Excess humidity in your De Pere, Wisconsin, home can make your entire living environment feel far hotter than it actually is. Too much humidity can also place undue stress on your HVAC system and set the stage for serious problems with mold. Although homeowners can cheaply purchase standalone dehumidifiers that extract excess moisture from individual rooms, nothing trumps the effectiveness of whole-house dehumidification. Following are several reasons why whole-house dehumidifiers are well-worth the investment.
1. Enjoy Higher Levels of Home Comfort
Having too much moisture in the air can make you feel sticky, sweaty, and overheated, even when the building interior is already at a modest temperature. The clammy feeling that you get when your living environment is too humid can actually disrupt your body’s own natural cooling process. With drier indoor air, you’ll feel better and your body will have a better ability to regulate your personal temperature.
2. Lower Your Carbon Footprint and Reduce Your Energy Bills
When humid conditions make people feel too hot, they often crank their air conditioners up. Although your air conditioner helps regulate indoor humidity, it can easily become overwhelmed by excessively humid conditions. Not only does high humidity make people use their air conditioners more, but it also makes cooling equipment work far harder. Having a dehumidifier installed will reduce wear and tear on your A/C system, lower your carbon footprint, and allow you to enjoy noticeably lower energy bills.
4. Dehumidifiers Minimize the Likelihood of Mold Growth
Mold spores thrive in wet, muggy environments. Moisture and extra warmth set the stage for major mold issues. If you don’t have a way of lowering and controlling humidity, your indoor air quality (IAQ) will invariably go down. Moreover, where mold proliferates, mildew tends to flourish as well. Having these growths in your living environment can exacerbate:
- Asthma
- Allergies
- Sleep apnea
- Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)
- Other chronic respiratory issues
Problems with mold and mildew can also cause respiratory distress in building residents who’ve never had breathing problems before. Ongoing mold exposure can lead to symptoms like:
- Frequent headaches
- Persistent coughing, sneezing, and wheezing
- Itchy, watery eyes
- Recurring ear infections
- Skin rashes
- Chronic fatigue
If you’ve been living with high levels of humidity and a number of widespread symptoms like these, mold may be the underlying cause. Although people can be treated for mold exposure, it’s always important to start by treating the source. Installing a dehumidifier will create a safer, cleaner living environment, boost your IAQ, and allow your symptoms to abate. Keep in mind that just as mold and mildew are harmful to humans, they’re equally detrimental to indoor pets.
4. Save Your Furnishings and Other Treasured Items
Mold doesn’t just diminish the health of humans and animals. It can also render many of your most cherished items absolutely useless. Whole-house dehumidification can protect your furnishings, window treatments, and clothing from mold infestation. If you have valuable artwork that you’ve collected, antiques, family heirlooms, or costly designer garments, moderating indoor humidity is essential for protecting them.
5. Breathe Easier
Even without mold and mildew development, breathing in an overly humid home is rarely pleasant. A whole-house dehumidifier will turn the thick, moist air in your home into clean, crisp air that doesn’t leave your chest feeling heavy. Easy breathing means less fatigue, more energy, and elevated spirits. Being in your home will be more enjoyable for both you and all other residents and guests.
6. Prevent Structural Damage
Pervasive mold can take a major toll on a building’s structural features. Although you can bleach or otherwise spot-treat mold when you find it, none of these efforts will provide any long-term success until you’ve dealt with the underlying cause. Failing to address high levels of humidity indoors can result in baseboard and drywall damage, discolored window frames, wood rot, peeling paint, and more. Not only is a whole-house dehumidifier a worthwhile investment, but it can also help you preserve the value and marketability of your home investment.
It’s additionally important to note that mold and mold damage caused by excessive humidity aren’t covered by home insurance policies. Home insurance only covers mold damages that are the direct result of named perils. If your mold issues weren’t caused by a whole-house plumbing backup, a flood, a failed water heater, a hidden leak, or a burst pipe, you’ll likely have to pay for all of the necessary repairs out of your own pocket. Worse still, if your insurance company finds that you’ve been negligent in moderating humidity and treating the resulting mold, you may be at risk of having your policy voided.
7. Easy Odor Control
Although dehumidifiers aren’t designed to eliminate odors, they do minimize the presence of things that cause common household odors. By keeping problems with mold and mildew at bay, a whole-house dehumidifier will make it infinitely easier to maintain a clean, fresh-smelling home interior. This is especially important in homes with deep, musty smells or other pervasive mold odors.
8. A Single Unit Can Meet Everyone’s Needs
Whole-house dehumidifiers deliver. If you’ve been using separate, standalone units to extract excess moisture in select areas of your home, you have yet to experience the benefits of true dehumidification. High levels of humidity often indicate sources of constant or near-constant moisture output. Thus, while a standalone unit is busy removing excess humidity in one location, moisture is already accumulating in another. More importantly, excess moisture isn’t guaranteed to stay put, especially when the air conditioner is on. Until you have a whole-house solution for high humidity in place, excess moisture will be an ongoing problem everywhere.
Another vital thing to note is that whole-house dehumidifiers don’t constantly extract indoor moisture to leave you with an overly arid living environment. These units are advanced, intelligent, and capable of establishing ideal indoor humidity. Many standalone units are not. If you run a basic dehumidifier too long, you may have moisture issues of another sort. Just as excess moisture can cause eye, nose, throat, and respiratory system irritation, overly dry air can too.
Every home has an ideal humidity level. Whole-house dehumidification allows for uniform humidity throughout the entire building, regardless of where excess moisture is originating from, how quickly it’s being introduced, and how much there is. With a whole-house dehumidifier, everyone in your home can continue indulging in hot, steamy showers, relaxing in hot baths, or preparing hearty, home-cooked meals. You won’t have to clean and maintain individual dehumidifiers throughout the building, and you’ll have effective mold prevention, odor control, an acceptably high IAQ, and the opportunity to relax comfortably in every room.
At Healthy Home Heating & Cooling LLC, we’re committed to helping residents of De Pere, Wisconsin, and the surrounding areas improve their IAQs. We offer heater and air conditioner installation, maintenance, and repairs. We also provide an expansive range of top-rated HVAC products. If you want to know more about whole-house dehumidification or if you want to have a dehumidifier installed, call us today.
