Although humidity is good but living and surviving in a too high humid level environment is questionable to healthy life and comfort. Coping with too high moisture is neither fun nor comfortable. What you must know, it can go from normal home condition to worse situation in homes of higher humidity levels.
Sometimes it feel warming, sticky and other times plane gross but the hidden truth, more dangers accompany it than just moody feeling that you might just be thinking of. High humidity can also destroy your home belongings, house structure, walls, surfaces etc.
Are you not aware that humidity level above 60% has prolific power to damage your paint, insulation, siding and wood?
What about the known fact that excessive humidity is secretes behind allergens and contaminant such as mold, mildew and dusts mite’s evasion?
Medically and health wise, all of the aforementioned agents can cause serious health issues. If you peradventure you’re suffering from asthma, allergies or long time pulmonary ailments, your case may double up.
Borrowing the words of Energy Star, it states that the right home humidity levels should be btw 30 to 50 percent. And so it’s at your jurisdictions to follow the standard indoor humidity level as stated.
However, maintaining ideal level of humidity at home will help you stay comfortable as it improves the air quality and reliability of your living space.
Another fact, relative humidity is unstable from one room to another and also from seasons to another. For instance, your bedroom needs at least 50% R.H all year round to help combat dust mites and airborne pollutants.
Also, by maintaining proper humidity levels, you can sleep better because of the sufficient moist level available to the mucous membranes.
Most noteworthy, in the summer the ideal Relative Humidity level is < 60%, these values significantly drop down to 25 and 40% during the winter. And having too high humidity in the colder seasons can also cause complication.
However, if you want to be healthy and free from humidity problems, the remedy is to reduce humidity level. But how can it be managed when it’s gone bad? This takes us to the secrets behind high humidity levels in home.
The tips discussed here will help you keep humidity free home and make you comfortable throughout the year. Only if you can practice them.
How to Know If Your Home Is Having Excessive Humidity?
Since is practically impossible to move around with dew or humidity meter all the time, how then can you know if the humidity inside your house is too high?
Many telltale signs such as foggy windows, clammy skin and others are pointers. You may also perceive musty odors or smell of mildew in your house due to accumulation of moisture over time.
To keep it simple, these are the various things to you can do to checkmate high humidity level in your house:
- Check for condensation on your house structure like the widow sides, pipes, and basement, even on your mirrors. If you notice any trace, feel and examine the surrounding environment and ensure it doesn’t spreads to your walls or close-by surfaces.
- Check your ceilings, try to look out for possible wet areas or stucco. Moisture can also appear in form of discoloration that you may think to be spot in some lighting conditions, so you have to be sensitive in your checking.
- Did you find any peeling or overhear floorboards movements massively?
- If any members of your family or you is experiencing or suffered shortness or loss of breath, headaches, symptoms of allergy such as severe cough or wheezing then humidity maybe affecting your organs without doubt.
- Check for smell of mildew and mold relatively, sometimes the scent may come in form of smoky odor. And if you have stayed long indoor, try moving out for a while and come again after sometimes. You may be fortunate to detect the smells and odors much better after taken fresh air.
- Is any of your home surfaces like walls, floor, or shelves felling moist or soft?
- Did you discover discoloration or dark spot?
Even though, some of the above signs, individually may not fully account for humidity problems in the home, but its safe move to take if you have suffered different health conditions, you should at least check your home.
Why Is Your House So Humid?
Different things add up to humidity buildup within indoors. Talk about the construction, design and material component used and the level of air-tight your property possesses.
In addition, the surrounding temperature and climates directly impacts humidity alteration. For example, in Florida, average humidity in a house will be higher compare to house suited in New England and this can be further said, that geographical location can also cause high or low humidity.
However, on the other hand, hotter climates like homes located in the South Pole can also experience higher humidity as a result of the oversized air conditioner that is constantly running to cool the home.
Often said, when an air conditioner units capacity or power is too much for the home, it cools the environment faster and in brief within ineffective durations. Hence causes the unit to switch on/off more often thereby allowing humidity buildup.
What you may not also know, the AC evaporator coil serve as a dehumidifier, by extracting moisture from the air. However, for such to take place, the air moving via the unit requires enough time. But if your machine is inter-switching between on and off frequently, nothing can be done because the moisture will eventually settled down in your house.
You alone is in the right position to tell if your AC is too large or not. Or how often it operates and how long. But in the hottest days, it should run for ten to fifteen minutes in one cycle before it turns off.
The Benefits of Having a Good Home Humidity Level
As mentioned earlier, allergens and pollutants thrive more in higher humidity levels. So maintaining a moderate home humidity level can leads to enviable health benefits aside the comfort and convenient that accompanies it.
Wait a minute, have you ever stayed in a weather that was intensely hot and you become sticky and bathed with plenty of sweat? That’s not good at all and shouldn’t be a moment to experience inside your home where comfort should be the top most priority.
