Your indoor comfort is something that doesn’t depend on the temperature only. Many people make the same mistake. They think temperature is everything. But temperature is not the only variable in this case. You feel discomfort in your home because of the humidity level in your air is not ideal for you. Only setting the air temperature with your HVAC system won’t help you get relaxed when you reach home after a long tiring day. You also need to adjust the humidity level of air with your air conditioning units.
Don’t be embarrassed if you didn’t know how important humidity is for overall comfort, most people don’t. Since many people don’t know how air humidity affects the environment and their comfort, they certainly don’t know how to control the humidity level in the houses.
Since you are wondering if this is even necessary or not – here are the reasons why you should keep the humidity level of your house in check:
1. Higher humidity level means sticky skin
I don’t have the time to explain how perspiration or sweating works. But I can give you an example of what I am talking about.
Go ahead and pull your refrigerator door. Now pick anything from the fridge and leave in on the table for 2-3 seconds. Are you seeing the water droplets sticking to the item? Where do you think this water came from?
Yes, from the air around it. And these water droplets are actually the moisture or humidity in the air. When the humidity level of the air surrounding the item is high, the number of water droplets on the item’s surface will be high.
Similar to how high humidity affects the frozen item, it could cause discomfort to you too even though your heating and cooling units are keeping the temperature at very low. This time – as sticky sweat like moisture all over the skin which is actually the humidity and the discomfort that comes with stickiness is irritating. This is the reason why a coastal area with the same temperature as a city causes more discomfort. Coastal areas or any place near a body of water has a high amount of humidity in the air. So, the same temperature with less humidity actually feels better than the air with more humidity at the same temperature.
2. Damp environment lets microorganisms grow
If your room has more humidity, it means your room has higher chances of growing bacteria, fungus and other microorganisms. This is not a threat to your clothes and furniture only. This is a threat to you and your family too. When the humidity level in your house is more than what you should have in your house, you are increasing your chances to get sick in that damp environment. This damp surrounding affects the infants and elderlies the most. Also, the adults aren’t safe from them as they can help microorganism infest in any corner of your home.
3. Less humidity causes skin dryness
This is a no brainer but people seem to forget this after winter ends.
Remember last winter? How often you had to use your Chapstick to keep your lips moisturized? Remember how frequently you used lotion on you so that your skin doesn’t dry out?
These happened because the humidity level in winter is lower. So, when the humidity is low on a place, the air surrounding it absorbs moisture from things surrounding the place. Since humans have moistured lips like any other mammal, the less-humid air absorbs the moisture from these lips and makes it dry. Same happens to the skin. The air around you absorb the moisture and your skin becomes a canvas where you can draw with your fingernails. But when we use Chapstick for our lips and lotion for our skin, it creates a wall and this wall doesn’t let the air to absorb moisture.
Same moisture absorption happens in your home but we don’t have a protective wall in our home to stop the absorption.
When your air conditioning units pull down the humidity level of air, you start to feel the absorption of moisture from your body. Your skin starts to shrink, your lips start to burn, etc. That’s why many people use air humidifiers to ensure the humidity level of their room is in check. Many central ac unit comes with a humidifier itself. But if your central air conditioner doesn’t come with one, you can easily buy one from the market and set it up.
Sometimes the air humidifier of your air conditioner might not work. In those situations, you can look for an AC maintenance & repair place and get the humidifier fixed before you go to buy one.
4. More humidity doesn’t let things dry
This is another over-humid environment problem. If you let your clothes dry in the sun and not in a drier, you might have noticed that clothes dry faster in winter and slower in the rainy season. This is because, in rainy days, the humidity level of air is high. That’s why the air does not absorb the moisture unlike winter when the humidity level of air is much lower and the air start to suck the moisture from clothes, making them dry a lot faster.
Same things happen in your home.
When you accidentally spill a glass of water on the carpet or the cushion, if the humidity level is high, your fabrics will dry much slower.
Bottom Line
By the time you are done with this article, I am sure you won’t take the humidity level of your room so lightly. So, remember to adjust the humidity of your room when you adjust the temperature.
Even after controlling the humidity level, if you see the signs of high humidity in the air like sticky skin, bacteria, fungus, etc. infestation, it is time for AC repair. But if the problem is something like molds in duct maybe you just need mold removal or air duct cleaning services.
