Breathe GREEN & Easy: How Humidity Affects Your Indoor Air Quality

Many homes in the northern parts of the United States during the winter will have either too much humidity or too little.  A home should range between 30 -50% relative humidity, and if you're not sure where your home stands, a gauge can be purchased for as little as $5 or as expensive as $50.

Too much indoor humidity is typically caused by a lack of outside air: the home is very "tight," which tends to be an issue with newer homes.  Signs of this are:

•     Condensation on glass
•     Condensation on window frames, which could damage and lead to mold growth
•     Mold growth on walls in closets and exterior walls (in severe cases)

To solve this issue, outside air must be introduced into the home to “dry” the home. There are various ways to do this, and as typical with any home improvement, they range greatly in price. Inexpensive ways of lowering humidity are to just open windows or utilize exhaust fans in your kitchen or bathroom more often. A more costly solution would be to install a whole house ventilation system, which will filter and temper the outside air prior to introducing it to the home. The key is to identify the ventilation rate of the home first to truly solve this problem, which is why blower doors are used in professional energy audits.

Conversely, many older homes suffer from too little humidity, causing static, dry skin, comfort issues and wood shrinkage.  Adding a central humidifier may or may not solve this, and is truly just addressing the symptom instead of the problem. The reason for low humidity is the leakage rate of the home; it is too leaky.  Air sealing these homes will reduce the leakage rate and the dry, cold air from entering the home, resulting in greater indoor air quality and overall comfort!

Are you experiencing symptoms of high or low humidity in your home? Share them with us on our Facebook Page, and you could win $250!!