Also note, during cold winter month’s dry air can be of serious problem just as too humidness can be. So you need to control humidity properly because dry air that find its way inside can never be humid to that extend you may desire but rather remain dry. And this’ll definitely creates additional uncomfortable living home and may even cause bleeding nose if care is not taken.
Another important factors are Attic temperature and humidity levels. Even though, you won’t be spending time in the crawling spaces or attic of your house, that doesn’t mean you should leave it full of humidness.
How to Decrease Humidity in Your House
There’re various tools and steps to reducing humidity. The various method are practically helpful:
Dehumidifier: You can place a dehumidifier in your basements more often but it’ll be better to get a larger models that can handle such areas to keep property protected. This device perform better in well-sealed space or rooms including closed door and windows. Adequately removes moisture from air but must not be placed closed to walls for proper flow of air to them.
Good ventilation: Make sure high humidity areas like the kitchen and bathrooms are properly ventilated. You can also switch on vent fans and leave them to run when high moisture signs are detected. Run extra fans if wetness is causing problems. If you don’t have additional units, you can make an opening on window or more to improve the condition.
Air Conditioning Systems: This device not only cools down the air in your house but also reduce moistness and humidness. The only concern, ensure the unit you have has the capacity to take out moisture from the square ft. of your home space.
Humidity Monitors: A humidity monitors checks for moisture levels inside your house. You can purchase one from local stores or online for this need.
Weatherstripping: Embarking on weatherstripping around your home windows and doors creates an air-tight seal condition which prevents warm or cool air from leaving and excessive humidity from entry. They’re generally nice for climates that feel warmers when it is actually humid outside.
Caulking: This works similarly to weatherstripping but only applicable to materials and line surfaces that may be expose to moisture like sinks, faucets, tubs, toilets and others. Caulking can also be applicable to windows and seams.
Interior Adjustments: Occasionally, make changes to your interior which may include installing of new ceiling fans, frequent cleaning of AC unit ducts, filters and more.
Insulation: If you don’t know before now, insulation is used in order to conserve heat and prevents small fragments from gaining access into the home.
For instance, if your home walls are insulated, the insulation will prevents warm and cool air from leaving or coming through any openings in your walls.
Lifestyle Changes: Program your HVAC or AC fan to AUTOMATIC instead of “ON mood”. More so, if possible, try not to put on your air conditioner if you notice any power on/off within a short interval.
Also, practice the habit of turning on your bathroom exhaust fan during bath. That’s if you have any and also keep the door open when possible.
How to Deal With Indoor Humidity Self and Professional Ways
Removing humidity levels from your home inside is not difficult, here are most things to do:
- Carpets are known for retaining moisture as rugs do. It’ll be a profitable decision to take out the carpet and then replace it with wood flooring, tile or more advance materials.
- Make sure your water pipes are insulated models to prevent sweating out of moisture and condensation.
- Try lining your windows with storm coating or plastic film to get rid of moisture and condensed air. Furthermore, be sure caulking and weatherstripping are used both in and outside of your window seams edge. If you discover its deteriorating or degrading, replacing it is highly advised. But if you can’t do it yourself, call a professional. However, welcome no delay.
- Instead of using vinyl or wallpaper for covering your wall, paint the walls. The materials used in the making of those materials can hold moisture and may damage the surface of your wall without you knowing. They may also cause mold development especially if the wallpaper etc. is covering a larger surface area.
- Ensure crawl spaces or other areas are well insulated with vapor barrier materials.
- For those that have basement section in their house, be sure no cracks or holes is in the walls. If any, fix them as quick as possible. You’re also advised to coat your underground walls using Drylok or Xypex to prevent excessive seeping in of moisture.
- Be sure your air conditioning machine or climate control unit is the right size and appropriate for your home. As outlined before, too large size can degenerates to humidity accumulation. In order not to dwell in assumption, it pays to contact a professional for more assistant in this kind of dilemma.
How to Deal With Outdoor Humidity
While ensuring indoor humidity is okay, you must also take note that outdoor humidity levels also influences the inside one. Here are things to do to improve your home condition:
- Make sure gutters, drainage ditches or basements slopes are distance from your building. This prevents water from sinking into your home or basement foundation. It also helps in preventing flood in a situation of high water build-up.
- For water to drain freely than building up, clean your gutters and downspouts properly.
- You can also call experts to treat your home foundation with Hydrocay which helps absorbs and prevents water from coming into your home. This method is majorly used to treat basements for leakage prevention.
- On a scheduled base, inspect your roof checking for possible cracks, loose shingles and damage flashings. In addition, check all vents that leads to outside, like the dryer vent. They can wear out sometimes without your knowledge and may need replacement.
- Fix awnings above doors and windows to channel water away from any opening.
Secrete Revealed: Excess Humidity Disastrous
Now that you’ve read through this article to this stage, hopefully you should have learnt what you don’t know about humidity levels before. Being on the lookout for the things talked about humidity check and prevention will help you in managing humidity challenges. Although this is just a guide to arm you because for before warn is before harm, so getting ready at all time and also calling professional hands when necessary is a mutually exclusive events that you must uphold in tackling excess humidity troubles.