Humidity Control Saves Comfort And Money

Humidity can make a normal summer day feel unbearable and it can quietly wear down your house at the same time. We’re sweating through an Ohio heat wave and using it as a real-life lesson in comfort science: why the same temperature feels completely different depending on moisture, and why “just drop the thermostat” is often the most expensive way to solve the problem.

We dig into humidity control for homeowners and home buyers, including why moisture is the enemy of buildings. Mold risk, musty smells, material breakdown, and even health issues often start with damp air that never really leaves. We also talk through a simple home inspection mindset shift: seeing a dehumidifier doesn’t automatically mean there’s a defect. In many homes, it’s preventative maintenance and a sign someone is taking indoor air quality seriously.

Then we get practical. We share our own setup and settings, why we aim around 45% relative humidity, and how running a dehumidifier can make 75°F feel genuinely comfortable while helping your HVAC system work less. We also explain dew point in plain language using a commercial inspection example where humid air hit cold metal and caused water to drip, a situation that looks like a leak but is often condensation.

If you want a clearer plan for managing indoor humidity, choosing a dehumidifier (including why a pump model is worth it), and keeping your home comfortable during muggy weather, press play. Subscribe, share this with a friend who’s battling sticky air, and leave us a review with your best humidity tip. https://amzn.to/4eQv5BI

Transcript

Why Humidity Feels So Miserable

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Hey everybody. All right, Laura. It is stupidly hot here.

SPEAKER_02 0:06

Insanely hot and humid. I mean, if if I wanted to live in this type of weather, I'd be living in the Amazon, not here.

SPEAKER_01 0:14

Yeah, because the humidity is so crazy out. It is not pleasant at all right now. Man, it's like 10 o'clock in the morning. It's like 85 degrees out.

SPEAKER_02 0:25

In Ohio.

SPEAKER_01 0:26

In Ohio, people. I never wanted to live in Texas or any weather like that, but here we are.

SPEAKER_02 0:31

Here we are.

SPEAKER_01 0:32

But this is Ohio. We we have a lot great fluctuations in temperatures and humidity.

SPEAKER_02 0:39

Oh, it's crazy.

SPEAKER_01 0:41

So this time of year, if you have air conditioning, you it's gonna be on a lot.

SPEAKER_02 0:47

Yeah. As it should be, because you don't want to get sick.

SPEAKER_01 0:52

Yeah. Well, the main issue for every house, every apartment building is moisture. Moisture is always the enemy of a building. Because it will break it down. Fungus, molds, it will break it down, it will rot, it will weaken the structure, it will cause as a result of that, you get health issues. It's hard to get comfortable, as we're talking about weather, it's hard to get comfortable when it's humid out. So that's because it's very humid out your skin, the water from your because you're always sweating slightly. Everybody is slightly sweating constantly. When it's dry outside, the moisture in your skin evaporates and that cools you off. When it's humid out, it does not evaporate efficiently. It not well at all. So therefore, it's like it's just it just feels nasty. So this is why this this time of year, especially this late weather, is when it's so humid out, it's just it's just miserable. So here's what I did. I

Moisture As A Building Enemy

SPEAKER_01 2:08

Lord will call me a science geek. I should have got a degree in building sciences. I bet I have all the prerequisites, or then all the knowledge I would need to have that. Okay geek. But so I use Gronk to do the math for me.

SPEAKER_02 2:24

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 2:24

Because you have to look at all right, so if it all right, you've been in Arizona, you've been to Nevada, Vegas. That's extremely dry. It's like 10% humidity out there.

SPEAKER_02 2:34

Yes, I don't like it.

SPEAKER_01 2:35

It could be 85-90 degrees. Are you comfortable?

SPEAKER_02 2:38

Much more so than I am right now.

SPEAKER_01 2:40

Yeah, so so really, it's not so much the temperature as it is the humidity zone. Humidity when you get this, when you once you get like below 30s, I'm like, yeah, it's temperature because that could be pretty that that could be deadly if you get hypothermic. If you've never seen somebody seen somebody who's hypothermic, it is kind of funny, but it's like you you you gotta take it seriously, but you can still have fun with certain things.

SPEAKER_02 3:05

But I did that when I went caving.

SPEAKER_01 3:07

Yeah, you got hypothermic.

SPEAKER_02 3:08

I got hypothermic, big time.

