Addressing High Indoor Humidity Causes With An Air Conditioning Service Provider | Earlville, IL

Addressing High Indoor Humidity Causes With An Air Conditioning Service Provider | Earlville, IL

An air conditioner is a must-have, with summer temperatures in Illinois regularly hitting the upper side of 90 degrees and sometimes triple degrees. Besides a properly functioning air conditioning system ensuring that your home remains cool, it also helps remove the excess humidity within your house. However, there are many times when air conditioning repair technicians get calls from homeowners complaining that their homes are highly humid, even when the air conditioning system is on. Below are the common reasons this problem arises and what you can do about it.

Your AC Unit Is Not Properly Functioning and Requires a Replacement or a Repair

The leading reason your Earlville, IL home is highly muggy or humid even after you turn on your air conditioner is that it is a sign that the system isn’t efficiently functioning. An annual air conditioning service is probably the best way to ensure that your air conditioner is properly working without any problems. Many potential problems may make your air conditioning system unable to effectively remove the excess moisture from your indoor space.

Clogged Air Filters

Sometimes, this is because of something seemingly minor, like a clogged air filter. If the filters become too dirty and get clogged, the airflow in your HVAC system is drastically restricted. As a result, it becomes impossible for your air conditioning system to work properly. This is one of the reasons why routine tune-up is recommended. The technician will clean or replace the air filters during their maintenance visit.

Dirty Condensers

Another frequent problem that might cause too much humidity is dirty evaporator coils. The refrigerant in the evaporator coils is extremely cold and absorbs the heat from the air to cool your house. The extra humidity in the indoor air will condense on the AC evaporator coil during this operation. The coils cannot function well if unclean, resulting in increased hotter temperatures and humidity levels. Annual air conditioning service, which includes thoroughly cleaning the AC evaporator coil, can be quite helpful in this area.

Refrigerant Leak

If the air conditioning system has a refrigerant leak, similar problems could develop. The evaporator coil won’t operate correctly in this scenario since there won’t be enough refrigerant. Another source of high humidity is a problem with the unit’s condensate drain. The extra water dripping from the evaporator coil will gather inside the drain lines and drain pan if they become clogged. This water evaporates over time, raising indoor humidity. The air conditioning service provider can certainly notice if the refrigerant levels are low during their maintenance visit.

Too Old AC Unit

Another possibility is that your AC is too old and inefficient. The maximum lifespan of an AC unit is usually 15 years, and in hotter and humid conditions, this lifespan is sometimes substantially shorter. This indicates that it is time to think about having an air conditioning service provider replace your AC if your AC is ten years old or older and you find that your home is becoming increasingly humid than you are used to.

Your Air Conditioner Is Undersized

The other problem that could result in high humidity is when the air conditioning system is too small for your home, which is a problem that occurs far more frequently than you might imagine. Undersized air conditioners will not keep up and effectively cool the house. Hence, the air conditioning system will work harder and more frequently while failing to completely remove the excess humidity from the house. Unfortunately, adding an appliance such as a portable or window air conditioner, or replacing your air conditioner with one having the right size, is the only way to resolve this problem. You should also have an air conditioning service on your newly installed system.

You Aren’t Running the AC Often Enough

An air conditioning service provider can resolve not all humidity issues. Some need a change of habit. For instance, most people turn off their ACs at night to reduce their energy utility bills. Unfortunately, this isn’t recommended because it doesn’t have such a big impact on your energy utility bills as you may think. This is because about two-thirds of your air conditioning system’s total energy usage happens between midnight and noon. Whenever this happens, the air conditioning system isn’t capable of keeping up. In many circumstances, the humidity levels will still be substantially greater even after the air conditioner has cooled the home off to the desired temperature.

Inadequate Ventilation

Most newer homes tend to experience high humidity problems. Older houses may typically “breathe” because they have adequate air leaks for adequate ventilation. On the other hand, in more recent Earlville, IL homes are constructed to reduce air leakages to increase energy efficiency significantly. Unfortunately, this also has the effect of significantly decreasing ventilation in newer homes. In this situation, you should have an air conditioning service provider make a mechanical venting system to provide a consistent flow of fresh air from the outside while allowing the air within your home to escape.

You Should Install a Whole-Home Dehumidifier

As mentioned above, not all indoor humidity problems can be resolved through air conditioning service. Because of Texas’ hot, humid weather, air conditioning frequently does not resolve problems with high humidity. This is why an entire-home dehumidifier is becoming a more and more popular improvement for HVAC systems. These devices are one of the simplest and most efficient solutions to deal with problems with high indoor humidity. Additionally, they require relatively little upkeep and energy. In many cases, a dehumidifier will lower your cooling expenses since it will lighten the burden on your air conditioner, requiring it to operate less frequently and for shorter periods.

Let Us Help You Deal with the High Indoor Humidity

Either of the above may cause high indoor humidity. Are you experiencing it even after turning on the HVAC system? Contact us at Just In Time, your reliable air conditioning service provider in Earlville, IL.

Photo By Mariia Boiko at Shutterstock