Humidity in the Summer

Humidity is an oft-overlooked aspect of keeping your home more comfortable. Summer can bring high humidity, which works against your body’s natural cooling functions. When there’s no more room for more moisture in the air, there’s no room for your sweat to evaporate and give you relief from the heat. Tackling humidity in the home is an easy way to reduce energy bills by making higher temperatures bearable.

Planning is an easy solution to controlling your humidity. Long hot showers create lots of steam that’ll increase the humidity. Consider shorter and cooler showers that’ll produce less steam. Also consider cooking as a source of humidity as well: a big pot of pasta boiling away will release a bunch of moisture in the air. Being mindful of how your activities introduce moisture will help you keep your humidity under control.

The next solution is to check up on your HVAC system. Clogged drains and dirty coils can retain moisture and put it back in the air. Yearly maintenance to ensure buildup is removed will allow your HVAC system to remove moisture correctly. You can do this yourself if you have access to your indoor coil, using spray-on evaporator cleaner. Following the instructions, spray the foam on, let it loosen the debris, then use the brush to brush it away. Another location that can have issues is the drain. Check to make sure the drain is clear. You can use a shop vac taped to the outlet to vacuum out any material that’s built up.

If a more direct approach is needed, dehumidifiers can be used to control the humidity more directly. Dehumidifiers come in a few different forms. Chemical dehumidifiers are more appropriate for closets or small spaces, and may not be enough to handle a home. Next are portable dehumidifiers, which are freestanding units that use a refrigeration system to cool the air to push it past the dew point and condense and squeeze the water out of the air. Dehumidifiers have efficiency ratings, measured in liters per kilowatt hour, or how much water the dehumidifier can pull out per unit of electrical energy. High efficiency units like can save energy by reducing how much you need to cool your house. Finally, there are whole whole-home models that couple to your HVAC system and supplement the dehumidification of your HVAC system as well.

More passive ways of controlling humidity while also improving the air quality of your house is to add some houseplants. Some houseplants like snake plants absorb water from the air, while at the same time cleaning up VOCs, formaldehyde, and CO2.

Keeping on top of your humidity can help your home feel much more comfortable while saving money by allowing the thermostat to be higher. Remember that temperature isn’t the only factor in comfort in your home.