Managing Your Home’s Humidity
We all want to be comfortable in our homes, and that includes the air that surrounds you. Maybe you’re noticing that the air feels dry, or that your windows have built up condensation on the inside during the winter. These are all things that the humidity in your home can affect, including your Home Heating and Air Conditioning units.
The humidity in your home is the amount of water vapor that is in the air, which will change from season to season. Removing humidity from your home is a key function completed by your air conditioning system. In the summer months, you’ll have to keep your humidifier set around 30-45% to combat the warm, moist air. You’ll want to keep it lower (around 40%) in the winter months, which is a more delicate balance to fight the dry air and to stop condensation from forming on the windows. If you find condensation is still forming on windows at this percentage, you may need to lower it further.
Your home can feel the most comfortable when your humidity levels are set between 30-60%, depending on your own personal preferences. Though the ideal humidity would be to keep your home’s humidifier around 45-55%, this is best for health concerns like respiratory conditions. If it is set lower or higher than this range, there is risk for things like bacteria, viruses and fungus developing, problems with asthma and allergies, chemical reactions, or mites. It can also cause dry and itchy skin or sleep discomfort, while chipped paint or damage to your wood floors and furniture may occur, or even developing mold in your home.
So, what can we do, besides setting our air conditioning units to the proper level? During the summer, stop use of any additional humidity devices in the house and use your air conditioning unit to help scrub out the seasonal humidity. When winter hits, you can break out your portable humidifiers to fight the dry air, or add a whole house humidifier or ventilation system. You can also add houseplants or a water basin next to your heating system.
If you are concerned about managing home humidity levels in your home, give us a call at Priority Heating & Cooling to chat with a heating and cooling expert, so your systems will keep your home healthy and comfortable.
