If you own a house or apartment, one thing you should never overlook is the humidity levels inside. If you aren’t careful about the humidity levels in your home, it could spell trouble for anyone who lives there and may lead to costly repairs down the line. This article will talk about the importance of controlling indoor humidity levels, the effects of high humidity levels, the effects of low humidity levels, how an HVAC system can help control humidity levels, and when to call a professional.
The Importance of Controlling Humidity Levels
There are actually several reasons why controlling humidity levels is so important. The fact of the matter is that humidity can wreak havoc on your home’s structure, causing rot and warping in hardwood floors, walls, roofs, and other parts of your home. If you don’t think this is much of a problem, consider what happens when the humidity in your bathroom gets too high; mildew quickly forms all over the place. This same sort of damage occurs in every living area in your house when the humidity levels get too high or low for an extended period of time.
If you already have issues with mold forming in places like behind wallpaper or paneling where moisture tends to gather, it will only become worse if not dealt with immediately. While it is certainly true that not all mold is harmful, it still causes damage to your home and can even cause health problems for anyone living in the house.
It’s also important to consider the effects of extremely high or low humidity levels on your comfort when attempting to control humidity in your home. There are several areas where you’ll run into issues if you aren’t careful about humidity levels, including your skin, sinuses, throat, eyesight, and overall energy levels. Let’s take a look at what happens when you let these factors get out of hand:
– Your skin will become flaky and dry; this leads to itching and irritation. Over time, this will likely increase your chances of developing eczema and psoriasis. Additionally, your skin will be at higher risk for sunburns since moisture acts as a natural sunscreen.
– Your sinuses are directly affected by humidity levels because the mucous membranes in your head swell up when it’s humid and shrink away when it’s dry. This causes the swelling to press against your sinus cavity, causing pain and chest congestion. When humidity is elevated enough, bacteria can actually grow on these swollen tissues, leading to breathing issues and other health concerns.
– The dust mites living inside of your couch cushion or pillow love hot and moist environments; this means if you don’t control humidity levels, they’ll never go away. If you don’t want to live around dust mites that cause allergies, then it’s best not to let them thrive.
– If you wear contacts, then humidity can cause pain and irritation to the point where you have to take your lenses out.
– Many people suffer from Raynaud’s disease, which causes their hands and feet to go numb when it’s dry and cold outside. When the humidity level inside is too high or low, this makes everything even worse because your body doesn’t compensate for this by making its own moisture. For those who live in extremely humid areas, this condition will happen a lot more often than usual.
– Dry air causes static electricity that will cling to basically anything it can, including your hair, clothes, zippers on your clothing, etc. This isn’t harmful, but it certainly is annoying since anything with a zipper or a head strap will become challenging to use.
The Dangers of Low Humidity Levels
On the other hand, it’s not just high humidity levels that you need to worry about. Low humidity levels can be just as dangerous if they’re around for an extended period of time. For example, houses with central AC often have low humidity levels because their AC unit is pumping out so much dry air. The same thing happens when you live in either a desert or polar region during the winter season; your AC unit works overtime but ultimately isn’t able to turn the air around your house into something livable.
Instead, you end up with dry skin and sinuses that become irritated at even the slightest change in barometric pressure (elevation). This causes runny noses and congestion that seems never-ending since mucous membranes can’t rebuild themselves quickly enough.
Let’s also not forget the dangers of dry eyes and throat, which often go hand-in-hand with low humidity levels. A lack of humidity dries out your mouth and removes all the moisture in your eyes, so they become itchy and frequently burn. Without enough mucous membranes lining your respiratory tract, you run a higher risk of getting sick.
Now that we’ve established what can happen if you don’t control your indoor humidity levels, let’s look at how you can implement an HVAC unit to help your situation.
How An HVAC System Helps
All humidifiers and dehumidifiers work by putting moisture back into the air or taking it out, respectively. These types of systems are great because they adapt to your energy usage habits, never running when no one is at home and only using electricity when the weather conditions outside cause your indoor humidity level to rise or fall. If you have a large house, then a whole-home system is a good option because it will provide individualized humidity levels for each room instead of simply having a single set point that will be fine for some areas and way too high for others. There are also zoning options for heating and cooling that allow separate rooms to have different HVAC controls, enabling you to either warm up or cool down rooms with a lot of people in them.
In conclusion, having humidity control over your indoor climate is incredibly important for the health of your home and yourself. You need to make sure it’s high enough so you don’t get sick but low enough that your system doesn’t break down from rust and corrosion. If you can’t do this on your own, then it might be time to call a professional because there are many things beyond both your control and comprehension going on with your HVAC unit as we speak.