When summertime rolls around, many of us get excited about the warmer temperatures and sunny skies. We often forget to consider one major downfall of this season: high humidity. No one likes to feel sticky and warm — especially in their own home.
If you’re dealing with high humidity levels in your home, you might wonder if your air conditioner can help. Our HVAC systems can do many things, and their positive impact on our comfort has to be commended. But do air conditioners remove humidity?
Will an Air Conditioner Help With Humidity?
Fortunately, air conditioners do remove humidity. This is excellent news — especially for your home’s indoor air quality and comfort levels. It all has to do with the cooling process. During this process, your air conditioner has two jobs: removing heat and withdrawing moisture from the air.
Below, we’ll discuss how AC units can help with high humidity and how different air conditioners can have various dehumidifying benefits.
How Your AC Removes Humidity
Now that you know that an air conditioner will help with humidity, it’s important to know how. In order to have a complete understanding of this process, it’s crucial to know how our air conditioning systems work.
If you have a central air conditioner, you know that the warm air in your home is sucked into the ducts and sent to the air handler. Here, the warm air comes into contact with the evaporator coil. This coil holds refrigerant that removes the heat from the air. However, the cooling process doesn’t stop here. The evaporator coil also removes water vapor from the air.
This excess moisture ends up in the condensate pan and is removed from your AC unit via the condensate drain line.
When you feel your air conditioner blowing cool air, you have the evaporator coil to thank. However, you can also thank it for lower indoor humidity levels.
What Is the Best Air Conditioner for High Humidity?
While air conditioners do remove humidity, it’s important to recognize that not every AC system is created equal. First and foremost, you’ll want to ensure that your cooling system is properly sized to fit your home’s square footage. If you install an AC unit that’s too big or too small for your home, you risk poor cooling and higher indoor humidity levels. Not to mention, you might find yourself scheduling an air conditioning repair in Camarillo, West Lake Village, Moorpark, or surrounding communities, much sooner than later.
The Benefits of Variable-Speed Systems
All-in-all, different types of air conditioners can have different impacts on humidity. If you’re searching for an air conditioning system that can tackle the highest humidity levels, you’ll probably want to install a variable-speed system. Central AC units can have different air handlers: single-stage, two-stage, and variable speed.
There are many advantages to variable-speed cooling systems, but one of the most notable is that they can run at a wide range of speeds (as the name suggests). When you run your AC at a slower setting, you can remove more humidity than you would at a higher speed.
Will an air conditioner help with humidity if it has a single-stage or two-stage air handler? Of course, it will have some benefits; variable-speed systems simply come out on top.
Additional Ways to Dehumidify a Room
Although an air conditioner will help with humidity inside your home, you might be searching for additional ways to combat sticky, warm air. Fortunately, you can take a few easy steps to reduce humidity and improve indoor air quality once and for all.
Install a Whole-House Dehumidifier
Perhaps it goes without saying, but investing in a whole-house dehumidifier is the best way to reduce humidity inside a home — especially if the issue is prevalent in every room. These systems are installed directly into your HVAC system and are incredibly easy to use.
Use Exhaust Fans
Humidity can be a significant problem, but that doesn’t mean small actions can’t make a difference. Start by using exhaust fans when you take hot showers or boil water on the stove. Your exhaust fan whisks away any steam and effectively removes humidity in the process.
Purchase House Plants
While your air conditioner removes humidity, you might be surprised that unsuspecting items, such as a house plant, can positively impact your home’s indoor air quality. These plants have more benefits than simply adding a little greenery to a space. In fact, they can absorb moisture and humidity from the surrounding air.
Improve Your Comfort With Our Professional AC Services
Do air conditioners remove humidity? When it comes down to it, some cooling systems do better at dehumidifying a home than others. If it’s finally time to upgrade your air conditioner, get in touch with RR Electric to learn more about our replacement options. We’re proud to specialize in heating, cooling, electric services, and more.
As you can see, an air conditioner will help with humidity — but some get the job done better than others. Contact us today to schedule an air conditioning service in Thousand Oaks, Simi Valley, and the neighboring areas!
