Find the Right Balance Between Heating and Humidity

If you have ever battled dry skin or chapped lips in the winter, you know the effects of too little humidity in your home. Unfortunately, if you just use some lotion and lip balm to solve the immediate problem, you may still have long-term consequences.

During the summer months, it sometimes seems like there’s nothing but heat and humidity. However, once winter comes around, the temperatures cool and the air gets drier. Inside your house, this can have negative effects, such as:

• Damage to wood furniture, hardwood floors, and even structural wood.
• Damage to fabrics and especially leather, which can crack when it gets too dry.
• Irritation of the mucous membranes that worsens cold, flu, and allergy symptoms.

Humidity and Heat

In addition to the effect dry air can have on your family and your home, it can also cause higher energy bills. Every degree that you raise your thermostat in the winter costs you money. It probably seems like a constant struggle to balance expense with your family’s comfort.

One easy solution is to increase the humidity in your home. More humidity allows you to lower your thermostat a few degrees without losing comfort. This is because air with more moisture feels warmer than dry air.

Think about it like this: when you sweat in the summer, you cool off faster by standing in front of something that produces a breeze. Your body cools due to the movement of the air evaporating the moisture off your skin.

In the winter, the air is naturally dry, causing it to evaporate moisture off your skin faster than more humidified air. If you add some humidity back to the winter air in your home, you lose the cooling effect. As a result, you can run your furnace at a lower temperature without feeling cold.

Using a Humidifier

To maintain a consistent level of humidity in your home, consider installing a whole-house humidifier. It can monitor humidity levels and adjust them according to your needs.

Need help solving humidity problems or other HVAC issues in your Coastal Bend area home? Contact CCAC today.

Our goal is to help educate our customers in Corpus Christi, Texas about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems). For more information about HVAC topics, download our free Home Comfort Guide or call us at 361-678-2495.

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