Take These Steps to Reduce High Indoor Humidity
During the cooling season in southwest Ohio, fighting the heat is only half the battle. Controlling humidity is the other half of the fight. Your home clearly has a humidity problem if you and other family members feel sticky and uncomfortable, you notice condensation on windows and walls, and/or the air conditioner is struggling to provide cooling comfort.
Why high humidity is bad
High humidity in the house is not only uncomfortable, it can result in health risks, especially to people with allergies or respiratory issues.
Muggy air over an extended period can aggravate respiratory ailments triggered by certain biological agents such as mildew and mites. Mold, mildew and dust mites do well in moist environments. A high-humidity environment can also damage home furnishings, belongings and fixtures.
While a wide range of mechanical solutions are available for humidity control (whether you’re looking for dehumidification or humidification), both for the whole house or individual rooms or areas, options also are available for naturally-reducing indoor humidity.
The natural route to controlling humidity
Try any or all of these tried-and-true methods to control humidity during the cooling season:
- Take shorter showers. A long shower can produce a surprising amount of humidity, and not just in the bathroom. However long your shower, run the bathroom exhaust fan. (Shorter showers, of course, also save water.)
- Close windows and doors and use the air conditioning. If your AC doesn’t seem to be reducing indoor humidity, consider calling your preferred air conditioning contractor to address that issue. This is a common problem with older HVAC systems, and may be sufficient reason to consider discussing an upgrade with a trusted HVAC installation specialist.
- Install effective ventilation. Consider installing an Energy Recovery Ventilator (ERV) system, which transfers moisture (and heat) from inflowing to outflowing air. HRV (Heat Recovery Ventilation) systems are also effective options.
- Draw moisture from the air with cat litter or calcium chloride placed in small bowls throughout the house. These substances draw moisture from the air. (If you have cats, you might want to skip this option.)
Whole-house humidifiers
If these strategies fall short of solving your indoor humidity problem, it’s time to consider a whole-house dehumidifier. It works in tandem with your forced-air cooling system to control humidity throughout the house.
These systems have multiple advantages including
- comfort (dry air is more comfortable than moist air during warm weather),
- protection of furniture and belongings from the damaging effects of high humidity),
- a healthier indoor environment and
- more efficient cooling (your AC won’t have to work as hard to remove moisture from the air).
Whole-house systems typically are connected to your home’s plumbing, so the extracted water is efficiently removed from your home.
Room or partial humidifiers
Room or portable dehumidifiers can be used to attack localized humidity issues, with many of the same benefits. Seasonal maintenance on your AC system also should help control humidity, along with multiple other benefits to comfort, energy efficiency and safety.
An efficiently-operating air conditioner should remove much of the humidity from indoor air.