Tips on Maintaining the Humidity Levels

April 20, 2008

It is not the temperature, but the high level of humidity that makes summer horrible. Why is it so? Humid air contains too much water vapour (moisture) and it cannot absorb water much. This leads not only to excessive sweating on your body but to various health-related problems which get aggravated by high humidity.

High humidity can also cause condensation and dampness in your surroundings. Mould or fungi easily grow on windows, doors and mould is proven agent that aggravates respiratory problems like asthma, skin allergies etc. Dust mites also thrive in wet conditions and they are potential sources of allergies and asthma. Dampness can also cause damage to the building, the furniture, doors, windows etc.

Likewise, low humidity is also detrimental to our health. Usually during dry winters, we can experience low humidity which can cause extreme dryness that leads to skin problems like dry skin, chapped lips etc. As such, maintaining the right level of humidity is very important.

Here are some ways to control the humidity:

Make sure that your home has proper ventilation. Condensation is on maximum when the room temperature is much lower than the temperature levels in outdoor. The fresh air may absorb more moisture from room air and can make you feel cooler.
Certain activities like bathing, steaming, washing can increase the humidity inside your home, especially in bath rooms, kitchen etc. Make sure that these areas get fresh air periodically for dehumidification.
Although air conditioners and dehumidifiers remove the moisture from air and make the place cooler, dehumidifiers has additional features that deal with the problems of humidity more efficiently than air conditioners. Dehumidifiers not only remove the moisture but also the heat the air to the room temperature level so one feels more comfortable.
Choose a suitable dehumidifier depending on the area that you want dehumidify and the humidity conditions in your area. For instance, you may need a humidifier with larger capacity for a larger area or when there is high relative humidity in your place.
Use a hygrometer to check the humidity level in your home. Knowing the relative humidity, you can safeguard your health and possessions taking some precautions.
When there is low humidity, use humidifiers that add moisture to the room air.

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How Humidity Levels can affect our Health?

April 18, 2008

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.

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Choosing a Dehumidifier

April 14, 2008

Before choosing a dehumidifier for your home/office, it is important that its water extraction capacity should meet the requirements of the place where it is going to be installed. As a rule of thumb, larger rooms require dehumidifiers that are capable of removing large quantities of water efficiently. Secondly, the relative humidity of the room air and the climatic conditions are the factors that should be considered before choosing the suitable dehumidifier.

Facts on humidity levels

The relative humidity of air (RH) in your room indicates the moisture content in the air. Higher the RH, the more water vapour in the air. Generally, 40 to 50 percent RH makes us feel comfort and also protect us from many health hazards related to high humidity.

With higher RH levels, you need to make sure that your dehumidifier has the enough capacity to extract water to maintain the required RH level. For instance, a 40 or 50 pint dehumidifier is what you require, when you want to use at places which have more than 70 % relative humidity.

Take the room size into consideration

In the same way the relative humidity and temperature levels affect the performance of the dehumidifiers, the room size or area that you plan to dehumidify also becomes a criteria while choosing a dehumidifier. There are various water extraction capacities available with dehumidifiers. For example, a larger room may require a dehumidifier that can extract 20 to 40 litres or up to 65 pints of water every day, especially during very humid days. If smaller areas need to be dehumidified, half the capacity of this can be sufficient.

Tank size

The dripping water from the dehumidifier is collected in a tank which has to be emptied periodically. The smaller the tank, more frequently it needs emptying. So, it is a good idea to choose bigger tank with your dehumidifier, as it can be emptied of water on daily basis or once in every two days. The smaller tank has another disadvantage too. Once it is full and not emptied, the unit may shut off till the water is drained.

Noise levels

Since dehumidifiers use mechanical energy and move air, they tend to make noise to certain extent. While choosing a dehumidifier, make sure that you are informed on the noise it produces. The latest models produce much less noise than their predecessors so you may find the suitable dehumidifier with noise levels acceptable to you.

Filters

Dehumidifiers have filters that remove the dust particles from the air before it is passed through coils. By removing the dust, filters make the air pure as well as protect the coils from wear and tear. However, filters will get deposited with layers of dust over the time and they need cleaning periodically, especially, if the filters are washable. You can choose disposable air filters that you can change after certain time.

