Indoor climate: Windows open vs AC (hardwood floors, new home, crawl space)
Western North CarolinaThe Mountain Region including Asheville
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We're new to WNC, having relocated here from the desert Southwest. Our new home is at about 3,500 ft, where temperatures have (so far) remained very comfortable. Comfortable enough, in fact, that we can easily get by with turning our HVAC system off and just leaving windows open for circulation while we're home.
However, even though the home stays cool and comfortable, indoor humidity levels sometimes run in the 70% range. I've read that the target indoor humidity level should be 40% - 50%. The reasons given relate to comfort, the potential for mold growth, and other moisture-related damage to the home (e.g. hardwood floors, wallpaper, cabinetry).
In a warm climate this makes sense to me, but does the same apply in a cool climate? Should we be using our HVAC system to maintain the "recommended" humidity range or is it ok to use fresh air to control our indoor climate? I'd love to keep my system off, but not at the expense of our personal health or the health of our home.
We've lived at about 4700 feet for a few years now and it's VERY humid here. One family member has severe dust mite allergies, and keeping indoor humidity lower is key to controlling them. We use standalone portable dehumidifiers in the summer, and we have a big dehumidifier in the crawl space since there is air exchange down there and the crawl is insulated and sealed. The crawl space one is fine, we can't hear it, but we don't really like the noise of those standalone ones.
We have mini-splits that have air conditioning and even a "dehumidify" setting (plus heat of course), but this does a bad job with dehumidifying when the outdoor temp is nearly the same as what we want it to be inside. The regular a/c setting doesn't do enough for the indoor humidity in those conditions (can't get it down to around 50%), and the dehumidify setting makes it uncomfortably cold inside. I don't think it's really the mini-split's problem, just that it's hard for that technology to do its thing properly in our normal weather conditions. I'm not sure if the problem is actually the super nice temperature outside, being about the same as what we want inside, or if it has to do with dew point. I've tried to understand and failed! LOL.
But, the little separate portable dehumidifiers do the job, they are just a bit loud is all.
Yes. We rented a house once were the owner turned the ac off while it wasn’t being used. We moved in and immediately moved back out as the ceilings were covered in mold.
Yes. We rented a house once were the owner turned the ac off while it wasn’t being used. We moved in and immediately moved back out as the ceilings were covered in mold.
To me it makes sense that a place that was locked up tight without any airflow could get both warm and humid, even in a cool environment, creating the breeding ground for mold that I've read about while trying to research the topic.
In our home, we'd close the windows and turn on the heat pump if it became stuffy or uncomfortable, so I wonder if just having some airflow and comfortable temperatures makes a difference?
We live at approx 3,800" and in a relatively humid area. We have an electric heat pump and very rarely use our A/C. We keep sliding doors and windows open most of the time in warm weather. We periodically will run the fan setting for a short time to circulate air. We also have a small dehumidifier that we run every so often. That combination works for us.
We live at approx 3,800" and in a relatively humid area. We have an electric heat pump and very rarely use our A/C. We keep sliding doors and windows open most of the time in warm weather. We periodically will run the fan setting for a short time to circulate air. We also have a small dehumidifier that we run every so often. That combination works for us.
Thanks, roadpony. That helps, as it's pretty much our situation. With windows and screen doors open and the electric heat pump turned off, the house is staying in the 72 - 75 F range 24/7, which feels great to us desert rats, even with the high humidity. (It was 114 F at our old house yesterday!) Just wanted to confirm I wasn't causing any unintended harm with the humidity in the house. It's not unlike me to break things, lol.
We live a bit over 5000 feet, we have two separate crawlspaces which have dehumidifiers installed. They are set to 50% as the threshold for cycling on and off. They have wifi controls so I can turn then on and off at will from my smart phone, along with wifi temperature/humidistats in each crawlspace also smartphone monitored. The dehumidifiers are attached to drain lines into septic pipes or outside so they are self-emptying.
I check them periodically and they normally cycle on and off as the humidity dictates. Two or three times a day some days, other days they don't come on at all. They appear to run more in the Spring/Fall/Winter months, but they are inefficient when the crawlspaces get around 40 degrees so I use the wifi to turn them off until the weather warms a bit.
We have a gas furnace, and no A/C. We have never needed A/C. Windows open during the summer months.
Temperature rarely exceeds 75 indoors. (today, for instance, it was 66 at sunrise and is just now reaching 68 indoors) Last summer we had one day that went to 80 degrees and a few that climbed over 75, but not many.
Occasionally we will leave the furnace fan on circulate for days at a time. It is my understanding the air movement is key to comfort along with the side benefit that it has the potential to reduce any radon that may be present.
It's fine. No need for AC. We all lived fine without it for millions of years. I remember visiting my grandmother and aunt and uncle and cousins in the mountains of SW VA at considerably lower elevation than where you are and they never had AC. You would only run into problems if the air didn't move (like the closed up house situation, but I think there was probably a roof leak or something else going on there).
Were full timers when we moved away from SW FL 23 or 24 years ago so we do run the A/C when the humidity gets up to the 45% to 50% range when needed and have a couple ceiling fans to keep the air moving around and theres been a lot of those days over the last 5 or 6 years . My wife and I were born in SW FL and lived there 42 years so I remember the no a/c day or when a/c was rare for many folks . Fans helped even window fans on the cool side of a house blowing cool air in or a house fan you could control the air flow like we had in the last house we built back in FL . These tricks worked down there and up here . but some times a/c just needs to be run but for use 76* or 77* gets the job done and feels good . MIght be we can turn it on like today for a couple hours later afternoon and we start to cool off again and humidity down right now .
We have a couple humidifier for those dry cold winter times but thats been very rare over the last 4 or 5 years were we live in yancey county . You find that just right heating and cooling pattern after a couple years .
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