Humidity and Your Home

5/27/2020 (Permalink)

Humidity can be beneficial for many things, from keeping your skin moisturized to minimizing the spread of airborne viruses. However, coming home to a humid space can be a real damper. If you’ve ever come home to muggy air, you may have at some point, simply wondered…why?

CAUSES OF HOME HUMIDITY

High home humidity ultimately boils down to an accumulation of excess moisture. This moisture can accumulate when you:

1. Have a leak in your home
2. Improper ventilation
3. Shower, cook, and/or clean in a room without windows or fans

But how do you know for sure that your home is too humid?

INDICATIONS OF A HUMID HOME

There’s a great chance that the humidity level in your home has gotten relatively high if:

• Your windows have moisture on them
• The air feels still or stale
• There are water stains on your walls and ceilings
• You can smell a musty odor

If you not sure that your home is too moist, you can measure your home’s humidity levels with a relatively inexpensive humidity monitor. The ideal home humidity levels will fall somewhere between 40% and 60%. That being said, the indoor humidity may change based on seasonality—it’ll likely trend more towards the higher end of the range during summer and towards the lower end of range during the winter months.

HOW TO REDUCE YOUR HOMES HUMIDITY LEVELS

There a number of ways to clear the air in your home when it starts to weigh you down. Here are a few of the most effective ones.

• Ventilate
  
  Use the exhaust fans in your kitchen and bathroom to get rid of excess moisture. If you don’t have access to exhaust fans, be sure to crack a window open to get rid of the stale air. Covering pots and pans while cooking can also suppress additional moisture levels in your home. Turn on any ceiling or box fans to increase air circulation. Be sure that your clothes dryer vents outside.
  
  
• Turn on your Air Conditioner.
  
  While you may be saving on your electric bill by not running your air conditioner, you are actually contributing to that muggy feeling in your home. Instead of turning your your A/C completely off, set your thermostat to a higher than normal temperature. Or open the windows and turn on fans to keep cool.
  
  
• Use a Dehumidifier.
  
  Dehumidifiers do exactly what you need them to: pull excess moisture out of the air. They also get rid of musty odors, protect furniture, reduce pests, and prevent mold in the process. 

EFFECTS OF HAVING A HUMID HOME.

• Mold grows and thrives in humid spaces. Constant exposure to mold can lead to  health problems for those allergic to it.
• Heat exhaustion can be a result of living in a too-humid home. Once you’ve started sweating, the excess moisture trapped in a humid home keeps the sweat on your skin instead of letting it naturally evaporate. You may become dehydrated as you lose moisture through your skin. If you experience this issue, be sure to drink lots of water and avoid physical exertion until your body adjusts to the higher temperature or you dehumidify your home.
• Indoor air pollutants are exacerbated by high humidity levels. Dust mites, in particular, thrive in humid environments. Using an air purifier and changing your A/C filter once per month will help mitigate these effects. However, it’s best to just reduce your home humidity levels to squash the issue.
• Higher cooling costs go hand-in-hand with humid homes. The high humidity levels make the home feel hotter, so you’ll probably run the air conditioner more to feel cooler and potentially end up with heat exhaustion as we discussed earlier.

Keep in mind, you won’t have to deal with these effects the sooner you get your home humidity levels back in that ideal range of 40% to 60%. Dehumidifying your home is definitely worth your effort.