Humidistat Setting

Humidifier is an appliance that is used to add humidity in your house. If you are living in a dry, cold region, having a humidifier is a must to protect your family from the hazards of dryness. Excessively dry air can cause chapped lips, cracked skin, dry hair, itchy nose etc. A humidifier often works in collaboration with an air conditioner to maintain the temperature and humidity indoors. Humidistat setting allows you to get the desired level of humidity in your house.

Ideal Setting for a Humidistat

Humidistat controls are either located near a thermostat on the main floor, if your humidifier is a part of central air conditioning system, or it may be mounted on a separate duct. When your humidifier works along with your air conditioning system, you need to adjust the settings of thermostat along with humidistat. Humidistat setting is dependent upon several factors which are as follows:

• Number and type of occupants in the house.
• Exterior air temperature.
• Type and placement of insulation in house.
• Vapor barriers.
• Effectiveness of weather stripping.
• Type of windows and doors (including frames and jams).
• Whether or not storm windows and doors are installed.

Since, so many variables are involved it is almost impossible to predict an ideal setting for humidistat, that would work for every household. You will have to find out what setting best suits the requirements of your house. As most of the above variables are specific to every individual household, we are providing humidistat settings according to external temperature.

Humidistat Setting and External Temperature

If the external temperature is above 20º F, you should set your humidistat to 60 to 65%. Humidistat settings in winter may be lesser than this. However, you will rarely need to set your humidistat at a level less than 60%. If your humidistat works in collaboration with a thermostat, then you might have to adjust the temperature of the thermostat as well. Usually, humidistat controls the working of the air conditioner based upon the humidity in the air, whereas the thermostat controls the air conditioner according to the heat. At a humidity level of 75%, the air is more humid and less hot, hence the working of air conditioner is triggered by the humidistat. Under the normal heat-humidity levels, you need to maintain the level of humidity by setting humidistat at 75% and thermostat at 85º F. If the room heats up too much, then reset humidistat at 85% and thermostat at 70 ºF.

You will have to monitor the temperature variations in your house for a few days, to understand the optimum heat and humidity level in the house. If your humidistat setting is too low then your house will feel like an ice box. Too much of humidity can lead to fogging of windows and may even lead to indoor precipitation. Greater humidity also puts your house at the risk of mold and mildew growth. On the other hand, if you notice cracks in your wooden furniture or flooring, then be sure there is dryness in your house. Also, perform an ice test by putting 3 ice cubes in a glass of water. If the water vapor does not condense on the outside the glass, it means you have very less humidity in your house. In that case, change the setting to a higher level.

You may have to change the humidistat setting if you are going to keep your house vacant for a long time. In that case it is better to keep it at a lower level to prevent the growth of mold and mildew.