The level of humidity in living environment affects human beings in many ways. The common problems like dampness, condensation and dryness in our surroundings are just the results of humidity present in air. As both very high and low humidity levels can cause discomfort and various problems related to our health, it is very important that the right level of humidity should be maintained and this can be done by using dehumidifiers. In other words, a dehumidifier is a household appliance that regulates the humidity in air.
What is humidity?
Humidity refers to the amount of water particles (in other words, moisture) present in the air. The air has certain capacity to hold water particles that often varies with surrounding temperature. During a cloudy day during summer or a rainy day, there will be high humidity in air. You might also feel sweating and more hot than usual, as the moisture in air has reached saturation level. Similarly, when the temperature falls during winter, the air becomes dry. Low humidity levels can also occur in very hot places where there has been no rain fall for months.
Relative Humidity or RH is a measurement of moisture in air and expressed in percentage. It RH is 60 %, it means that the air holds 60 percent of water particles that it can hold. When RH becomes 100 %, the air is fully saturated and can not hold any more moisture. Likewise, if the air has zero percent relative humidity, the air does not have any amount of moisture and is totally dry. Knowing the relative humidity, you can increase or decrease humidity levels inside your home or office with the help of a dehumidifier.
While climatic conditions and rain falls affect the humidity levels out side our homes, there are also other factors that affect humidity inside our homes. For instance, the defects in buildings like leakage, damp walls can also make the air very humid and cause dampness inside the buildings. Likewise our daily activities like washing, steaming, and drying wet clothes can also contribute to high moisture levels in our homes. Let’s us know how high and low humidity levels affect our lives.
Effects of high humidity levels
- If the relative humidity level is high either due to external conditions like outdoor temperature or human factors, the air will carry more water vapour that may result in conditions like condensation of water particles on cold surfaces leading to dampness in our surroundings.
- As puddle of water forms on walls, windows and doors, these surfaces invite the breeding of mould and mildew which become sources of many problems related to our health.
- The mould or fungi, along with mites and dust often cause respiratory problems like asthma, allergies and cough. They may also grow on clothes in damp conditions.
- As the surrounding air is rich with water vapour, your body may sweat profusely and you may experience hot even during cloudy days.
- The dampness may also cause the withering of wall papers, paintings or even lead to cracking of any plaster work you have recently done.
- High moisture levels in our homes can cause the enlargement of wooden doors or windows that may not fit with frames.
Effects of low humidity levels
When the relative humidity drops below the comfort level, you are likely to experience the air is dry and may also feel unpleasantly cold during winter days. Like very high humid air, dry air can also cause health related issues like dry skin, chapped lips etc. As you breathe very dry, cold air, you may also experience difficulty in breathing or get sore throat during windy mornings and evenings.
Unlike high moisture levels, dry air does not affect household things so much, however, furniture like doors, windows usually get shrunk due to extreme dryness in the surroundings.
In a nutshell, the factors that affect humidity conditions in your home are as follows:
- Weather conditions and temperature levels outside your home.
- How the buildings are protected from dampness, leakage etc.
- Your daily activities like bathing, steaming, drying wet clothes etc.
Solution to problems related to humidity
It is the comfortable level of humidity that makes the winter or summer pleasant for all of us, not just heating or cooling air. An air conditioner, although removes dust and mites and provides cool air, it does not maintain the right level of humidity. For this reason, we often experience dryness, when we are in air-conditioned rooms. Likewise, when we use room heaters during bitterly cold days, again we feel extreme dryness. As such, a dehumidifier can maintain the right level of moisture as it removes excessive water vapour from the air during humid days and add moisture to the air during dry, winter days, thus becoming one of the most useful home appliances from health perspective too.