SPEAKER_01 3:10

So all right, man. All right, let's let's make that a separate podcast. Because that's like uh some stories. So we'll we'll save that one. But during this time of year, the weather, you need the humidity level below.

SPEAKER_00 3:27

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SPEAKER_01 3:53

So here's what I

Our Dehumidifier Setup And Settings

SPEAKER_01 3:54

did. For our house, which is still a year and a half old, we have central air, we have a heat pump, we have air conditioning in the house. I got a and then we're on a slab, and we live in the woods, which means higher humidity in the first place. We're surrounded by trees. That uh I got a dehumidifier, yes, and I have it running in the laundry room, in the laundry room, right at the doorway. That way the air it puts out goes into the living room. So it's so it's still and that's where the furnace is as well. So the air got good circulation with that. But I have that dehumidifier that just pulls the humidity out out of the air, and it actually is working a lot more than I thought it would.

SPEAKER_02 4:37

I I didn't think it was gonna do as much as it has been, so I'm I'm actually surprised that it was as humid as it was. Science.

SPEAKER_01 4:49

So what it does is it pulls the humidity out of the air. So right now the art thermostat, it's set at 75. And sometimes you're cold.

SPEAKER_02 4:59

Not at night, I'm not. Well, that's a different issue there.

SPEAKER_01 5:05

But at 75, our uh furnace, the the heat pump is not working nearly as hard because it doesn't, it's not struggling to try and get to 72 degrees or 70 degrees to make it comfortable for you. When it's drier, you don't have to spend that much energy to to feel comfortable. And I did I had Grok do the calculations because here's what I'm doing. I'm asking it at what point for it says yes, it's cheaper to run the dehumidifier for comfort than than dropping the air temperature with the with the uh conditioner. So it works better that way. But I've been asking it, hey, at what point should I open the windows at night?

SPEAKER_02 5:54

Right now, never.

SPEAKER_01 5:55

Yeah, and and right now it's been pretty consistent. It's like, nope, it's gonna be too humid. You're gonna let all that moist air in, and it's gonna increase the humidity in the house. So it doesn't it it doesn't make sense to do that. So we've been keeping the windows shut all night, and then it's even in the morning, keeping them all shut, and just run the the dehumidifier, which I have set at 45 degrees, maybe I'm sorry, 45% humidity. I know everybody's gonna want to know that one. I got it set at 45% humidity, and ours is set up so I bought one that has a pump built into it. So once it gets that little tank gets filled, I'm actually pumps the moisture, all that condensation down the drain that was for the washing machine. So that's how I made that work out with no no labor involved in doing that.

SPEAKER_02 6:45

Not at all.

SPEAKER_01 6:46

Bought one that was designed like that. And that's working very well. So what do you what are your thoughts, Laura, on on science? So you said it's working a lot better than you thought.

SPEAKER_02 6:57

Uh it's not that it's working better, it's working more than I thought it would be. I didn't realize how much the humidity was going up in here. So and we

Dehumidifiers In Home Inspections

SPEAKER_02 7:08

weren't crazy high. No. But that just goes to show that every house in Ohio should have a dehumidifier in it without exception.

SPEAKER_01 7:17

Yes, and we won't have buyers go, hey, that's all they have when we're doing inspection. Hey, that's all they have a dehumidifier there. That means they have a moisture issue, then, right?

SPEAKER_02 7:25

Nope.

SPEAKER_01 7:26

Like, no, not necessarily.

SPEAKER_02 7:28

They could be proactive like us.

SPEAKER_01 7:29

It tells me that they're taking care of the house because and I tell them this is Ohio, it's humid. You have a basement which is underground, directly top touching the dirt outside. So there's always gonna be humidity down here. So you always want to have a dehumidifier, just run it just as a preventative. And I tell them just have it set like you know, 50% 40, 45, 50% humidity. So if it gets above that, all that kicks on kicks on. They're like, oh, okay. I'm like, no, this is this shows that they're taking care of the house. This is a good thing. This is what it means to me. But no, we so the house it's at 75 degrees, our thermostat. Yep, you're comfortable.

SPEAKER_02 8:04

Depends. Sometimes I lower it a little bit.

SPEAKER_01 8:06

I I know you do. But when I when I but I also see you covered in a blanket.

