How to Know If You Need a Home Dehumidifier

5 Ways You Can Tell If You Need a Home Dehumidifier

Summer’s humidity isn’t just uncomfortable, it can also cause serious damage inside your house if you don’t do something about it. Both well-sealed and drafty houses are affected by high humidity and may need a home dehumidifier.

Humidity leads to wet conditions that can cause:

• Sticky feeling in the air and surfaces
• Condensation on the inside of windows
• Mold in your ductwork and walls
• Warping and damage to wood floors/walls
• Reduced air quality that affects the health of your family

The best way to combat these conditions within your house and prevent further damage is installing a home dehumidifier.

Humidity and The High-Efficiency HVAC Unit Trap

So you’ve installed a high-efficiency HVAC system and your house is well sealed.  These precautions should keep the humidity under control, right?

Yes and no.

Your HVAC unit automatically dehumidifies as it cools the air in your house. When your house is sealed and the HVAC system is most efficient, your house is cool without the system working too hard.

It may not actually run often enough to remove extra humidity that builds up in your air. This extra humidity can come from showers, cooking, or even the presence of people. This means that the air stays cool, but that extra humidity will build up.

The Best Dehumidifier for Your Home

The best home dehumidifier is the one that works well for you and your situation. Small houses in locations that don’t battle humid weather may get by with a portable unit, but whole-house systems are recommended for humid climates and as a long-term solution.

Portable dehumidifiers can be placed anywhere in your house or basement and work well for temporary use. It’s best to monitor a portable unit because the drip pan can fill quickly. While the initial price and portability of these units is tempting, the maintenance and overall air quality outcomes diminish their worth.

There are two types of whole-house dehumidifiers:

1. Dehumidifiers with the compressor located indoors
2. And dehumidifiers where the compressor is outside the house

The outcomes of both models are very much the same; they adjust the humidity in the air throughout the house via the HVAC system, rather than focusing on a particular room or area.

What you will want to keep in mind when choosing your home dehumidifier is energy efficiency and effectiveness.

Indoor compressors tend to heat up their immediate surroundings, so they can make your overall HVAC unit work a bit harder. Outdoor compressor units don’t have this problem.

Both types of whole-house dehumidifier units tend to have better air quality outcomes because of the extra and more advanced filtration systems that are built in. They are also more energy-efficient than their portable counterparts.

During your regular HVAC maintenance visits, be sure to ask your Jewell certified technician about the humidity levels in your house. We can help you decide what system works best with your existing HVAC setup and suggest some options. When it comes time for you to install your whole-house unit, we can do that too.