100% humidity outside what to i set my dehumidifier for
What's the All-time Humidity Level For Your Dwelling house, and How Exercise You Control It?
I am a Residential Sales Professional for Fire & Ice. I meet with hundreds of homeowners a year to help them in their HVAC comfort needs.
What'due south the ideal humidity level for your house? And how tin you maintain this humidity level throughout the year?
I have huge humidity problems. While this isn't uncommon in Central Ohio, most people are used to having to add moisture in the winter. Often, I detect myself having to dehumidify even in the winter.
My issues aren't the same equally yours. Merely everyone who owns a home needs to exist paying attention to their humidity levels. If y'all're not, I guarantee it'southward hurting you in several ways. Maybe it'south allergies, maybe it's mold, maybe information technology's just a general sense of dry-skinned discomfort in the wintertime.
You may exist aware of the humidity problems you lot face, merely many homeowners take no idea they can have amend condolement through better humidity command. That's what we're going to talk most in this article. We'll cover:
- Why humidity matters and what bug it tin create and solve
- What you can practise in every flavour to be more comfortable
- What your unabridged HVAC system (including A/C and furnace units) has to do with wet control
Set to experience meliorate in your dwelling? Good. Permit'south get started.
Why Humidity Matters in HVAC
Humidity equals condolement. Don't believe me? Spend 10 minutes in a sauna at a certain temperature, then ten minutes in a steam room that's at the same temperature. There's quite a difference.
Your home isn't a sauna or steam room, merely if your humidity gets out of control, it tin can sometimes feel like information technology.
Temperature is what we think of when we consider indoor comfort, but humidity levels affair almost as much. You've probably heard the term "dry heat" and how it's more endurable than the "wet heat" of a boiling environment. This is completely true.
In practise, your 72-caste abode could easily be uncomfortably hot with humidity that's too high, just every bit it can be too cold in the wintertime if you lot take dry out air.
And then if yous're paying to rut and absurd your home anyhow, why not practise something about this?
What'southward worse is that in that location are other problems that humidity can cause if it gets too high or also low.
Bug Caused by High Humidity:
- Dust Mites. These absorb ambience moisture and can proliferate throughout your abode. In turn, they describe spiders and other insects that feed on dust mites.
- Mold and Mildew. This is an effect in many basements, and tin too creep upward to other levels of your domicile if you're not careful.
- Health and Allergies. If there are mold spores in your air, you won't breathe as hands. At its worst, it can affect the health of y'all and your family unit.
- Hot Upper Floors. Is your master chamber too hot? It's non just a temperature upshot. It'south a humidity effect, since the about humid air will rise to the top of your home.
- Trouble Sleeping. This could exist due to overall temperature or moisture that causes nighttime sweating.
Problems Caused past Low Humidity:
- Dry Wood. Cracking floorboards and wooden infrastructure of your home.
- Illnesses. Low humidity is a good surround for many bacteria and viruses to exist. It's a big role of the reason flu season hits over the winter in most parts of the country.
- Skin and Throat. Dry, croaky skin and a sore pharynx are hallmarks of the colder winter months. They don't need to be.
- Cold Spots in Home. This could be the power of your furnace organization, your ductwork, or drafty windows. But frequently, it's related to humidity.
There may exist other reasons we're forgetting, simply those are the issues most commonly faced by homeowners that we talk to.
At present allow's kickoff to talk about fixing these issues.
What's the All-time Dwelling house Humidity Level?
Nigh expert sources concord that anything betwixt 30-60% humidity is acceptable for a home environment. Anything lower will create problems, just as anything college will create issues. Depending on where you live and your humidity concerns, your ideal level may be on the upper or lower terminate of that range.
That said, in that location isn't a central authority of humidity control that decides what the best level is. But air quality experts practice agree on a range of acceptable humidity levels.
HVAC.com puts the ideal level at forty%. Aprilaire, a visitor that specializes in indoor air quality products, cites 50% as the target. Both are correct, because those levels exist in an acceptable range for dwelling humidity.
For example, recall that we mentioned grit mites before? They can exist in your home at or above about 50% humidity. More than of them volition be able to thrive at even higher levels higher up threescore%.
Conversely, studies have shown that many viruses stay alive in the air much longer at humidity levels beneath near 40%. In fact, this is true of the coronavirus that brought the globe to its knees in 2020.
RELATED: Can HVAC Protect From Coronavirus and Other Illnesses
So humidity levels really matter!
Managing Humidity in the Summer
Summers here in Central Ohio go very humid. If yous're in the southeastern office of the country, this tin can exist even more than true.
Some people think that getting the shop-bought dehumidifiers will have care of humidity problems. They might, merely only for very mild cases. Most times, the all-time these devices can promise to accomplish is to reduce humidity levels in a single room.
This might assist you slumber at night, for example, but won't practise annihilation almost the allergens, dust mites, and mold issues that you might develop if you lot ignore the residual of your business firm.
The solution in these cases is a whole-firm dehumidifier. These are able to regulate your entire dwelling'southward humidity, and it works in conjunction with your HVAC organization.
RELATED: Is a Whole-Home Dehumidifier Right for Me?
The other nice affair is this: by continue humidity down, yous don't take to cool your home as much, saving you cooling costs in the summer.
