Heat / Humidty For Stamps

I know that this is a complete newbie question, but I've wondered about this for a while. I did a google search on it, but didn't find anything useful, but perhaps my search terms weren't very good.

Basically, is there a certain temperate (or humidity) where you need to be concerned about your stamps (especially gummed stamps), and how do you store your stamps to prevent this? For example, I usually store my stamps in an album on a bookshelf at home. Sometimes it can get into the mid to high 80s. Is this a concern? I've read that you can use desiccants to prevent some of the humidity buildup, so perhaps put the albums in a drawer with a few packs of dessicants? Not sure if any of this sounds crazy. Thanks!

Rather than laying albums flat in a drawer (they should be stored upright), you might acquire dustcases and put the desiccant sachet in the bottom of the dustcase. It might help a little but can't be the main defense.

Humidity is far more dangerous than heat alone, at least heat in the 80s F. But, if you have temperatures in the 80s F., that must be coming from ambient temperature outside rather than from a furnace when it's cold outside--no one heats to high 80s with a furnace in winter. Furnace heat is dry, so that's not a problem, whether at 68 or 72 or whatever. If your 80s outside is in an arid climate (US Southwest), it's not going to be a problem. But if you are in the Southeast, . . . the higher the temperature the more humid it's going to be, at least most of the time. At what point does the humidity (not the heat) become problematic? I don't know but I'm guessing that somewhere north of the mid- or high 80s F you want to have consistent room airconditioning if central ac is not possible. But not so much to keep the temperature down as to keep the air dry, since AC works by taking humidity out.

The best way would be to measure the actual humidity rather than going by temperature. There's a long thread over on that other stamp chat board (dare I post a URL???) in which one poster, from Calcutta/Kolkata says 45-55% humidity is best for stamps and notes that you don't want it too dry either--really dry heat is bad for storing paper just as really humid atmosphere.

I'd be skeptical of trying to handle it with desiccants alone--though, over on that other thread the head honcho has a long panegyric in favor of slipcases.

First of all, desiccant packets become waterlogged and have to be changed regularly; second, unless you can seal the albums off against new moist air circulating, it'd be like trying to empty the ocean with a teaspoon. And you do NOT want to put an air-tight barrier around your albums in order to make the desiccant work better. Air-tight is not good for stamps.

What the heck: http://stampboards.com/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=12628 -- I found that via a google search.

Maybe this link will help?

http://lignup.com/collectibles/148-...estamps.html

Thanks for the responses! I didn't know about not lying the albums flat, which I had been doing for a couple of them, but it makes complete sense. The comment about A/C makes sense, but there may be times when I go on vacation and leave the house for a couple weeks, where obviously I wouldn't leave the A/C. Maybe I'm just over-thinking things. However, I really appreciate the tips here. Thanks again!