Snow has begun to turn to rain and before you know it, spring will be here again. With warmer temperatures comes a lot of wet weather, and humidity levels that can make your home feel like a swamp. Air conditioners can mitigate the problem somewhat, but it’s a very crude way to address the problem, and it places a lot of undue strain on the system. Far more effective is a dehumidifier: designed to remove the moisture throughout your house and provide a great deal of control in the process. Over time, it can extend the lifespan of your HVAC system and provide you with decades of reliable use in most cases. Here’s how it works.
High Humidity Makes for Problems
As human beings, we’re most comfortable when the relative humidity (which measures the amount of ambient moisture in the air) sits somewhere between 20% and 50%. If it gets any higher, there’s too much moisture in the air to vaporize the sweat on your skin, which is our body’s natural way of keeping cool. That elevates our body temperatures and makes the air feel hotter than it is, as well as leaving the sweat on your body and making for a clammy gross feeling.
It gets worse. High humidity levels can easily foster mold growth, which is a serious problem in our part of the world, and again. It elevates the cost of running your air conditioner as well, since it must run longer to keep your home cool. And the added strain means that there is a greater chance of a breakdown sooner, which no one wants to deal with in the middle of summer.
Dehumidifiers Make for a Better Way
One of the reasons air conditioners act as jury-rigged dehumidifiers is because lowering the temperature of the air is the best way to remove moisture from it. As the temperature drops, the water vapor shifts from gaseous to liquid form coalescing into droplets in the process. That’s why you get dew in the early hours of the morning, when temperatures can do that.
Dehumidifiers thus lower the temperature of the air the same way air conditioners do. But they don’t need to eject the hot air since that’s not their function. And they can vary the amount of water vapor removed from the air, allowing you to exercise more precise control over the amount of moisture in the air. Not only does that ease the strain off of your air conditioner – saving you money and loads of wear and tear in the process – but it can reduce the mold and fungus growth in your home, and makes for a cleaner and healthier home overall. Whole-home dehumidifiers often work in conjunction with your air conditioner, making them easy to operate and eminently reliable.
If your home could use a little less mugginess and a little more comfort, then a whole-house dehumidifier might be a perfect fit. Call The Clean Air Act today. We service homes throughout the Wilsonville, OR area!