When most homeowners think about altering the comfort inside their homes, they picture their furnaces and air conditioning systems. While these appliances are great for changing the air’s temperature, they’re only one part of the comfort equation. Controlling the relative humidity level inside your home can have an enormous impact on your overall comfort.
High Humidity
When humidity levels inside your home are high, it can impact the way you feel and may affect different parts of your home. During the hot summer season, your body will naturally sweat as a way to cool itself down. Unfortunately, when there’s too much humidity in the air, it won’t be able to absorb a lot of your sweat. This will leave you feeling hot, stuffy, and uncomfortable.
It’s common for homeowners to lower the temperature on their thermostats to compensate for this uncomfortable feeling. This can drive up your energy costs and shorten the overall lifespan of your air conditioning unit.
Apart from just affecting your comfort, high humidity can create the perfect environment for mold and mildew to thrive. That’s one of many ways it affects your indoor air quality. Mold spores will easily travel in the air and can cause respiratory problems over time. Mold and mildew can easily deteriorate your home’s structural components as well as your belongings. High humidity levels can cause warping of wood furniture, flooring, and paneling.
Low Humidity
When humidity levels are too low in the wintertime, you’ll also experience problems. Personally, it’s common for your skin to dry out, causing you to be extremely itchy. You may experience dry eyes, and your nasal membrane will also dry out, leading to nose and throat irritation. When your sinuses are irritated, their ability to filter out unwanted pathogens from viruses is lowered. This increases your risk of experiencing illness.
There will be an uptick in static electricity. All the wood components in your home, like your furniture and your flooring, may shrink as moisture is pulled out of them. This can cause unwanted cracking. Low indoor humidity can cause paint and wallpaper to dry out excessively and peel off your walls.
Dry air can also take a toll on your comfort level. Dry air can’t hold heat like moist air can. This will cause the air to cool more rapidly, leaving you uncomfortably cold. In response, you’re likely to increase the temperature setting on your thermostat, which will lead to higher heating costs during the winter.
What is the Optimal Indoor Humidity Level?
The humidity level inside your home is referred to as a relative humidity level. The best relative humidity level is between 30 and 50%. Anything over 50 could lead to mold and mildew growth, while anything under 30 can lead to more illness. To monitor the relative humidity level in your home, you’ll want to purchase a thermostat that integrates with a whole-home humidification and dehumidification system. This will allow you to track the humidity level in real-time and set a desired level for your optimal comfort.
Whole-Home Humidifiers
Whole-home humidifiers can be a great way to introduce more humidity into the air during the cold winter season. They will help you avoid issues like dry skin and allow your air to hold more of the heat that your heater produces. This will boost your comfort level while helping to keep your heating bills in check.
Whole-Home Dehumidifiers
Another worthy investment is a whole-home dehumidification system. This system works to remove excess humidity from the air during the hot summer months. This will greatly reduce your risk of mold and mildew growth and protect your home’s structural integrity and all your belongings inside of it. Even better, by reducing indoor humidity, you can feel more comfortable as your body can naturally sweat to cool itself down.
Automated Humidity Control
Both whole-home humidifiers and dehumidifiers work automatically to adjust the humidity level in your home to your desired setting. Your whole-home humidifier is directly connected to your water supply line so it can feed moisture into the air. Your whole-home dehumidifier is directly connected to your drain line, so water that’s pulled from the air can safely drain out of your home.
Reliable Humidity Control Service
Waterbury Heating & Cooling, Inc. offers reliable humidity control services in Sioux Falls, SD. We can assist with all your whole-home humidification, dehumidification, and indoor air quality needs. Call us today to book your next service appointment.
