vote
-1
down vote

Make sure to increase ventilation when you see orange tips on the flames.

answered yesterday

Douglas Held

20116

Make sure to increase ventilation when you see orange tips on the flames.

answered yesterday

Douglas Held

20116

answered yesterday

Douglas Held

20116

answered yesterday

Douglas Held

20116

answered yesterday

Douglas Held

20116

1

I doubt it, I find the explanation with the salt more likely. But this is easy to check experimentally by taking a spectrum: soot gives a black-body spectrum, salt gives the Na atomic lines at 589 nm.
– Pieter
yesterday

10

The humidifier surely isn't displacing any significant amount of oxygen.
– David Richerby
yesterday

2

If you're going to disagree with me, do it with metrics.
– Douglas Held
yesterday

8

That's why there are so many reports of humidifier deaths, right?
– immibis
16 hours ago

1

@DouglasHeld: There is 21 % of Oxygen in air. The saturation vapor pressure for humidity corresponds to approx 3 % of absolute concentration at room temp. (beyond that there will be "rain"). So there will not be a significant decrease of oxygen. It is not possible. Practically the humidifier will also not be able to come even close to the 3% (more likely between 1 - 2 %).
– Andreas H.
3 hours ago

|
show 1 more comment

1

I doubt it, I find the explanation with the salt more likely. But this is easy to check experimentally by taking a spectrum: soot gives a black-body spectrum, salt gives the Na atomic lines at 589 nm.
– Pieter
yesterday

10

The humidifier surely isn't displacing any significant amount of oxygen.
– David Richerby
yesterday

2

If you're going to disagree with me, do it with metrics.
– Douglas Held
yesterday

8

That's why there are so many reports of humidifier deaths, right?
– immibis
16 hours ago

1

@DouglasHeld: There is 21 % of Oxygen in air. The saturation vapor pressure for humidity corresponds to approx 3 % of absolute concentration at room temp. (beyond that there will be "rain"). So there will not be a significant decrease of oxygen. It is not possible. Practically the humidifier will also not be able to come even close to the 3% (more likely between 1 - 2 %).
– Andreas H.
3 hours ago

I doubt it, I find the explanation with the salt more likely. But this is easy to check experimentally by taking a spectrum: soot gives a black-body spectrum, salt gives the Na atomic lines at 589 nm.
– Pieter
yesterday

The humidifier surely isn't displacing any significant amount of oxygen.
– David Richerby
yesterday

If you're going to disagree with me, do it with metrics.
– Douglas Held
yesterday

That's why there are so many reports of humidifier deaths, right?
– immibis
16 hours ago

@DouglasHeld: There is 21 % of Oxygen in air. The saturation vapor pressure for humidity corresponds to approx 3 % of absolute concentration at room temp. (beyond that there will be "rain"). So there will not be a significant decrease of oxygen. It is not possible. Practically the humidifier will also not be able to come even close to the 3% (more likely between 1 - 2 %).
– Andreas H.
3 hours ago

|
show 1 more comment

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