How Much Humidity Is Too Much for Your Home’s Health?

What percentage of humidity creates problems inside a home?

High humidity creates a good environment for dust mites to thrive. On the other hand, low humidity has nasty health effects.

Dry air can cause coughs, wheezing, respiratory inflammation, and others. In your home, you need just the right level of humidity. It can neither be too dry nor too damp.

In another article, we saw that 70 percent humidity is too high outside. What we have not looked at is just what percentage of humidity is good for your home.

So, how much is too much humidity indoors? If humidity exceeds 55 percent during the day, it is too high. In the bedroom, the best humidity level for sleeping is 40 to 60 percent. In winter, RH should be 30 to 40 percent. A humidity level above 60 percent will lead to the growth of mold.

The correct amount of room humidity

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Keep the humidity in your rooms at 30 to 50 percent throughout the year, if you can. There is a good reason for that.

55 percent humidity every day is comfortable. However, if it gets to 60 percent, it will create a good environment for mold to thrive. The mold will then mature and produce spores that spread to other rooms through the air.

It is okay to have different levels of humidity in the house at different times. For instance, in the kitchen and the bathroom, humidity levels can rise from time to time when the two spaces are in use.

If it is summer, you want to keep the humidity at the recommended level. Failure to do that can cause damage to your electronics, paintings, carpets, clothes, and furniture.

To maintain the correct amount of room humidity all the time, buy a modern portable dehumidifier with a humidistat.

That way, when the humidity rises above 50 percent, it will turn on automatically and start withdrawing water from your indoor air.

Some dehumidifiers can draw moisture out of the air quickly. If you have a big one, it is best to set it to stop dehumidifying the air once it attains an RH level of 30 percent.

Too much dry air in the house can cause static, cracking of walls, furniture, and floors, drying up of books, and so on. It can also cause itching, sneezing, a runny nose, teary eyes, and other health symptoms.

60 percent humidity in the house

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A good humidity level for the bedroom is 40 to 60 percent. However, this is only for the night, so after the humidifier has increased the relative humidity level appropriately, you should switch it off.

If you have a whole-house humidifier, it will maintain a uniform humidity level in the house. Therefore, you might not be able to get different humidity levels for individual rooms.

In addition, a whole-house dehumidifier might also be affected by the AC. Temperature is related to humidity.

Warm air can hold more moisture than cold air. So, turning on the AC will definitely affect the humidity level. The humidity should drop.

The question is: by how much?

Not by much because the air conditioner lowers the temperature. Therefore, it might be a good idea to have a portable humidifier at home. This will help make quick adjustments to the relative humidity level in different rooms.

67% humidity in the house

If you let your indoor humidity run too high, such that it exceeds 60 percent, many things can happen. First, high humidity can ruin leather items.

Secondly, this level of humidity in your living room can be very uncomfortable for your skin. 67 percent humidity in the house will cause a damp feeling on your skin.

When you expose your body to this level of humidity, the body “thinks” it has too much water. Therefore, it goes into overdrive to lose water by sweating. Unfortunately, the sweat does not evaporate since the humidity is too high. That’s why you feel so uncomfortable.

So, is 67% humidity muggy? It does feel really muggy because, at this level, the humidity is moving closer to the dewpoint.

It is best to lower the humidity in your home to the recommended level because a prolonged humidity level that’s above 55% will cause more harm than good.

70% humidity in the house in winter

Even in winter, when the indoor air feels a bit dry because we turn on the heater, you should never let humidity get to 70 percent.

If 60 percent humidity is bad, you can imagine just how much worse 70 percent indoor humidity is. It is really bad. You will have mold growing on many surfaces in your home.

You will also notice condensation on your windows. Please remember that in winter, experts recommend keeping the humidity level lower than during the summer.

You should keep the humidity level at 30 to 40 percent in the winter. If you raise it too much, say 50 or 60 percent, the air will feel quite clammy.

The reason for this is that the heater is already running. Since the air is already warm, it will hold more moisture and make your skin feel clammy.

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Problems caused by high humidity in a home

  • Diseases like sinus problems, colds, asthma and others
  • Mold and mildew develop in dark, moist, and warm spaces
  • Causes peeling of paint, damages the carpets, and can start rotting the timber parts of your house
  • High humidity indoors can cause damage to books, clothes, and electronics
  • High humidity in the garage can corrode parts of your car
  • Metals tools can start to rust

Low humidity level problems in a house

  • You experience dry itchy skin and chapped lips
  • Your hair can dry out, become brittle and frizzy
  • The paint on the walls dries up and starts to crack
  • The house feels colder, so you use the heater more
  • Respiratory illnesses affect your family
  • Some allergens thrive in dry air
  • It becomes hard to sleep

Wrapping Up

In the summer, a humidity level that is above 50 percent creates mold and disease problems in your house. From this alone, you now have the answer to what percentage of humidity creates problems inside a home.

Be careful not to keep the humidity too low, either, since that’s also not good. Dry air can wither your indoor plants. It will also make your children sick with itchy skin, runny nose, asthma flare-ups, and other symptoms.