Texas has a very unique climate that can swing from humid conditions in the summer to very dry conditions in the winter. It can have you wondering, why is my house so dry during the winter months? Below, we’ll look at how low humidity can affect your home and cause dry air symptoms for your body. We’ll also provide you with some practical fixes you can utilize to make your home more comfortable and improve indoor air quality.
What “Dry Air” Means
Simply put, humidity is the amount of moisture or water vapor within the air. It determines how damp or dry the air feels inside your home. When humidity levels are too high, you can feel sticky and uncomfortable. When they’re too low, you can notice issues like dry skin, scratchy throats, and increased static electricity.
The ideal range for most homeowners is a relative humidity between 30 and 50%. It’s important to note that during the winter months, when your heaters are constantly running, they’re drying out your air even more than the alread-dry air outdoors.
Common Signs Your Home’s Air Is Too Dry
When there’s not enough moisture in the air, it creates numerous problems for your home, your body, and your general health.
- Dry skin, chapped lips, irritated eyes
- Scratchy throat, nosebleeds, sinus irritation
- Static shocks, clingy clothes
- Cracking wood floors or furniture gaps
- Worsened allergy or asthma irritation
- Trouble sleeping or waking up congested
Why the Air Gets So Dry in Texas Homes
There are various reasons that the air can get drier throughout the year in Texas. Cold fronts are one of the biggest contributors to dry air in winter in Texas. If your home has air leaks on your exterior walls or poor sealing, it can allow dry air to seep inside your home and affect your indoor air quality. Couple that with an oversized AC system and Texas’s naturally dry climate, and it’s a recipe for extremely dry indoor air.
How to Fix Issues with Dry Indoor Air
The key to a comfortable winter season starts with having indoor HVAC humidity control. With our professional humidifier installation services, we can give you more control over setting the optimal humidity for your home. While a whole-home humidifier in Texas is a great start, there are some other things that you can do, like duct sealing and routine HVAC maintenance, that can give you better control over your air’s relative humidity.
Whole-Home Humidifier Installation
A whole-home humidifier is one of the best ways to add more moisture to your indoor air to make it more comfortable for you and your family. This gets installed right inside your HVAC return ducting. As air travels naturally throughout your ducting, moisture is introduced into the air. This allows more moist air to travel throughout all the different rooms of your home.
Humidifier installation is perfect for protecting the wood surfaces throughout your home, reducing your health symptoms, and providing more consistent comfort. Unlike smaller humidifier units, the larger units don’t require any manual refilling of water. Rather, they’re piped into your home’s water supply to provide a constant stream of water.
Duct Sealing and Airflow Balancing
Having your ductwork properly sealed and the airflow throughout your ducting balanced can make a world of difference in HVAC humidity control. Anywhere that you have leaks in your ducting, dry air can enter. This can cause dry air to increase as it circulates throughout your home.
To make it even worse, if your ducting isn’t properly balanced, it could lead to uneven humidity throughout your home. This can be a big problem when it comes to indoor comfort. Our technicians can help by properly sealing up any leaks in your ductwork to make it airtight. We’ll ensure that there’s proper airflow balancing throughout your entire ducting system.
HVAC Maintenance and System Checks
Routine HVAC tune-ups are an absolute must for every homeowner. We recommend servicing your heating systemin the early fall to ensure that it’s operating efficiently for the winter season. We also suggest AC maintenance every spring to prep your unit for summer. Routine maintenance is perfect for enhancing airflow throughout your ducting to ensure that your system can evenly distribute your moist air.
Indoor Air Quality Evaluation
Investing in an indoor air quality evaluation can be advantageous. This will help determine indoor humidity and airborne contaminant issues. By evaluating your air, we can make necessary recommendations on how to best treat and correct it. For example, your home may benefit from a whole-home humidifier and a UV air purification system.
When to Call a Pro
Whenever you notice something out of the norm with your home, call one of our professionals for further evaluation. Whether you have consistently low humidity and high static electricity or uneven temperatures from room to room, having the issue evaluated promptly ensures we can address and fix it sooner rather than later. Your comfort will be restored, and your house will be protected quickly and efficiently.
- Humidity stays low no matter what you do
- Frequent nosebleeds, irritated airways, or poor sleep
- Excess static and wood cracking
- Uneven temperatures from room to room
- You suspect duct leaks or equipment sizing issues
Improve Your Home’s Indoor Air Quality with AirCo
Far too often, many Texas homeowners think they’re stuck dealing with dry air during the worst of the seasons. In reality, that simply isn’t the case. Dry air is fixable with the right combination of proactive solutions, like duct sealing, whole-home humidifiers, and HVAC optimization. Simply contact AirCo today to get a full evaluation and learn how we can enhance your indoor comfort for the coming decades.
Dry air is fixable with the right mix of sealing, HVAC optimization, and humidity control. Contact AirCo today for an indoor comfort check or a recommendation for a whole-home humidifier in Texas, and let us help you create a healthier, more comfortable home.
