Indoor humidity makes a much bigger difference in your comfort level than you may think. The fact is that you’ll never feel as comfortable if the air inside your home is too humid or too dry. This is why many people decide to invest in a humidifier and/or dehumidifier in an effort to control the humidity level in their home. In this article, we’ll explain how humidifiers and dehumidifiers work and what advantages whole-home units can provide to your house.
What Does a Humidifier Do?
There are several different types of humidifiers, but they all work by causing water to evaporate so that they release water vapor into the surrounding air. The purpose of a humidifier is to release moisture inside to raise the indoor humidity level and overcome issues with dry air. Many people use portable humidifiers when they’re sick with a cold because a lack of humidity dries out the nose, throat and sinuses, which worsens cold symptoms and makes it harder to breathe.
While portable humidifiers can come in handy at times, a whole-home humidifier is a much more effective solution for increasing the humidity level throughout the home. The way whole-home units work is that they are mounted onto a central HVAC system and continually pump moist air out into the home’s ductwork. This way the HVAC system then blows the moist air into every room to quickly humidify the entire house. Some whole-home units rely on the hot air produced by the heating system to evaporate the water inside the unit. There are also whole-home steam humidifiers that instead use electricity to cause the water to boil so that steam gets released into the HVAC ductwork. While a steam humidifier costs more to run, it has the advantage of being able to work even when the heating system is off. That said, you still need to have the HVAC fan running so that the moist air gets circulated throughout the house.
How Dehumidifiers Work
Dehumidifiers serve the opposite purpose of humidifiers and work to draw moisture out of the air to decrease the indoor humidity level. A dehumidifier is somewhat similar to an air conditioner in that it has an evaporator coil and uses refrigerant to lower the temperature of the air flowing through the unit until it reaches its dew point. Once the air reaches its dew point, much of the water vapor it contains instantly condenses and gets removed from the air. The result is that the air flowing out of the unit is much drier than the air getting drawn into the unit.
As with humidifiers, a whole-home dehumidifier is far more effective and works to control and lower the humidity level in every part of the house. The way it works is that some of the warm air being drawn into your AC system passes through the dehumidifier before entering the main indoor part of your air conditioning system. That means the cool air your AC system puts out ends up much less humid than it would normally be.
When to Use a Whole-Home Humidifier vs. Dehumidifier
Generally speaking, a whole-home dehumidifier is mostly meant to be used during the warmer months when the air is more humid and your air conditioning system is running. You could use it at any time throughout the year, but it usually isn’t necessary to have a dehumidifier running in the winter since cooler air always contains less moisture than warmer air. A whole-home dehumidifier is especially useful in places like Mississippi that frequently experience high humidity throughout most of the summer. One issue if you can’t control the humidity level in your house during the summer is that you may end up with mold growth inside your home. Your AC also can’t perform as effectively and you won’t feel as cool and comfortable if your home is too humid.
The fact that cold air is often overly dry is why a whole-home humidifier can come in handy during the winter. One myth that many people believe is that a heating system makes the air inside a house drier, but this technically isn’t true. The issue is that running your heating system often ends up causing cooler, drier air to get pulled into the house from outside, which results in the indoor humidity level decreasing. A whole-home humidifier helps to overcome this issue since it results in your heating system circulating moist air instead of just pumping out hot, dry air into every room.
RW Heating, Air, Plumbing & Electrical is the one-stop shop for all of your home service needs. We’ve been in business since 1999 and are one of the most-trusted air conditioning and heating, electrical and plumbing services in the Hernando area. Whether you want to install a whole-home humidifier or dehumidifier or need any other maintenance service, give us a call and we’ll get everything taken care of quickly and professionally.
