A place like New Orleans deals with intense humidity during the summer months. As anyone who has ever had to endure a humid summer day knows, it can be pretty miserable having to deal with high temperatures and high humidity. It’s not because the humidity makes the day hotter—no matter the relative humidity, a 90°F day is still 90°F. It’s that humidity makes the day feel hotter. The moisture in the air makes it more difficult for the human body to expel heat through perspiration, and this traps heat inside the body. Humidity is basically like putting on a coat during a heatwave!
But you’ve got a good central air conditioning system in your home, so at least that will take care of the problem, right? Well, yes and no. An air conditioner can help you cool down, but it doesn’t actually help with humidity. We’ll explain more below.
An AC Cools, but Doesn’t Dehumidify
The way an air conditioner provides comfort to your house is by drawing heat out of the air and lowering its temperature. The AC evaporates cold refrigerant in its indoor coil, and the refrigerant absorbs heat from the air as this happens. If you’ve set your thermostat to 78°F on a hot day, the AC will absorb enough heat from the air to lower the air to that temperature.
However, this doesn’t take account of the humidity in the air. If the amount of humidity in the air of your house is enough to make the temperature feel 8°F warmer than it is, then the AC will have to work longer to make you feel comfortable. That 78°F will feel like 86°F. You’ll have to run the AC for longer and longer to keep the house cool enough for your comfort.
An air conditioner does remove some humidity from the air as it runs. The process of evaporating refrigerant causes moisture in the air to condense along the refrigerant coil. This condensate then drips out of the AC through a pan and drain. But this isn’t enough dehumidification to have an effect on your comfort. An AC can do a bit of dehumidification, but it’s not a dehumidifier.
The Whole-House Dehumidifier Solution
There is a way to defeat high humidity levels in a house, and that’s with a whole-house dehumidifier. Some air conditioning systems come with dehumidifiers, but if yours doesn’t, you can schedule installation of a dehumidifier in Slidell, LA with our team.
What a whole-house dehumidifier does is take the simple dehumidification ability of an AC and expand on it so it can make a significant change to humidity levels. The dehumidifier uses the evaporation of refrigerant to remove moisture from the air. Because this process also cools down the air, the dehumidifier reheats this air so the house doesn’t get too cold. The dehumidifier is integrated with the rest of the HVAC system so it works in tandem with the air conditioner; you’ll be able to control the humidity levels through the thermostat the same way you adjust temperatures.
Gowland’s Heating & A/C values “Relationship Over Revenue!” Schedule service today if you are interested in having a whole-house dehumidifier installed.