Reasons & Ways To Reduce Humidity In Your Facility

For any business owner or a facility manager, one of the most important things is to ensure comfort for their customers and employees. But during the summer months, humidity levels significantly rise, and maintaining a comfortable environment can become a challenge.

High humidity levels come with several problems. This article will discuss a handful of reasons and ways to reduce humidity in your facility.

Why It Is Important To Reduce Humidity In Your Facility?

1- Growth Of Mold and Microbial

High humidity levels create the best conditions for mold and microbial to grow. If the growth of such microbes is not controlled, they can have a drastic effect on your health and leave you sneezing and rubbing your eyes. In many severe scenarios, they can also cause problems like asthma in children and trigger allergies.

2- Dust Mites

Microscopic bugs such as dust mites find humid conditions optimal to thrive. The greater the relative humidity would be in your facility, the more likely you are to have dust mites around. These little critters can really aggravate allergies and make your facility uncomfortable to be in.

3- Viruses

Generally, people believe that viruses thrive in drier conditions in months like December and January, which is true. However, the recent surge of COVID-19 cases in summers suggests that viruses can also flourish in more humid conditions. In fact, a classic paper titled Indirect Health Effects of Relative Humidity in Indoor Environments also suggests that viruses prevail in humid conditions.

4- Decreased Comfort

This one's easy. Nobody likes a stuffy and uncomfortable environment that comes with excess moisture. A significant reason for this is the fact that high humidity levels slow the evaporation of sweat, making the body feel warmer, and limiting its capacity to cool itself. As a business owner or a facility manager, compromising on your customers' or employees' comfort would be the last thing you would want to do. Also, this also hampers your employees' performance.

5- Increased Utility Bills

As discussed earlier, high humidity levels create uncomfortable working and living conditions, and meanwhile, they also put a lot of burden on your HVAC’s performance. Both of these factors force your system to work harder than normal to maintain pleasant temperatures. This excessive load on your HVAC system can reflect in your utility bills.

6- Bad Odor

If high humidity is not catered timely, it encourages the growth of mildew and mold, which produce gasses called microbial volatile organic compounds (MVOC), resulting in a musty smell. This not only smells bad, but if you are inhaling mold spores, these can cause serious health problems such as breathing difficulties, sinus infections, sore throats, and migraine.

7- Structural Problems

Another major reason to ensure optimum humidity levels is to avoid structural damage to your facility. Areas like the bathroom, laundry room, and basement collect too much moisture and fall apart quickly, requiring regular maintenance. Similarly, other walls in your facility generally have air/vapor barriers, but these are never perfect and fail to prevent warm moist air from penetrating the surface. This happens especially when the weather is warm. This lets the moisture condense in foundation materials, crawl spaces, and basements, leading to problems with the structure.

8- Appliances Problem

Electronic appliances such as dishwashers, washing machines, microwaves, and even televisions and computers all have internal components vulnerable to excess moisture. This is because the moisture content in the air can lead to condensation, leading to problems like rust and corrosion.

9- Rotting Furniture, Floors, and Furnishings

The problem with excess moisture is that it does not just stop till the walls. It also damages the wood, either by creating stains or causing more severe decay. If your indoor air has excess humidity, things like furniture, floors, and furnishings will retain the moisture and start to rot. If this goes on for a long time, it can cause irreversible damage in the most severe cases. And the worst part is that the repairs can be too costly.

What Can You Do To Reduce Humidity In Your Facility?

1- Use Your Air Conditioner

Using an air conditioner not only cools down the space but also helps reduce indoor humidity, especially during humid weather, by introducing cooler air while removing warm, humid air.

2- Use Exhaust

Using exhaust fans in your facility to remove moisture is an excellent way to curb the spread. Having exhaust fans can effectively control the issues like uncomfortable temperatures and the growth of mold.

3- Commercial Dehumidifier

The most effective, fast, and reliable way to reduce indoor humidity is to get a dehumidifier. These systems ensure that the air reaches you, it's dry and cool.

Commercial dehumidifiers help improve your employees' performance and customers' comfort, save you money on utility bills by reducing the burden on your HVAC systems, and ensure a healthy and fresh environment for both the people and the appliances.

4- Fix Leaking Pipes

If you are trying to reduce indoor humidity, you want to ensure that there are no leaking pipes and faucets adding moisture to your facility. If there are any such pipes, wrap them up with insulators.

Looking To Buy Commercial Dehumidifiers?

If you are looking for the best solution, a commercial dehumidifier is your best bet! Check out ProServices Supply's online store to explore a dehumidifying system for your facility, or reach out to our experts at (877) 776-8228 to speak with one of the HVAC experts and discuss your case.