Humidity is the presence of moisture or vapor in the air. When most people say, “it feels humid,” they typically refer to outdoor air quality conditions. However, the air inside homes and indoor facilities also have humidity levels. What is a comfortable humidity level to maintain in your living space? While everyone will prefer different levels of humidity, it’s important to note humidity levels indoors shouldn’t be too high or too low, as both can present dangerous environments.
Humidity Can Greatly Impact Your Home’s Comfort
What Should Indoor Humidity Be?
Warm air is able to hold significantly more moisture than cooler air. This is why it tends to get humid or muggy during the summer season and is less likely to be humid in the winter. As a result, our air conditioning systems have dehumidifiers to prevent excess moisture in the warm air from damaging furniture and impacting comfort.
How Do I Achieve Comfortable Humidity at Home?
A functioning AC unit will cool and dehumidify the air of your home. What is comfortable humidity? Generally, most find comfortable indoor humidity levels to be somewhere between 30-50%. Any higher and your walls can become damaged. On the other hand, low humidity levels can cause dry skin, lips, and hands.
What’s the Most Effective Way to Monitor Indoor Humidity?
When monitoring humidity, you should always keep room temperature in mind. As mentioned earlier, warm weather will produce higher humidity levels. If you test the humidity in your home and it’s high, don’t be alarmed. In areas where heat is common, like the kitchen, laundry room, or bathroom, turn on a vent fan or slightly open a window to enhance your comfort and decrease airborne water vapors.
How Can a HVAC System Impact Your Home’s Humidity?
Air conditioners can significantly impact the comfort of your home. If your cooling system doesn’t also dehumidify the air, you’ll start to sweat for no reason. If your HVAC has difficulty dehumidifying your homes’ air, contact your local WM Henderson technician for air conditioner maintenance. It’s better to have your unit serviced now than worry about mold and mildew contaminating the air later.
Tips & Insights: Top Signs It’s Time to Replace Your Compressor Or Air Conditioner
How You Know It’s Time To Invest in a Humidifier
Avoid dryness in the air and breathe easier with a humidifier for your home. Below, we’ve listed a few tell-tale signs that you may need a humidifier.
Your Home Doesn’t Heat
Oftentimes, dry air has trouble maintaining heat. Consequently, if your furnace is on, but the room temperature doesn’t change, your air quality is likely to blame. Installing a humidifier will help warm the air and prevent overusing your heating system.
You Suffer From Excessive Dry Skin
Lack of moisture vapors in the air will impact your skin’s ability to hold hydration. If you are suffering from severe dry skin and are not comfortable in your living space, you may need to invest in a personal humidifier to increase the humidity levels in your house.
Cracked & Damaged Furniture
Cold, dry weather can impact the comfort and function of your furniture. Over time, dried-out wood and leather can split, crack, and show premature signs of aging. A humidifier that works in tandem with your HVAC system will provide you and your furnishings with the ideal temperature.
You’re Under the Weather
If you consider yourself a relatively healthy person but succumb to illness during the winter, dry air could be the culprit. While it’s expected to have the sniffles throughout the colder months, you’ll wake up with watery eyes and a scratchy throat for months at a time. A humidifier can help relieve these symptoms and more!
Tips & Insights: How to Improve the Quality of the Indoor Air in Your Living Space
You Have History of Respiratory Illness
Individuals with respiratory problems may experience breathing difficulties or severe coughing when the air is significantly dry. A quick and effective solution for smoother breathing is a humidifier.
If you or someone you know has one or more of these problems, consider investing in a whole-home humidifier. Not only can it preserve the contents of your home and prevent you from excess heating, but it may also save a life. Whole-house humidifiers can easily be installed in your home. To learn more about the whole-home humidifiers or have your system repaired, you can speak with a WM Henderson representative at (484) 321-8634.
Reliable HVAC Repair Services
If your air conditioning unit isn’t functioning properly, contact WM Henderson today. Our dependable technicians offer reliable HVAC services such as air conditioning repair, furnace installation, boiler replacement, heat pump repair, air conditioning tune-up. WM Henderson’s qualified technicians proudly service the communities of Ardmore, Broomall, Drexel Hill, Havertown, and West Chester. If your HVAC system is in need of maintenance, replacement, or repair, WM Henderson professionals are available. Contact us directly at (484) 206-8594 or schedule an appointment online.