4 Ways Humidity Can Impact Your Quality of Life at Home
Humidity has a huge impact on your quality of life in a number of ways, from making your hair frizzy and skin dry to overworking your home’s HVAC system and ruining your air quality. The risks caused by humidity can be a simple inconvenience, a life-threatening issue, or a strain on your bank account. Here are four ways humidity can impact your home, your health, and your family.
A Mold Breeding Ground
High humidity levels in your home can help create the perfect environment for mold to grow. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, having high humidity in your home can be caused by cooking, showering, or using a clothes dryer. While those are simple, everyday activities, the EPA suggests relying on your home’s HVAC system to help remove moisture from the air to prevent the growth of mold.
Air Quality Concerns
Along with the possibility of mold growing in your home, your air quality can be affected by advanced humidity levels. While much of the air in your home comes filtered through your HVAC system, there is a possibility of moisture buildup inside your ductwork that can grow contaminants. At installation, your HVAC system should work at an optimum level, but it is important to get regular service and repair work done to ensure your HVAC system doesn’t pump in air filled with contaminants.
Energy Efficiency Issues
Your HVAC system does its best to keep your home at the temperature you set on a thermostat but can struggle to heat or cool depending on the humidity in the air. In the summer months when humidity is highest, your HVAC unit is taking on an added challenge of heavier air with more moisture content. The added moisture and heavier air force your system to run longer, leading to higher energy bills and the potential for costly repairs. In the winter, low humidity forces your heater to run much longer and more frequently to heat the nearly moistureless air. Using a humidifier in the winter and dehumidifier in the summer may help ease the strain on your wallet throughout the year and make your HVAC unit last longer.
Ruining Your Glam
The impact of humidity on your body includes more than just the air your breathe. Too much humidity can make the finest hair frizz, while too little humidity can crack and dry your skin. Even in your home, humidity can change your beauty routine. If you do your hair while someone takes a steamy shower in the bathroom, and your hair frizzes out. On the opposite end of the spectrum, in low humidity situations, you’ve must be vigilant about adding moisture to your skin to prevent painful cracks that can occur. Your comfort should be paramount in your home, to include the humidity level.
Humidity is a fact of life that can have huge effects on your health and your home. Much of the work to control humidity in your home is done by your HVAC system, but it is only as good as the service and repairs it receives from you, the homeowner.
