January 1, 2018
Indoor humidity levels are important. In this blog entry we discuss wintertime indoor humidity levels and humidifier settings.
Too little humidity is not good. Too much is not good either. Too much humidity in the home can cause mold, and other undesirable health effects. Too little can leave our skins dry and can cause our lung passageways to dry and become irritated.
In the winter, it is advisable to have a whole-house humidifier. One that is connected to your furnace and one you can control the humidity levels on. As stated above, too little or too much is not good. But wintertime humidity levels is a bit more more complicated then set-it-and-leave-it. You see indoor humidity levels should be set relative to outdoor temperatures.
If you have sweating windows, door or ceilings, your indoor humidity levels are too high. April Aire, one of the leading humidifier manufactures includes the recommended humidity levels settings. See chart below:
Today, at the date of this posting, the temperature in NJ ws around 10 degrees. That means, humidifiers should be set for 30% relative humidity. Unfortunately most people were never shown at the time of installation that they need to change the setting of the humidifier based on the outdoor temperature. So if you have a humidifier, do keep an eye on the outdoor temperature and for your family's health and safety, adjust your humidity levels as necessary.
Too much trouble? Yes and fortunately there is an easier way.
Today most manufacturers make "automatic" humidifiers that come with an outdoor temperature sensor. So by installing one of these automatic humidifiers, the humidifier automatically adjusts indoor humidity relative to the outside. Make sure you ask your installer to install one of these automatic humidifiers.
Finally, if your thermostat does not show you indoor relative humidity, you can buy a cheap but useful one from Amazon.
We hope you found this blog post useful. If you have any questions, please feel free to email us at infor@BuildingSciencesLLC.com or call us at 973-544-6800
