What Humidity Level Should Your Home Be?

We invest a great deal of time considering properly heating and cooling our homes, especially with winter coming right around the corner. However, do you ever consider the humidity levels in your home? What is the ideal home humidity? Managing the humidity inside of your house can be just as crucial to living comfortably as managing the temperature.

You do not want to be within your comfy house throughout the dog days of summertime with every fan pointed at you. And you do not wish to spend the winter season with every blanket you owned twisted around you. As domestic HVAC professionals, we here at South End Heating & Air completely understand. If you think you could be suffering from low or high humidity in your home, keep reading for tips to help recognized the signs and what to do about it.

Before we can determine the ideal humidity for your home, let’s ask the question: what exactly is humidity?

You might have a rough idea that humidity is the amount of water in the air, and you’d technically be right! It’s a little bit more complicated than simply that. To understand what humidity really is we need to speak about the distinction between relative humidity and absolute humidity.

Absolute Humidity
Absolute humidity is the mass (mass = how much) of water in the air, divided by the mass of air that remains in an offered space. Outright humidity is a formula that looks at the actual amount of mass that moisture has in the air around you. Absolute humidity is expressed as grams of moisture per cubic meter of air (g/m ³).

Relative Humidity
The relative humidity is the humidity reading that you are probably more acquainted with. For the functions of learning the perfect house humidity for yourself, this is likewise the measurement we are going to use. While absolute humidity measures the quantity of water vapor in the air, relative humidity measures the current level of wetness in the air out of how moist the air could be. So when you see your humidity reading at 40%, it merely implies that the air around you is 40% as moist as it could be.

Humidity and Feeling Comfy
Do you know why people naturally feel so uncomfortable in really humid climates? Your skin uses the air around it to get rid of moisture in your body. So when the humidity level is near 100%, the air can not take in the moisture on your body, particularly sweat. Sweat is your body’s natural air conditioning system. When you sweat, it is your body’s attempt to preserve its own ideal temperature level (98.6 ). When you can’t get rid of that additional moisture and cool yourself off, the sweat stays on your skin leaving you feeling gross, sticky, and unpleasant.

Discovering the Best Humidity Level for the Air in your house

Now that we’ve talked about comfort levels, you can most likely guess what we’ll state next. The ideal humidity level for your house is going to be relative to you and your family. It will depend primarily on the time of year, what sort of clothes you’re wearing, and where your household is naturally comfy. Research reveals that the ideal relative humidity for your home is between 40% -60%. However, to dissuade the development and spread of mold, levels need to be kept listed below 50%. Again, change this to match your convenience levels. This relative humidity in your house must also scale with the outside outright humidity.

As you probably understand, outright humidity levels change in addition to the temperature level and seasons. In the summertime, the air contains more wetness, and in the winter season, it contains much less moisture.

Here’s a Quick Reference:

• Outdoor temperature level at -20 ˚F or lower, and indoor humidity levels shouldn’t exceed 15%.
• With an outdoor temperature between -20 ˚F and -10 ˚F, indoor humidity levels shouldn’t surpass 20%.
• The outdoor temperature level in between -10 ˚F and 0 ˚F, and indoor humidity levels should not exceed 25%.
• For an outside temperature level between 0 ˚F and 10 ˚F, indoor humidity levels should not surpass 30%.
• Outside temperature between 10 ˚F and 20 ˚F, and indoor humidity levels should not go beyond 35%.
• With an outdoor temperature level over 20 ˚F, indoor humidity levels should not exceed 40%.
• For an outside temperature over 50 ˚F, indoor humidity levels shouldn’t exceed 50%.

So, you will need to change your humidity levels as the seasons change. However, what occurs when you do not have your humidity at the ideal level? Read along to find out more.

Issues with Low Humidity
When your house is too dry, there are numerous things you might notice:

• More vulnerable to cold and infection
• Itchy or dry skin
• Damage to wood furnishings and hardwood floorings

Problems with High Humidity
When the humidity is too high in your home you’re probably going to notice the effects.

• High humidity promotes the growth and spread of mold
• Those who struggle with asthma and allergies might experience gotten worse signs
• Problem sleeping in uneasy conditions
• Moisture problems in your home– You may discover condensation on your windows. This excessive wetness can trigger damage to your furnishings and fixtures

How to Accomplish the Ideal House Humidity Level
Now that we understand what can go wrong, what can we do to make things go right? Well, here’s the initial step. If you do not have one, installing a humidifier is going to be exceptionally advantageous in the winter months.

Bear in mind that in the summer time, the air will naturally be damp, so you can safely save away the humidifier for those dry cold weather. Keeping your home at the best humidity level is going to do marvels for your household’s comfort. Consequently, keeping an ideal home humidity level is likewise vital to the health of your home and its structure. It’s true! Your indoor air quality straight affects your family’s health and also the health of your house. Your wood is going to stay strong and sturdy, and your family isn’t going to develop into sweaty bog monsters, which sounds like a win-win to us.

At South End HVAC we specialize in whole-home humidifiers, contact us for a free consult. We’ll evaluate your system and help make recommendations for optimum value. After all, we want to keep you cool all summer long and warm in the winter. Just schedule a visit with one of our technicians to talk about how we can help with your thermostat settings. Would you like to learn more options our techs can help you with? give us a call 704-684-5339