Summers in Indiana are stiflingly hot, with temperatures routinely climbing towards triple digits and beyond. But worse than the heat is the high humidity: turning our homes into swamps and reducing everything to a muggy soggy mess. Air conditioners can deal with humidity by default, but they’re not set up to handle the problem the right way, which can add to monthly bills and increase strain on the system overall.
A better way to deal with it entails a whole-house dehumidifier for your home. Not only will it solve the problem of excess humidity, but it can ease a great deal of strain on your air conditioning system as well. Here’s how it works.
Problems Caused by High Humidity
We measure humidity levels in terms of relative humidity: a percentage covering the amount of ambient moisture in the air. Human beings tend to be most comfortable when relative humidity sites somewhere between 30% and 50%. When it rises above that, there’s too much moisture in the air for the sweat to evaporate off of our skin. Considering that that’s our bodies’ primary means of keeping cool, you can see the issue. The air feels hotter and more uncomfortable than it actually is and the sweat on our bodies makes us feel like we’re living in a swamp. That comes on top of the mold and bacteria that can flourish in our homes when the humidity is high.
Lowering the temperature of the air is actually the best way to reduce the ambient moisture levels, since the moisture shifts from gaseous to liquid form and coalesces into droplets. (That’s why you get dew on the ground in the early hours of the morning, the coolest during the day.) Air conditioners thus serve as dehumidifiers by default. Unfortunately, they lack precise control over the humidity levels, handling the problem crudely at best and elevating their energy consumption in the process. Furthermore, while air conditioners use drip pans and drain lines to remove the condensate from their system, those components can be overwhelmed by high levels of moisture. High humidity can also create more serious problems like ice forming on the coils of the air conditioner.
Dehumidifiers Make a Better Answer
A whole-house dehumidifier adopts the same basic techniques as air conditioning to get rid of the moisture in your home. But because it’s specifically set up to do so, it does the job much more efficiently. You can tailor the humidity settings to match individual tastes while removing the factors that contribute to mold and bacteria in your home. Furthermore with the excess strain removed, your air conditioner can do its job much more efficiently, cutting down on monthly bills and the wear and tear that can lead to more serious breakdowns. Your home is healthy and comfortable, and you can enjoy your summer without having to worry about the effects all that mugginess will have on your home HVAC system.
For quality dehumidifier installation, repair and maintenance in Fort Wayne, IN call on Collier’s Comfort today!