Home Humidity: Strike a Balance for Year-Round Comfort

When it comes to controlling indoor air quality in your Florida home, humidity is one of the most important components to measure and keep at a comfortable level. Relative humidity represents how much water’s in the air compared to the maximum amount of water the air could hold at those temperature and pressure conditions.

Why Humidity Matters

When you think of indoor comfort you might think that the temperature is the only thing that matters, but humidity can have a significant effect. If your home humidity is too low, it can make the air harder to breathe, irritate your skin and throat, and even cause excessive static electricity. This is usually a winter-time phenomenon, however, so it’s not a big problem down here on the Treasure Coast.

Excessive home humidity, on the other hand, is much more common in our region. In general, high humidity can be much worse for your personal and home health. A humid environment provides an ideal environment for mold and bacteria, along with other allergens and dust mites. These airborne particulates can threaten your health, damage household fixtures, and furniture, and make the air seem warmer than it actually is. The latter condition will force your A/C to work harder to maintain comfortable indoor temperatures.

Experts agree that it’s best to keep indoor humidity in a range of 30 to 60 percent. This is the safest range, but you should also pay attention to how you feel in different humidity environments, as you may feel more comfortable at one point in the range than another.

Humidity in Florida

As mentioned previously, Florida’s humidity stays fairly high year-round. This being the case, you should consult with a heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) professional to determine what sort of dehumidification system will best serve your home throughout the year. If your home’s A/C or heat pump keeps the indoors relatively dry, but you have a certain problem areas such as a spare room over the garage or a finished half-basement, a portable dehumidifier is probably your best bet. Otherwise, consider a whole-house dehumidifier that’s installed directly in your forced-air cooling system.

To find out how to reduce home humidity, please contact us at NisAir Air Conditioning and Heating. We provide quality HVAC services in South Florida.