Importance of Balanced Humidity in Home

Humidity is a very common occurrence as we often face it in our home. But many people do not like the topic of humidity when it comes to home comfort as humidity almost affects everything in your home, from wood flooring to family members’ health.

If you have never taken the humidity of your home seriously, now is the time to do so. Here are the reasons to make you consider your home’s humidity.

Difference Between Absolute Humidity & Relative Humidity

To know the impact humidity has on your home, you have to understand humidity from its core. Absolute humidity measures the quantity of water vapor in the air. And relative humidity means the amount of water in the air connected to the temperature. Besides, hot air holds more moisture than cold air. The relative humidity is more noticeable at a high temperature than at lower temperatures.

We see the humidity shown as a percentage, which is relative humidity. To differentiate them properly, we just have to know that absolute and relative humidity are not interchangeable terms. For indoor air quality, relative humidity has more effect.

Impact of Home’s Humidity on Your Family

The indoor air quality is a critical factor for your indoor breathability of the air. If this goes down below a certain level, your family members will face or suffer from respiratory problems.

The main concern here is that homeowners do not think humidity as a factor to cause poor air quality. They only think about pollutants like dust, mold, and any other contaminants. You should make your kitchen more wide-ranged or spacious.

Problems caused by Lower Humidity

Low humidity levels are one of the main causes of the development of ailments at home.

Cracked skin, dry sinuses, bloody noses, and chapped lips are some health issues that can be a result of low humidity.

And if anyone in your family had bronchitis or asthma, those will become aggravated.

Problems caused by Higher Humidity

On the other side, high humidity can increase moisture levels indoors.

The increased moisture level helps the microorganisms to evolve. Also, the dust mites, mold, and bacteria increase dramatically in the high humidity.

All of those can cause Legionnaires’ disease, which is lethal if they somehow get in air ducts, so beware of those.

Signs of Humidity Inside Your Home

When it comes to safety, everyone is concerned about their family. You have to be concerned about your house’s indoor humidity. Humidity heavily impacts your wood surfaces negatively.

Low Humidity

When humidity is very low indoors, the woods do not have enough moisture to hold their form. Every grain in wood reacts to humidity in unique ways. Make sure every room is designed thoroughly, from your bed to your dining room.

Inspections are much needed for the woods because cracking and wood splitting can occur for humidity. This destroys hardwood flooring, musical instruments, and furniture, which will cause you many expensive fixes.

Those damaged wood items in dry conditions require a full replacement. But some of those might still be usable after heavy time-time consuming repairs. The issue here is that you cannot tell if your relative humidity is low unless it has already damaged your wooden flooring in your home.

High Humidity

The humidity will have a detrimental effect when it reaches a certain saturation level. But it's not like low humidity; it is easier to identify by noticing extra moisture on the surface and water forming on walls and windows.

These will happen when the humidity levels are way too high than normal levels. Also, it can destroy the engineered hardwood flooring too.

Besides, high humidity can encourage rot to occur in the wood flooring of your house. Complete replacement is the only solution for these humidity results.

There are many signs of humidity that affect your home, but the moisture inside the walls is tough to find, which makes it critical to monitor your indoor humidity levels.

Pointing Out Inadequate Home Humidity Levels

Any excess moisture on the windows and walls is easy to spot, but for other occurrences, it is very tough.

Some more signs of poor home humidity levels are blistering paint or peeling wallpaper, water stains on the walls, visible growth of mold in low-moisture areas, etc.

Another sign is a musty odor in the basement, crawl spaces, or in your air conditioner.

Another interesting sign of low home humidity is the increase in static electricity because it will cause frequent problems with other household electronics.

The Ideal Home Humidity in Various Seasons

There is no perfect home humidity, and it cannot be pointed out that easily. Humidity relies on outdoor temperatures also.

The humidity stays between 30 to 40 percent during the winter months, where in summer, it goes up to 60 percent.

You just have to constantly watch your humidity and as the temperature of the outdoors changes. Just try to maintain the humidity indoors at a 50 percent range.

Monitoring and Adjusting Home Humidity

Monitoring indoor humidity is not the easiest task out there if your home does not have any good equipment.

The easiest way to know your indoor humidity levels is to use a smart thermostat.

These devices are so handy because they have sensors that will detect the relative humidity in your home, and more smart ones adjust themselves by being compatible with HVAC systems.

A smart thermostat is more than enough without a humidity sensor because you can still scale your humidity levels.

You can get a hygrometer, which comes in two types as an electric or digital hygrometer and a mechanical hygrometer. Just place them in a room, and you will get the results.

The other option, the mechanical hygrometer, requires tougher setup procedures but gives more accurate results. This mechanical hygrometer works great in greenhouses too.

Getting the Perfect Indoor Humidity

It is very hard to keep the perfect indoor humidity indoors; also, the outside weather affects it all the time.

Your best option should be getting a dehumidifier or a humidifier. These have an easy installation process, and they do their job without any extra inspections.

You also have an option for a portable humidifier, which just needs water in its tank. Besides, the dehumidifiers require filter cleaning on a regular basis.

By following these steps, you will surely get the ideal indoor humidity levels.