The Clear Sign That Means It's Time To Dehumidify Your Home

Dealing with high humidity in your home is both incredibly uncomfortable and frustrating. But if you've never experienced this problem before, you might have trouble recognizing the signs. While high humidity is a hassle, it fortunately has one clear signal that you can keep a look out for. All you need to do is see if you have unusually steamy windows.

High humidity basically refers to an excessive build-up of moisture in the air. In your home, ideal relative humidity levels are between 30 to 50%. Once you get beyond those, you will start to see tell-tale signs like condensation on the inside of your windows and sometimes even your walls. Your windows fog when your home is humid because warm, damp air will move from the center of a room towards its edges. When it hits your window, their cool temperature causes the air to lose moisture which ends up condensing on the surface. 

In addition to foggy windows, you can look out for other surefire signs that you have high humidity in your home like a stale odor. Rather than condensation, you may also notice that your paint or wallpaper is peeling or bubbling. Once these issue are spotted, you need to address the problem. Beyond experiencing discomfort like a sticky, sweaty feeling, humidity levels above 60% may cause health issues, including triggering asthma attacks or allergies. In addition, high humidity can encourage mold or mildew growth and damage the floors, walls, and even furniture in your home. 

Dehumidifiers are one common way to address the symptoms of high humidity. If you don't own one already, you can follow these tips to pick the right size dehumidifier for your space. The main factors to consider are the size of your home or room and how damp it is. Each dehumidifier has a daily limit to how much moisture it can remove that is measured in pints. Generally, you can find dehumidifiers in the 50 pint, 35 pint, and 22 pint range, although some are smaller or larger. 

While dehumidifiers are an excellent tool, they have their limitations. For example, you shouldn't run them in temperatures under 60 degrees because the moisture that it removes may actually freeze on its coils. You can check out natural methods to dehumidify your home like using rock salt or even leftover coffee creamer. However, none of these methods will address the root of your problem.

High humidity doesn't come out of nowhere. While climate is a factor, it can also be a sign of other problems in your home like poor ventilation or other HVAC issues. If you are consistently dealing with high humidity inside, you should call in professionals to check your home for any issues.