At that place'due south an upfront price to a whole-home dehumidifier, and some people struggle to encounter the do good. But if humidity is an issue, you're gambling with your health and condolement, and likewise risking having to have mold removal down the road. If you're concerned near any of these, the take a chance isn't worth it.
Managing Humidity in the Winter
The flip side of the whole-home dehumidifier is a whole-house humidifier.
While a whole-house dehumidifier tin can be ducted into your HVAC organization or standalone, a whole-dwelling house humidifier will always exist ducted directly into your system. When the fan in your furnace unit turns on (which also moves air for the air conditioner), information technology will spread wet throughout the home to keep it from being dry.
Want to reduce your adventure of the influenza? Or to terminate it from spreading when your kids bring it dwelling house from school? Continue your humidity levels up. Want to avoid having to take out a loan just to purchase enough skin moisturizer in the wintertime? Keep your humidity levels up.
The individual units you see at section stores are again ok for individual rooms. They can be useful for sleeping meliorate occasionally, for example. Simply doing that is ignoring the remainder of your home, where you spend a lot of time in your life.
When You Don't Demand These Products
Let's say y'all alive in Arizona and it'southward never besides humid. Yous won't need a dehumidifier in that case. Or yous live on the coast and it'due south constantly muggy. You won't demand a humidifier at that place. Or your domicile is insulated well, doesn't have a basement, and never seems to accept high-humidity days. You're good to get already.
But for the bulk of united states, one or more than of these issues will be a problem. Don't ignore it, or y'all're ignoring your own wellbeing.
And how volition you lot know your humidity levels are ok? Keep scrolling. A scrap further downward we talk about tracking humidity, so that you can exist certain you're optimizing your home's condolement.
How Your Air Conditioner Controls Humidity
Await, what does air workout take to exercise with humidity control? A lot, it turns out.
One of the functions of your air conditioner is to blot humidity from inside your home and expel it outside. Some A/C units are very efficient at doing this.
This is function of the reason why not all air conditioners are created equal. In particular, variable-speed air conditioners are great at this, compared to single-stage and two-stage ACs. This is because they can dehumidify while operating on lower ability settings. I'll requite you an example:
Let's say you desire your home to be 72 degrees, and 45% humidity. The air-conditioning might get the temperature to 72 degrees, merely the humidity is still at 53%. Then you lot desire to remove more than moisture, just without making information technology whatever colder. What'due south the solution here?
For a unmarried-phase air conditioner, the respond might be "at that place isn't a solution." Or at least, in that location isn't one without the aid of a whole-home dehumidifier. Since the air conditioner can only plough on or off 100%, to remove more moisture would be to as well make information technology colder.
Merely a variable-speed arrangement tin operate as low as 40% capacity, which will give you a more moderate stream of cold air. Nevertheless, it volition go along to remove moisture through this operation.
And so a more advanced system may actually run longer, but it'due south using less energy since information technology'due south operating at a lower power, and it'southward making your home more comfortable in the procedure.
ALSO READ: I-Stage, Two-Stage & Variable-Speed ACs: Differences & Benefits
This won't always be the correct solution. Other times, no A/C will be enough for a very humid abode, and you'll want to supplement it with a whole-house dehumidifier. But the range of options available to you with ac units means you accept different means to tackle the same problem.
Tracking Humidity
So how volition you know your humidity is within acceptable ranges? After all, many homes accept no style of tracking this. Let's wait at some of your options.
Thermostat
Many modern thermostats have displays for humidity level, and can actively help you manage this level in your habitation. Some can run your blower fan fifty-fifty when the air conditioner isn't running in order to remove more than wet from the air.
Humidistat
A humidistat is a device specifically designed to monitor humidity levels in a space. Most mod humidistats are digital.
Your Humidifier or Dehumidifier
Whole-dwelling house dehumidifiers and humidifiers will take congenital-in sensors that do this. However, in that location can be a problem with this method. If your dehumidifier is in your basement, for example (which is usually the best place for information technology), or your humidifier is with the furnace in a utility closet, it's taking the humidity level in that room. Yous'd rather optimize it for the living space on the principal flooring of the home where the most people are.
So the takeaway with that final one is to talk to your HVAC partner to brand sure these devices are properly connected to your thermostat, and that you have a thermostat that'south capable of detecting humidity levels. Otherwise, you'll be optimizing humidity levels for areas of the dwelling house where no 1 ever visits.
Command Your Comfort
When we visit homeowners, they're normally not thinking well-nigh humidity. They're thinking about heating and cooling.
This is why we sit downward with every potential client and walk through what nosotros call "comfort concerns." A lot of times, you lot'll be experiencing one or more than of the problems we've discussed in this commodity. But it'south rare to notice someone who realizes that these problems can exist solved with HVAC solutions.
If your HVAC partner isn't listening to your problems in this mode, they're not really looking out for you. I don't care if you're in our service area or not; yous should exist working with someone who is trying to be proactive about managing your home's condolement. Non just someone who wants to sell you a system as chop-chop equally possible.
Because HVAC isn't just about the bottom line. It's most creating a home environment where you can savour your life.
That's what we're hither for at Fire & Water ice. If yous're in Central Ohio, plug your cypher code into the box below to go started. We'll be happy to listen to your concerns and assist you lot observe the best solutions for them.
Check to meet if nosotros service your area.
Outside of Service Surface area
We're distressing, nosotros unfortunately do not service this area.
Source: https://indoortemp.com/resources/ideal-home-humidity-level-control
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