How to Handle Winter Humidity Issues in Illinois

When winter rolls around and you’re busy with daily life, humidity control probably isn’t on your radar. That is, until you run into problems caused by poor humidity. You might find that even at the right temperature, your family is still uncomfortable. You may experience issues and have no idea that they’re humidity related. Here’s what you need to know about humidity problems in winter and how to deal with them.

How Does Humidity Affect Air Quality?

Absolute humidity is the amount of moisture in a given volume of air, regardless of the air’s temperature. However, warm air holds more moisture than cold air. To account for this, we talk about relative humidity, which is the ratio of the actual moisture to the maximum amount of moisture the air can hold at that temperature. It’s this relative humidity that affects air quality. The ideal range of relative humidity is 30% to 40% in winter so what happens if your humidity is outside these limits?

What to Do When the Humidity Is Too Loo?

Very low humidity leads to excess static buildup. Dealing with static in winter is a common annoyance but for electronic systems, it can cause major issues. In an extreme case, it can even spark a fire. Another problem with low humidity is the drying out of mucus membranes which leaves you vulnerable to all the nasty cold and flu (and other) bugs that make winters even more miserable. “Winter skin” is another nasty effect of low humidity that can be quite painful.

What to Do When the Humidity Is Too High?

Your attempt to deal with low humidity might cause the opposite problem if your humidifier adds too much moisture to the air. A poorly ventilated bathroom or kitchen is another cause of excessive humidity, which encourages mold, mildew, dust mites and other problems to rear their ugly heads. You can also end up with issues like condensation on windows or even inside your home’s structure.

How to Control the Humidity in Your Home

Ultimately, the way to get a handle on your home’s humidity is to have the right humidity control. A single room humidifier will help with low humidity in that room but won’t take care of the whole house. You may even cause more issues with excessive moisture in that room. Fortunately, you have options. A central humidifier will take care of low humidity throughout your home, controlled by a humidistat to reduce the risk of excess moisture. Using an energy recovery ventilator (ERV) instead of a heat recovery ventilator (HRV) will give you fresh air with moisture recovered from the exhaust and transferred to the incoming air.

If you are concerned about your system’s HVAC humidity, trust the team at Tiger to take care of it for you. Give us a call today at or schedule your next service online.