How To Decrease Humidity In Your Home

When the humidity level in your home is high, you feel it. High humidity means that there is a lot of moisture in the air. The air may feel muggy. You may have sweat running down your back or forming on your forehead even when you didn’t do anything strenuous. If you are experiencing this, then it is important to know how to decrease humidity in your home for a number of reasons.

High humidity can be bad for you and your home. For you, it can be uncomfortable and can affect your health. For your home, it can lead to damage through condensation build-up, mold, and mildew.

In this article, we will look at how to decrease humidity to comfortable and safe levels.

The Correct Humidity Level Makes A Difference

An ideal humidity indoors should fall between 30 and 50%. When the humidity is too high, it promotes mold formation and can create condensation on windows and walls. If left unchecked, it can damage the structure of your home and develop wood rot.

In addition to feeling damp, high humidity can trigger respiratory issues, and allergies, and make it hard to sleep at night.

Therefore, maintaining humidity levels within this range of 30-50% is important.

How To Measure Humidity

Although condensation and mold growth are two visual cues that the humidity is high in your home, the best tool for the job is something called a hygrometer.

There are several types of these portable devices. They use sensors to determine the moisture content in the air and display it as a percentage value. The reading is in the unit of relative humidity (RH).

For more information on the best indoor hygrometers, click here.

How To Decrease Humidity

There are several ways to reduce indoor humidity. Here are some examples:

Hang Your Laundry Outside

Damp clothes fresh out of the washing machine will increase the humidity in your home as they dry. While using indoor drying racks may be a good way to reduce energy costs on your electric dryer, especially during the warmer months, you may be able to hang those clothes on a clothesline outside. This removes the dampness from inside your home and helps to decrease indoor humidity.

Open A Window Or Two

Have you noticed that after you have a hot shower that if you open the bathroom window the condensation on mirrors and fog within the space disappears? The same idea applies when you find your home too humid.

All you have to do is open a window or two to create airflow and that will push the humid air outside of your home replacing it with fresh air.

Put Out Some Charcoal

Believe it or not, charcoal is very effective at absorbing air moisture. All you need is a small bowl or basket where you would place a few charcoal briquettes that you would ordinarily use with your barbeque.

The charcoal will help to lower humidity in your home and will continue to do so for months. You just have to replace the briquettes every three months to keep them fresh.

Start Up The Air Conditioner

Your air conditioner is one of the perfect tools at your disposal for helping to decrease humidity. It does this by simply introducing cool dry air into your home. While doing this, warm, humid air is removed.

Remember to keep your air conditioner in good working order at all times and check the filter frequently. Clean it when necessary and it should perform well for a long time.

Move Houseplants Outside

As beautiful as houseplants are, they do add to the humidity inside a home. Plants are both effective in improving indoor air quality and creating a healthy indoor environment. But the downside is they release some moisture into the air.

If the humidity is already high inside your home, house plants can contribute to that adding to the problem.

Give Your Rugs An Inspection

Rugs can add to the humidity inside your home. This is because they are so good at trapping and holding moisture. Sometimes, rugs will develop mold or grow fungus due to the moisture trapped inside of them.

If your rugs smell musty or damp, there is a solution. You can have them dry cleaned or if you prefer, replace your rugs to reduce humidity in the home.

Purchase A Dehumidifier

The absolute best way how to decrease indoor humidity is with the use of a dehumidifier. As the name implies, this appliance reduces humidity by simply removing moisture from the air.

There are many different types of dehumidifiers available in the marketplace. Some small dehumidifiers are portable allowing you to move from room to room or you can have a whole-home unit as part of your furnace.

Use Exhaust/Ventilation Fans

Kitchens and bathrooms often have exhaust or ventilation fans. These are specifically meant to be used to remove excess moisture from these areas.

Hot showers or baths, cooking, and washing dishes all contribute to the humidity inside your home. If ventilation is not adequate, exhaust and ventilation fans do a great job of pulling moisture outside of the home.

Take Cooler Showers

Speaking of showers…if you are a fan of hot showers, you should be well aware of the steam it creates. By reducing the temperature of your shower by just a few degrees, you will still have a comfortable, warm shower, but you will also reduce the amount of steam produced. Also reduce the amount of time that you take a shower for to reduce humidity further.

Monitor Your Gutters & For Leaks Around The Home

Gutters around the outside of the home are a common source of indoor water leaks. When an indoor water leak is left unnoticed, not only will it cause damage to the structure of your home, but it will increase the humidity level as well.

Condensation, stains on drywall, wet spots, and water bills that are unusually high are all signs of a possible indoor water leak. Any leaks are critical to find and fix ASAP.

Final Thoughts on How To Reduce Humidity

High humidity levels inside your home are not good for your health or the health of your home. Fortunately, there are many ways to decrease indoor humidity, with many inexpensive, easy and fast options.

By using these tips on how to decrease humidity in your home, you can keep relative humidity at a safe level, and you and your family will be able to live in your home in comfort.