Best Indoor Humidity

Regardless of the climate you live in, indoor humidity can significantly affect your comfort and property. Therefore, managing humidity during all seasons should be a priority for all homeowners.

Below you will learn best ways to maintain indoor humidity and much more.

1. The Basics of Indoor Humidity
2. What is the Good House Humidity Level?
3. Why is it Important to Maintain the Recommended Indoor Humidity Levels?
4. How to Maintain Indoor Humidity Levels

Humidity refers to the water vapor contained in the air around you. The term “relative humidity” is commonly used to refer to the quantity of water vapor in indoor air.

Relative humidity is the quantity of water vapor present in the air at a particular temperature in comparison to the total capacity of vapor that the air can possibly hold at that temperature. It’s expressed as a percentage.

For example, when the air contains the maximum amount of water vapor that it’s capable of holding at a certain temperature, then the relative humidity is at 100%. The relative humidity will be 50% if the air contains only half the amount of vapor that it can hold at the current temperature.

As temperatures increase or decrease, the capacity of water vapor that the air can hold also changes.

The indoor humidity level at which people feel most comfortable depends on the level of physical activity, clothing, and personal preferences.

Generally, maintaining the relative indoor humidity between 40% and 60% is highly recommended, with the ideal level being around 50%. Anything below 30% is taken to be too dry whereas anything above 60% is regarded as too high.

Maintaining the right indoor humidity level is of particular importance to people living in areas that experience drastic changes from one season to the next. Warm air can hold more water vapor than cool air. For that reason, high humidity is nearly inevitable in the summer months.

Humidity levels drop in the winter because cold air retains less moisture than warmer air. Therefore, air tends to be dry.

The recommended level of indoor humidity in the wintertime is between 40% and 50%. That helps prevents condensation on surfaces like windows in colder climates. However, people living in moderate climates should ideally not aim for anything lower than 40%.

In extreme cases, where the outside temperatures drop to 10˚F, you should lower the humidity indoors to between 20% and 30%. If the outdoor temperatures are between -10˚F and 0˚F, indoor humidity levels shouldn’t be more than 25%. They shouldn’t exceed 20% when the outside temperatures are between -20˚F and -10˚F.When the outside temperatures are -20˚F or lower, the humidity indoors shouldn’t be more than 15%.

Indoor air usually becomes dry when the outdoor humidity levels are low, which typically occurs in the colder seasons. As you turn to your furnace to warm up your home, the conditions inside become even drier.

That’s because the heating system creates hot air through combustion, which burns out most of the existing water vapor. Your home’s humidity levels can even fall to 10% in cold conditions. Some of the problems that occur when humidity is too low include:

When your home has high humidity levels, there’ll be too much moisture in the air. That will make you feel warm and uncomfortable, causing you to turn up the air conditioner in the summer and consume more energy unnecessarily. Not only that, but high humidity also creates several other problems.

Mold, mildew, mites, and fungi flourish in high humidity. Most fungi species can only exist at a relative humidity of at least 60%. Mite populations reduce significantly at a relative humidity of less than 50% but thrive at 80%. Mold flourishes in humid places and can be detrimental to humans, animals, and your house in general.

Bugs like cockroaches and centipedes love humid conditions. Humidity levels also influence the amount of toxins like formaldehyde. According to a study by Persinger (1975), humidity can also have a negative effect on happiness.

Other problems with too much humidity indoors include:

Maintaining humidity at the ideal levels diminishes most of the adverse effects of unsuitable relative humidity.

Some of the benefits you’ll get from keeping the humidity in your home at the best levels include:

You can get an accurate idea of how dry or moist your indoor air is by using a hygrometer. This small and inexpensive instrument measures the relative humidity indoors. Once you’ve found out how humid your home is, you can then take the required steps to achieve a more ideal level.

The best tools for maintaining proper humidity levels are humidifiers and dehumidifiers. Obviously depending on the humidity level and the season you are in i.e Summer or Winter. Humidifier and Dehumidifier work automatically to add or reduce the moisture in your indoor air.

Since you spend about 90% of your time indoors, make sure you’re feeling your best during that time by maintaining the ideal indoor humidity levels at 50%.