Using Your Air Conditioner To Control Humidity

With the spring and summer months not too far off, there’s nothing worse than coming home to a humid house. But high humidity also comes with another problem: mold. High levels of moisture in indoor air can create the perfect conditions for explosive mold growth, especially once vulnerable materials such as gypsum wall boards, wood window casings and vinyl wall coverings are saturated with moisture.

Using your air conditioner settings, you can bring your home’s humidity down to comfortable levels, not only making your home livable again, but also making it much harder for mold to thrive. Here are a few tips about how you can use your air conditioner to minimize moisture:

• Leave your thermostat fan setting on the AUTO position. This is preferable to allowing the blower fan to run continuously, which causes condensation on the evaporator coil to be blown back into circulation instead of being allowed to drain out of the unit as intended. Some models will continue running the fan up to three minutes after the compressor shuts down. A qualified HVAC technician may be able to disable this feature, allowing both the fan and compressor to stop at the same time.
• Using your air conditioner or heat pump in conjunction with a whole house dehumidifier will significantly reduce the amount of moisture present in your home’s air.
• Install The AC-Enhancer on your existing air conditioning system to help it ring more moisture out of the air while making your air conditioner start more efficiently.
• If you’re building a new home, or replacing your existing A/C equipment choosing an air conditioning system that is properly sized and matched up can help you effectively remove and control moisture.

Don’t forget to change the filters on your air conditioner or heat pump on a regular basis and make sure to have it professionally serviced at least once a year. Not only will this help keep your A/C in excellent shape, it also will prevent the cultivation of mold and other harmful airborne bacteria.

If you want more information about using your air conditioner to control humidity in your home, don’t hesitate to contact us. CCAC, Inc. is Constantly Concerned About Customers when it comes to their HVAC service and repair needs along the Coastal Bend and in the general Corpus Christi area.

Our goal is to help educate our customers in Corpus Christi, Texas about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems).  For more information about humidity and other HVAC topics, download our free Home Comfort Resource guide.

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