What To Know About Your HVAC System And Humidity

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The humidity from the summer heat can make you feel miserable. It will feel uncomfortable inside and outside your home, even if the temperatures are not that hot outside. Thankfully, your HVAC system can help you deal with humidity and improve your home's comfort. Here is what you need to know about humidity and your HVAC system.

The Effects Of Humidity

When air becomes warm, it increases its ability to retain water vapor. This is the reason why the air feels dry during the winter and so muggy during the summer months. There are also activities you do in your home that add moisture to the air, such as showering and cooking, and these contribute to the home's overall humidity levels. It's why cooking in your kitchen on a hot summer day can seem unpleasant.

Humidity also plays a role in potential mold growth in your home. Having excessive amounts of moisture creates an environment where mold can be free to grow in dark places. This is more likely in areas where hot air meets cold air and condensation forms as a result. This moisture can easily turn into mold if you are not aware of the problem.

You'll need to find a way to keep humidity down in your home, which is where your HVAC system comes in.

The Benefits Of Using Air Conditioning To Control Humidity

Your air conditioning will do much more during the summer than cool down your home. By running the unit, all air will travel through the system and pass through a dehumidifier. This helps remove moisture from the air and allow all that cold air being produced to be less humid as a result. The cold air will also hold less water vapor, which makes it less likely to make your home feel humid when the air conditioner is not actively running.

The Ways You Can Improve Humidity

It will also help to take steps to control the humidity in your home so that you are not contributing to the problem. Leave the windows closed so that outside air that has moisture in it does not find its way indoors. Run the bathroom fan when showering to remove all the moisture before it travels to other places in your home. When cooking, run the fan above the stove to remove the moisture that is being put into the air.

If your home feels uncomfortable in the summer, contact a residential air conditioning service about how you can improve humidity levels.

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16 October 2019

Cool off Your AC Bill

Every summer, I agonized over energy bills that would shoot into the stratosphere as a result of my efforts to keep cool in the heat. Every time I turned the temperature down, my bills increased. This summer, I decided to take some of the control over my energy bill back. I installed reflective film on my windows that reduced the amount of light and heat coming into the house. I started serving more cold meals or asking my husband to barbecue outside, so that my air conditioner didn't have to compete with the hot stove, and I started doing laundry at night to reduce appliance heat in the house at peak times. I also had ceiling fans installed. So far, the difference in my bill has been tremendous. This blog is a way for me to explore other ways to reduce energy drain during the summer months.