When you think of humidity, you may immediately think of outdoor temperatures. However, humidity affects your indoor comfort also and plays a significant role in your home’s indoor air quality. Maintaining optimal humidity levels in your home regulates how much moisture is present in the house. Either too high or too low, both create problematic situations. These issues can affect the household’s health and even cause damage to your home’s construction materials.
Here, you’ll learn more about how humidity affects your home and things you can do to maintain optimal levels. The first area is how humidity affects your home’s health and comfort.
Health and Indoor Comfort
When the home has low humidity levels, you might notice an increase in physical symptoms, such as itchy, irritated eyes, drier skin, and a scratchy throat. You might feel like you do in dry, winter air inside your home when relative humidity levels fall below 30%. You might even notice an increase in static electricity.
Indoor air that rises above 60% relative humidity levels becomes too humid. Your indoor climate might feel stuffy, and you might feel warm even though the thermostat is set to a desirable temperature. Physical signs of high humidity include worsening allergy symptoms. If someone has asthma in the home, they might have more problems breathing and need their rescue inhaler more often. High humidity also promotes bacteria and mold growth, which also worsens physical symptoms.
Home Problems
Unbalanced humidity levels can also damage your home, causing construction materials to break down. You might notice paint peeling or wood flooring, baseboards, and doors warping when humidity levels get too high. Sometimes, mold forms on the walls of a home because of the increased moisture. Dry air can cause wood floors to crack and even affect your appliances and other electrical components because of a rise in static electricity.
According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), indoor relative humidity (RH) levels should always stay below 60% and above 30%. If your home’s RH levels fall outside of this, you need whole-home humidification or dehumidification solutions.
How to Control Humidity Levels
The solutions for controlling humidity levels depend on where your RH levels fall. Do they fall below the suggested range or exceed it? For low humidity problems, experts recommend the following solutions.
Whole-home Humidifiers
Installing a whole-home humidifier balances the home’s humidity and preserves your home, preventing it from warping and cracking caused by RH levels falling below 30%. Whole-home humidification also improves dry skin and helps you sleep better. It can also protect you from becoming sick from airborne viruses.
Whole-home humidifiers provide superior air-balancing comfort compared to single-room humidifiers by adding moisture to the entire house. Your home’s temperature will feel more balanced, and you won’t notice substantially cooler rooms than others. According to Lennox, humidifiers can add up to 18 gallons of moisture to your home each day.
Dehumidifiers
For homes with too much moisture, a whole-home dehumidification system works well to remove moisture. Dehumidified air also feels cooler. When you invest in a whole-home dehumidifier, you feel comfortable even when setting your thermostat at a higher temperature. The money spent to install the dehumidifier quickly comes back to you in energy savings.
Ventilation and Circulation
Excess moisture gets removed from the home when it has good air circulation. The better ventilated your home is, the less moisture buildup it’ll have. Some ways to improve ventilation include:
- Opening windows
- Using exhaust fans
- Installing whole-house ventilation systems
The last suggestion helps your home seamlessly remove stale air and bring fresh air inside.
Insulation
Installing humidifiers and dehumidifiers goes a long way toward maintaining optimal humidity levels, but if your home is poorly insulated, it could undermine all humidification or dehumidification efforts. When a home has proper insulation, moisture can’t enter the home through gaps and cracks. Make sure you have enough insulation in the attic and crawl spaces. Also, you could install vapor barriers, which slow the rate at which water vapor moves through insulation material and into your home.
Other Ways to Control Humidity Levels
You’ll get the best results from installing professional humidifiers and dehumidifiers in your home. But if you want to do the following to complement the professional solutions, you might even boost your indoor comfort and air quality even more.
To help increase humidity levels naturally, consider adding greenery to the home. Houseplants do this wonderfully, and many people find it enjoyable to take care of them.
Consider using indoor water fountains to raise humidity levels. You can even place bowls of water near heat sources. As the water evaporates, it releases moisture into the air.
If you want to decrease humidity levels, check the home for air leaks around windows and doors. Also, take care of any plumbing leaks or air conditioner condensation. Fixing moisture problems goes a long way toward balancing humidity levels.
Check for any leaks around windows, doors, and pipes. Fixing these can prevent excess moisture from entering your home.
Why Regular Maintenance Matters for Home Humidity Levels
Your home’s HVAC system plays a crucial role in balancing indoor humidity levels. Keeping your HVAC system in top shape is crucial. Regular tasks like cleaning or replacing filters, checking for leaks, and maintaining proper airflow are key. Upgrading to a high-efficiency HVAC system or adding an indoor air quality unit, like a whole-home dehumidifier, can help manage excess moisture effectively.
Using these strategies can help you avoid indoor humidity problems and make your Baltimore home more comfortable and healthier. For the best results, consider consulting with a professional HVAC technician to have specific needs evaluated and get tailored advice.
Monitoring your home’s humidity levels might not seem like a big deal, but it is. Balanced humidity levels ensure a comfortable home, protect your belongings, and safeguard your health. So, take a moment to check those humidity levels; your home (and your health) will thank you!
Contact Your Baltimore Humidity Specialists
At At Your Service Heating & Cooling LLC, your comfort matters to us. We aim to provide our customers with high-quality solutions for all their heating, cooling, and ventilation needs. As a screened and approved Home Advisor member, you can feel confident that you will always receive the best service. Whether you need a whole-home humidifier or dehumidifier installed, heating repair, or air conditioning installation, our team listens to your needs and finds the best solutions for your lifestyle and budget.
When you want a family-owned business that puts the customer’s needs first, we fit the bill. For over a decade, we’ve been at the service of the Baltimore community. You can count on us to get the job done right the first time and do whatever it takes to earn your satisfaction. As the area’s leading heating and cooling experts, you can trust our advice and expertise to keep you comfortable in your home 24/7. Are you ready to learn more about indoor air quality, whole-house humidifiers, and dehumidifiers? Give At Your Service Heating & Cooling LLC a call today to schedule a consultation! We also offer comprehensive duct cleaning to keep your HVAC running smoothly.
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