The relative humidity in your Orange County, CA home refers to how much moisture is in the air that is circulating throughout your living spaces. The recommended humidity level for residences is between 35% and 55%. If you’re having difficulty maintaining your indoor humidity levels, there are methods you can use for better control. Let’s look at why you should optimize your indoor humidity levels and what you can do.
The Importance of Indoor Humidity Levels
If you don’t have enough moisture inside your home, this can lead to several issues. Dry air can lead to your sinuses feeling dry and cracked. This can exacerbate allergy symptoms and increase your risk of illness. You may also find that you experience swelling in your sinus cavity if you’re breathing in dry air on a regular basis.
If the air inside your home is too humid, this is bad for your health as well as your home. It can feel difficult to breathe when the air is very humid. Humid air can hold more allergens, resulting in an increase in symptoms such as runny nose, headache, sore throat, cough, etc. You may also feel like your home is warm and uncomfortable. It’s common for humid homes to make you feel fatigued, as your body works harder to stay cool and comfortable. As far as the structure of your home is concerned, very humid indoor air can lead to swelling of hardwood floors, mildew, and much more.
Respiratory Concerns
High levels of humidity can cause allergies to flare, but it can also cause several respiratory issues. While you may not be able to see water droplets in your indoor air, you are breathing them in. Dense particles are held in that air, activating C-nerve fibers in your lungs. When these nerve fibers are activated, they can cause swelling in your airways, making it hard to breathe. You may also experience a coughing sensation.
The presence of bacteria in your indoor air can increase with high relative humidity. These bacteria can make you sick. They can also cause an increase in asthma symptoms if that’s something that you deal with. Bacteria in the body can lead to inflammation, fatigue, and many other health issues.
Hydration Issues
Not enough moisture in your air can cause your skin, eyes, and body to feel dry. You might think that having high levels of relative humidity would rectify this situation. In fact, high levels of humidity can lead to dehydration. Your body will work harder to stay comfortable and stable, resulting in the need for more water intake. You may not find yourself sweating, and you’re not compensating with drinking more water. This can be a difficult balance for your health when your indoor humidity levels aren’t stable or proper.
Mold Growth Concerns
When humidity levels in your Orange County home rise higher than the recommended 55%, this can set the stage for mold growth. Mold can grow just about anywhere, including in your air ducts, on ceilings, in walls, and inside cupboards and vanities. Unfortunately, you can have mold growing for a substantial amount of time before you realize there’s a problem. Many people don’t spot mold until they start to experience health problems like inflammation, headaches, fatigue, and nausea. Without another known cause, they start to look for mold exposure concerns.
It’s important to prevent mold growth by maintaining ideal humidity control in your home. If you do spot mold, have it professionally removed. You can then consider the various ways of preventing mold growth again in the future.
Addressing Too Much Humidity
You can measure the level of relative humidity in your inside air using a basic hygrometer. You can affordably purchase these devices at your local hardware store or online. You may already have humidity monitoring as a feature on your smart thermostat. Humidity can fluctuate over the course of a day. It can also vary greatly depending on the season and what the weather is like outside. If you find that there is too much humidity in your home over the course of a few hours, days, weeks, or longer, it’s ideal to use equipment to remove this moisture.
There are portable dehumidifiers that can be used in areas of the home that are experiencing high levels of humidity. Some people use these units in their basements. However, you can address whole-house humidity with the use of a whole-home dehumidifier. We install this equipment onto your HVAC system so that moisture is removed from your indoor air before it passes through your ductwork and into your home. There’s very minimal maintenance associated with this setup. For example, a drain line will remove the collected moisture. Portable dehumidifiers require you to empty a storage tank periodically.
Many people find that a whole-house dehumidifier helps them control their allergies. It may also allow you to save some money on your monthly utility bills. If the air feels humid and hot, you may opt to turn up your air conditioning to increase comfort. This raises your energy consumption. It also increases wear and tear on your HVAC equipment, which in turn causes more frequent repairs and shortens the lifespan of your furnace and air conditioner.
Addressing Low Moisture Levels
While lowering the humidity in your home is important, you want to avoid removing too much moisture. Also, there are certain times of the year when Orange County can experience dry and irritating air. If you feel like you would benefit from having more moisture added to your indoor air, you can consider the use of a whole-house humidifier. You can have this equipment installed along with a dehumidifier, switching between each option as needed.
Humidity control can be addressed with a smart thermostat. Your humidifier or dehumidifier will turn on based on the humidity reading that your thermostat is compiling. You may be able to monitor this equipment remotely, depending on the type of thermostat that you have. We can install both whole-house dehumidifiers and humidifiers, as well as upgrade your thermostat.
Professional Services for Humidity Control and Beyond
If you are interested in learning more about optimizing the humidity inside of your Orange County home, reach out to our team here at White Mechanical, Inc.. We can assess the current quality of your indoor air, determining if you have too much or not enough moisture. We can also check for the presence of mold spores, which can indicate that you may benefit from a whole-house dehumidifier. We can make other recommendations that can improve your indoor air quality, such as the installation of a whole-house air purification device and upgraded ventilation.
We also offer the installation, repair, and maintenance of all heating and cooling equipment. In addition, we perform air duct cleanings, work on commercial equipment, and offer maintenance agreements to save you money while keeping your HVAC system efficient and safe. Reach out to White Mechanical, Inc. today to schedule an appointment to manage your indoor humidity levels.
