A short podcast transcript of hosts Derek Cole and William Skipper discussing causes and controls for high indoor humidity. They explain common causes (continuous HVAC fan operation, air leaks, and improperly sized or malfunctioning AC units) and recommend maintaining indoor relative humidity between 30–50% to limit allergens, bacteria, and static electricity.
Questions this episode answers
30–50%
Chapters
Hey, this is Derek Cole along with William Skipper. Welcome to the Comfort Experts. And today we're talking about controlling humidity in the house. And some of the phone calls we get, William, are, you know what? It's a little warm muggy in my house, but the AC is running. AC is working. So what are a few things they could be looking at?
One of the most common things we see, Derek, is the homeowner having the fan in the on position. Leaving the fan in the on position, even though your unit is operating the compressor outside, once it shuts down, that fan is continually flowing air that's in the house. It's picking up air that is infiltrated from the outside in the crawl space, which is continuously building humidity. Now, that unit might come on and cool it down to the temperature, but that fan still running, is still bringing in that humid air and recycling that air that's in the house, causing it to be a little more humid than normal. Also, one other thing you can find is you've got some extreme leaks around doors and windows and around attic crawl spaces in the ceiling. That is allowing that hot, humid or that humid air to infiltrate into the home as the. As the unit is running. And also, you can have a unit that's not quite operating right and not conditioning and not running for a longer period of time enough to dehumidify as needed.
Yeah, it could be too small of a unit turn off or run a long period of time to be the unit turn off too quickly. But it's recommended to keep the house between 30 and 50% humidity. And that's really to control allergens, bacteria.
And keep static electricity down.
Yeah, you don't want to walk around, be a light bulb. That's right.
