The humidity is no joke in Florida. It affects everything! It also makes our lush green palm trees and beautiful flowers possible, which we’re grateful for. But that doesn’t mean we want a humid atmosphere or lush green mold ecosystem inside our homes! Too much humidity can cause a wide variety of problems, and keeping indoor humidity at an ideal level has many benefits.
What level of humidity is ideal? How can we keep that level of humidity throughout a home? What are the benefits? Will keeping the humidity lower in your home improve your indoor air quality? We’ve got all these answers and more. Read on!
Goldilocks Humidity: Just Right
We’ve been talking about excess humidity causing problems. But insufficient humidity causes other issues! So what you really need is Goldilocks humidity, neither too wet nor too dry. This can be anywhere from 30% to 50%. At this level, you won’t have the swelling wood, peeling paint, mold growth, and overheating of high humidity, but you won’t have dry skin and hair and extreme static electricity, either.
Maintaining Ideal Humidity
Small, portable dehumidifiers are great for small, enclosed spaces. If you have a dorm room, single office, or studio apartment that’s too humid, this is a perfect solution. But to keep humidity evenly low enough throughout a whole home, you need a whole home dehumidifier. This is installed as an addition to your HVAC system and absorbs moisture from all the air that passes through your ducts.
Indoor Air Quality
One of the biggest threats to indoor air quality posed by humidity is mold spores. Mold loves to grow in moist places, and simply can’t survive where it’s dry. That’s why mold is so much more likely to grow in your bathroom, where it’s wet, than anywhere else in your house. In order to reproduce, mold releases spores into the air, where they float until they land somewhere moist and grow a new colony.
Those spores are nasty to breathe! Many people are highly allergic to them. And there are near-endless varieties, perhaps 100,000 species worldwide. Even common ones are so toxic that even people without allergies can become very ill. And with Florida often being ranked as the state most prone to mold growth, it’s a pretty serious concern.
The solution: a whole house dehumidifier. When the mold spores can’t find enough moisture to grow, there won’t be new mold colonies sending out more and more spores. Your air will be so much healthier to breathe!
Other Benefits
A whole house dehumidifier can prevent the sort of swelling that occurs in doors and windows and prevent them from closing properly. It can help you avoid damage to wood furniture, paint, wallpaper, and more. It will stop that musty smell from developing in your clothing and books. And when the air is dryer, it feels cooler, so you’ll be able to run your air conditioner less and save electricity!
If a whole house dehumidifier in Navarre, FL sounds like a dream come true, don’t hesitate to reach out so we can help make that dream a reality.
For professional dehumidifier services, look no further than Kool Breeze of Northwest Florida, Inc. Contact us today!