SPEAKER_02 8:14

That's a different issue. I I I I do that on purpose. So okay, but that has nothing to do with the other.

SPEAKER_01 8:22

Maybe not, maybe not, but anyway, if I put it down to 74 or 73, it starts feeling it starts feeling chilly. So right now 75 degrees, which does help save us electricity on a bill. Um, and the dehumidifier makes things run a lot more uh more more comfortable, really.

SPEAKER_02 8:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 8:43

So if you so if you're a homeowner, home buyer. Your air conditioner can't keep up, or you're hot and well, with this weather, with this so humid out, there's always transfer of air from the outside coming into the house. Always get a dehumidifier if you don't have when it's always when it's humid out, you're you're bringing constantly bringing in humid air. So you want uh you want another means to battle that humidity so that it stays comfortable without needing to lower the temperature repeatedly or like you know more than you normally would for your AC to take the humidity out because you need that low humidity to feel comfortable. So, yeah, temperature does affect being comfortable, but so does the humidity level. And that gets a great thing.

SPEAKER_02 9:26

I think the humidity level makes it worse. Like when you walk out, at least where we're at, I don't know about other people. It like you know how that whole um it's thick as pea soup, and and you know, like it the air just feels heavy. That's how this feels. Like there's almost a um

Dew Point Condensation In The Real World

SPEAKER_02 9:44

like a physical presence to it. It's just that inundated with moisture right now. You just walk out and it's just oppressively heavy.

SPEAKER_01 9:51

Well, we did a commercial inspection yesterday and it was a warehouse, so which was any which wasn't cold, big bay doors for the shipping, the semitrucks are open, so those are always humid, human, humid spaces, yeah, especially this time of year. So there was in the office, there was a um that air conditioner for the office space. There was water dripping all over the ceiling register because all the humid air was hitting this cold metal and condensing.

SPEAKER_02 10:28

Oh, that sucks. It doesn't mean there's condensation leak, it just means that it's hitting that dew point.

SPEAKER_01 10:34

Hit that dew point, and the dew point is a temperature which is it's it's based upon the temperature and the amount of moisture in the air. But that dew point temperature is the point in which the air can no longer suspend or hold that moisture in the air. So it so it condenses it. It gets pulled out, it condenses. So, and that metal was cold enough, and the air was humid enough that it just hit that dew point, and it's like and it just rested right there. But it looks like there's a big issue above. It's really just and it didn't have insulation on that register right above. So that's why that's why it's so cold. All that humid air was hitting that exposed cold metal and then coming down into into the uh office space.

Buying Tips And Set It Forget It

SPEAKER_01 11:18

So anyway, I guess about that's about the message here is like do not forget or ignore the power of to have a dehumidify in your house. It doesn't have to be, it's not just for basements.

SPEAKER_02 11:30

It does and it doesn't have to have a lot of bells and whistles on it, it just needs to suck the moisture out of the air and something that you can program to work automatically. It doesn't have to be expensive, it doesn't have to be this huge fancy thing, it just has to do the job.

SPEAKER_01 11:45

I think I mean this how much I bought the one I have for. I would recommend if you get one, get one that has a pump built into it so it will um so it'll just do automatically empty that um that little bucket that holds the condensation. Get that one so that you you'll forget about it. You'll forget about the bucket, you won't empty it and it's not working for you. So I got that thing for about $200, $199.

SPEAKER_02 12:17

Not bad, not as expensive as I was expecting for a pump one. And that's on Amazon.

SPEAKER_01 12:22

Yeah, I got that one.

SPEAKER_02 12:23

Do you want to put the link for that in the they can do their own own research?

SPEAKER_01 12:28

Okay. I mean somebody wants to, you know, they can they can maybe follow the uh, you know what? Go go to the habitation investigation Facebook page on on and and I will put a link to it on there. Okay. And I'll I'll describe what I'm doing there.

SPEAKER_02 12:45

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 12:45

I should do some another post anyway. But anyway, yeah, get a dehumidifier. It's not just for basements, put in a house, laundry room with working well, because I have that hose and it just pumps it right down the discharge pipe for the washing machine, and that's works perfectly. That's been working fine. Works perfectly, and it's very easy really to set it almost set it and forget it. So, all right, that's about it. Get yourself a dehumidifier.

SPEAKER_02 13:14

Bye everyone.