Hot gas defrost feature

During extreme cold climates, the coils in dehumidifiers get frosted and the dripping of water completely stops and they may grind to halt. To prevent this, you can add the hot gas defrost unit to the standard unit. When the water gets frozen on the coil, the coil is heated and the ice melts away. Some standard units also come with an extra heater that prevents water vapour from getting frozen on the coil.

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Dehumidifier Guide

October 23, 2007

A dehumidifier is a household appliance that reduces the level of humidity in air. The concept of keeping dehumidifiers at home is to control the level of moisture. If the moisture content is high it leads to dampness, which can cause growth and increase the proliferation of dust-mites whereas if the moisture content is low it will lead to dryness and causes irritation and coughing. So it’s required to keep balanced moisture in the room for general health and to keep away from allergies.

The Dehumidifiers components are similar to that of a refrigerator, freezer or air conditioner. Let us take a look on the components used in Residential Dehumidifiers. The motor or engine works as the compressor, which is located at the bottom of the machine and it is usually found in black colour with the size of a football. The compressor works until the humidity sensor or the humidistat in the dehumidifier asks for a reduction in the humidity.

There is a condenser made out of a series of finned tubes similar to that of a radiator and it is usually fixed next to the circulating fan. There is an evaporator, which is fixed at the back of the dehumidifier and right above the water collection container. This evaporator too is much alike the radiator with a coiled set of tubes. When the dehumidifier’s humidistat senses the increase in humidity in the atmosphere, the evaporator automatically starts thereby allowing the compressor and the circulating fan to start its work. The work of the circulating fan is to circulate the air over the evaporator and the condenser coils.

The principle behind the working of a Dehumidifier is simple. When the dehumidifier is switched on, the circulating fan and the compressor also starts to work. The fan draws the room air continually over the evaporating coils, which are cold, and then over the condenser coils which are warm. As the evaporator coils are cold the moisture in the room gets deposited on them, this process continues and when the moisture on the coil gets loaded it drips off from the coils into the container kept for collection of water. This air is then passed on to the warm condenser coils and hence gets warmed up. This air which is free from water content and warmer is passed on to the room and thus the exiting air from the dehumidifier is dry and warm.

Why are Dehumidifiers used?

Dehumidifiers are mostly used in buildings, hospitals and houses to improve the indoor environment. Dehumidifiers are also used to give a long life period for sensitive electronic equipments such as servers that has to be kept away from moisture. It has proved out to be very cost effective equipment for such purposes. It is even used to dry out a damp basement from a rainstorm too. It is a perfect equipment to be used in libraries where lot of books and furniture is involved.

Refrigerant Dehumidifiers can be used efficiently when the air is humid. The use of the device is also recommended when you want to make your room very dry.

The Mechanical or Refrigerative Dehumidifiers work by drawing moist air over the refrigerated coil that has a small fan fixed on it. When in contact with the fan the saturation of water vapour pressure decreases and the water from the air is dripped to the container meant for it, leading out the exit of warmer air to the room. The container meant for collecting this dripping water plays a very important role while deciding the price of a Dehumidifier. The larger the container and costlier is the unit. But there are Dehumidifiers, which give a direct outlet to the drain from the container. In other cases there are signals which show when its time to drain the container or when the container is filled. Hence a proper drain is required to get a reliable dehumidifier.

Buying Tips

• Select a dehumidifier that will fit perfectly in the space you allot for it. You must know about the size of the room you want to dehumidify and also have a clear picture of the moisture levels.

• Make sure that you select a humidifier with automated controls, which will help in monitoring and setting the relative humidity levels.

• Check the bucket size of the device.

• Select a dehumidifier that can function perfectly even at low temperatures

When you decide on a dehumidifier, ensure that you know about the size of the unit you require for your house, the cost of the product, whether you have to drain the condensate tub or the unit is self-draining. A self-draining dehumidifier is recommended as you don’t have to remember to empty the tub everyday. Check whether it has an automatic defrost feature, the noise level at low and high speed, the manufacturer’s status for quality and the service offered from the seller or a local service depot when you purchase one.

Keep the warmth in your room by using a Dehumidifier and breathe healthy air to stay healthy.

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