Fresno AC Service | How Important Is Proper Indoor Humidity?

Keeping the proper humidity levels in your home and workplace help keep a comfortable and healthy indoor space for you and everyone around you. Experts say the ideal home comfort level is between 40% to 50%, while the optimum level that doesn’t contribute to the growth of micro-organisms is in between 35% and 50%.

In colder climate or season, when the humidity levels drop below 50%, it can cause harsh effects on the mucus linings of the lips, nose, and the finger cuticles, which is an implication that the air is too dry. The same effect could happen on dry, summer season and your AC service might not completely aid in increasing the humidity if the air is just too dry.

How Moisture Affects The Indoor Air

A lot of people associate “humid” with the feeling of being sticky and uncomfortable on tropical places – which has the tendency of high outdoor humidity. But levels that are too high or too low can greatly affect households and businesses in many ways. Since it can affect us so much, how exactly do we define humidity?

The term is used to relatively describe how much water vapor is there in the air. When the temperature is warm more water vapors are mixed in the air. Higher levels inside the house can create a breeding environment for two of the most common aggregators of asthma and airborne allergies – dust mites and mold.

Dust mites like moderate temperatures and high levels (usually above 70%). They usually hide in bedding, window coverings, flooring, and furniture. Their droppings are small enough to become airborne and could cause allergic reactions. Molds need longer periods of humidity to develop. Poor ventilation, even if not in humid areas, can produce molds.

What Can You Do About Poor Indoor Humidity?

Other effects of low humidity, aside from a nose, mouth, and skin irritation, can include:

1. Damage to floors and wood furniture
2. Paint may chip
3. Electronics might get damaged
4. Static electricity

So how do you help maintain proper levels of moisture in the air? First, you would have to measure how humid the indoor surrounding is. You can easily check this using a hygrometer, an inexpensive gauge that looks closely similar to a thermometer.

Can you guess which part of the house has higher humidity levels? It’s the basement! Next to it are bathrooms, laundry rooms, and kitchens. All surrounding enclosed areas such as the bedroom which are close to these spots have higher levels compared to the ones farther away.

Once you have an idea how much moisture is circling inside your home, you can proceed to taking steps in regulating the moisture level. The easiest, most accessible equipment that can help accomplish this are humidifiers and dehumidifiers. Both equipment are self-regulating and they function based on what environment tells them.

Fresno AC Service How Important Is Proper Indoor Humidity

When should you use a humidifier? “Humidifier therapy adds moisture to the air to prevent dryness that can cause irritation in many parts of the body. Humidifiers can be particularly effective for treating dryness of the skin, nose, throat, and lips. They can also ease some of the symptoms caused by the flu or common cold,” this is according to healthline.com. It is often used to relieve:

1. Sinus congestion
2. Headache
3. Nose irritation
4. Irritated vocal cords
5. Cracked lips

When should you use a dehumidifier? From a post at wikiHow, it says, “Dehumidifiers are designed to regulate the amount of moisture that is in the air of a given space. These machines can be portable or installed more permanently in your home, and they can be used to reduce the relative humidity level in your home, reduce allergies or other respiratory health problems, and make your home more comfortable overall.” This is the perfect machine to use when the indoor surrounding is too humid.

In some areas, dehumidifiers are installed in homes, in addition to the existing air conditioning service. It helps greatly in keeping contaminants and allergen from polluting the indoor air. Marthedal Solar, Air & Heating provides expert free consultation for families who are considering the idea of adding this equipment in their homes. Whether it’s a repair service call, new unit installation, additional or enhancement services; our experienced technicians can help. Call us today for more information!

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