Advice on Dehumidifiers (house, mold, stats)

[stephen1254]

We are at that point with the weather where it is warm enough that we don't need any heat, but not so warm that we need to run the AC. The temperature in the house is perfectly comfortable, but the humidity level is higher then when the HVAC system is running. Our concern is about mold buildup.

We have no issues with mold yet, but we see how easy it would be for mold to gain a foothold. Our HVAC system gives us the option of running just the fan - does that have any appreciable affect on humidity levels? If not, what do people do - run portable dehumidifiers? Or am I making a mountain out of a molehill?

[bbronston]

Running the fan doesn't do anything except move the air. Running the A/C both cools the air and removes the humidity. Many people have humidistats added to their system. A humidistat is like a thermostat in the sense that it turns on and off your A/C but it uses the humidity level as the determining factor instead of the temperature. You can have them installed either in parallel or in series depending on how you want it to work. In other words, you can have the humidistat turn on and off the system independent of the temperature, or you can have it turn on the system only if the temperature rises to a certain point AND the humidity level is too high.