Do you feel that you and your family members often catch the flu or a cold? Or your skin feels flaky and you feel sweaty, lethargic or uneasy all the time? If yes, then your house may lack the right percentage of humidity in it.

Stabilizing the humidity level indoors is not just crucial for you and your family’s well-being, but also for the well-being of your house. Effective indoor air quality is a result of maintaining the right balance of temperature and humidity. While the right humidity levels are advantageous, too little or too much humidity can be detrimental, enabling allergens and bacteria in the air. If you leave it uncontrolled for an extended duration, it can even wreak havoc in your house, by ruining your property and possessions.

Ideally, the recommended level of relative humidity is 30-40% in winter and 40-60% in summer. This range will guarantee the best comfort and air quality for your home and its occupants. Humidity is the presence of water vapour in the air at a specific temperature, warm air is capable of binding more water vapour than cold air. Relative humidity (RH) specifies how much water vapour is available in the air compared to how much it could hold at that temperature. These RH levels are responsible for the dry air (low humidity) and moist air (high humidity) conditions in indoor air.

Problems with dry indoor air

During the winter season, when the temperature drops below zero, the relative humidity plunges as low as 10%. And sometimes, the RH reading goes beyond 45% because of inadequate indoor ventilation and human activities like cooking or laundry. The suggested level of room temperature in winter is 22 degrees. Dry indoor air can take a toll on your family’s health if they are exposed to it for a long time. If you overlook it, it causes fatigue, frizzy hair, asthma and makes you more susceptible to flu and respiratory problems. Moreover, it is not just you and the family, your precious house bears the brunt as well. Low humidity is a hint of menace for your home, especially for your wooden furniture and woodwork. You will witness hardwood floor separation, shrinkage, warping along with moulding gaps.

Problems with humid/moist indoor air

During the summer season, the indoor relative humidity is influenced by the outdoor temperature and humidity levels, ranging from 50-70%. Too much humidity is responsible for the condensation on windows, wet stains on walls/ceilings and a damp feel in the air. Indoor humidity must be maintained to a level where it can form microbes in the building and its surfaces. The ventilation of washrooms, kitchen and basements should be essentially checked.

High humidity coupled with elevated temperature can have an adverse effect on your body’s ability to cool itself. It can be the reason for sensitive skin, dry eyes, chapped lips, nose bleeding and itchy throat. With that, the dust mites and pests can weaken the structure and foundation of the property.

Control is the solution

If you detect that the indoor air in your house is too dry or too moist, the first thing you can do is to examine the house. Vent the bathroom and kitchen areas properly by adding or running exhaust fans. Add air conditioners in the optimum size (one ton of AC for every 600 square feet). Additionally, you can get humidity sensors installed in areas where you feel the problem exists. It will inform you about the relative humidity and will also identify if it is between the required levels or not. You can also get a humidifier or dehumidifier installed in the cooling and heating system, as per the verified facts on the humidity levels.

However, maintaining humidifiers and dehumidifiers requires constant monitoring. If left unchecked in the winter season, these devices can start spreading microbes in the air. Nowadays, a workaholic homeowner cannot possibly watch multiple sensors or devices every hour of the day, even with a smart phone. That’s where the HWisel App comes to the rescue! To ensure complete peace of mind, homeowners can download the app and get all their devices monitored 24X7.