Controlling Humidity Levels in your Home

The Texas heat would be bad enough, but there is a separate element to the summer weather that southerners dread every year. If it was not for the intense humidity, the summer months would not seem so aggressive. And while battling the outside humidity can be hard enough, it is important to be aware of the humidity levels inside your house as well. Knowing the facts about the humidity inside your home can be beneficial to your health and to your belongings.

How Much Humidity Is Too Much?

While it might seem like you want zero humidity in your house, this is actually incorrect. Your humidity level goal in your home should be around 40 percent. Especially in the winter months, your heating system, without a little humidity, can cause your skin to dry out as well as any wood furniture or instruments. On the flip side, excessive humidity can be equally damaging if left unchecked. When there is too much humidity, moisture tends to gather in corners and smaller spaces. This leaves an opening for bacteria to form and grow in your home, which not only could be damaging to the structure of your home, but this could be bad for your health as well. Mildew caused by excessive moisture can also cause damage to other more unexpected areas of your home such as the mechanical system of your HVAC system, and it could cause wood rot on your window framing and even your piping system.

Solutions To High Humidity

Depending on the level of humidity in your home, there are a few easy solutions to solve the problem. If most of your indoor humidity problems are in your bathroom (this is typically where people first notice a problem), simply opening a window could benefit the moisture levels in the air. If a window is not available or the problem still persists, installing a ceiling exhaust fan should help. This behaves like a more aggressive version of an open window in the sense that it actively draws the moist air out of the room.

In the winter time, if you have an area of your home that is experiencing too much moisture, heating that room could stabilize the humidity. If this doesn’t do the trick, adding a dehumidifier (one can be purchased at common stores like Walmart and Target) could get you where you want to be. In the summer months when you do not want to turn on the heating system in your home, purchasing a dehumidifier is the perfect place to start.

Adding Humidity

The dry winter months paired with your home heating system can cause you to need more humidity in your house. An overly dry house, just like a house with too much humidity, can cause damage to your wood furniture by causing it to crack (this is especially threatening to musical instruments), but it can also cause a lot of discomfort by drying out your skin. Many people benefit from buying humidifiers and running them over night. If smaller humidifier systems are not doing the trick, you can have a whole house humidifying unit installed to your HVAC system.

Being aware of the humidity in your house and how to control it could prevent you from having to deal with greater issues down the road such as bacteria or even structural damage. Using a portable humidifier or dehumidifier can help keep your home comfortable throughout the various seasons that the southern weather throws at you. For more information about controlling your home humidity, contact the expert HVAC technicians at AirOne Heating and Air Conditioning, serving Kyle & San Marcos, TX.