High humidity is often just a way of life in New Orleans. During cooler months, humidity can feel welcome, but during most of the year it’s a nuisance. You may not realize it, but when the relative humidity rises above 60%, it creates a set of problems inside your home. It goes beyond making a hot day feel hotter.
We’ll take a look below at how high humidity creates problems in your house. But don’t worry, it isn’t all bad news. We have solutions! Hang on until the exciting finale…
The Trouble With Humidity
High humidity has several negative effects for a house:
- It makes it harder to feel comfortable during hot weather. Humidity traps heat inside the human body, which makes a person feel hotter than the actual temperature of the air. High humidity can make an 80°F day feel like it’s close to 90°F.
- The excess moisture in the air creates an indoor environment that is mold and mildew-friendly. Both can cause damage to building material (especially wood and drywall), and there are types of mold that release toxic spores that can make the indoor air extremely unhealthy.
- High humidity is connected to several other health problems: fatigue, fainting, even heat stroke.
- Humidity can cause peeling wallpaper and damaged painted surfaces, as well as wood rot that can affect furniture and precision wooden devices.
An AC Isn’t Often Enough to Defeat Humidity
An air conditioning system removes heat from the air to cool a house. This helps people feel more comfortable during high humidity levels, but the AC itself isn’t a dehumidifier. As an air conditioner runs, it also draws some moisture from the air along with the heat, but this is a side-effect of the cooling process, not the goal. In our humid climate, air conditioning systems rarely have a noticeable impact on humidity. The more humidity is in the air, the longer an AC must run to overcome the extra edge of discomfort humidity creates.
If your air conditioning system has to run almost continuously to overcome the effects of both heat and humidity in your home, we recommend you look for options to remove humidity.
The Whole-House Dehumidifier Solution
You have several ways to reduce humidity. The most powerful method available to you is to have our experts install a whole-house dehumidifier into your HVAC system.
Whole-house dehumidifiers work in conjunction with the rest of the HVAC system to lower humidity without interfering with the air conditioning system. A whole-house dehumidifier uses refrigerant to draw large amounts of moisture from the air and remove it to the outside. Since this process also cools the air, the dehumidifier reheats the air so it won’t end up cooling the house too much. You can adjust the humidity levels from special controls integrated into the thermostat.
We offer the installation of dehumidifiers in Slidell, LA that can make a huge difference for homes. If you’re ready for a new weapon in your fight to enjoy great home comfort—as well as mitigate the other damage high humidity can do—talk to our team today.
Gowland’s Heating & A/C believes in “Relationship over revenue!” Call us for AC and indoor air quality solutions in New Orleans and the surrounding areas.