Domestic Indoor Air Quality

(I gots me a new basement dehumidifier!  Woohoo!)

A central HVAC system serves our entire house including the basement. However, the basement (being as it is below ground) needs special attention when it comes to moisture and temperature.  My tired old basement dehumidifier died late last year just as the weather was turning seasonally frigid.  Since running the furnace takes our indoor relative humidity down to the 30% - 35% range from late fall until the seasonal warming of springtime, a replacement dehumidifier wasn't immediately needed.  HOWEVER, sustained springtime rain is now in our forecast so last Thursday I scurried over to the Menard's in Gurnee and picked up a new dehumidifier (thank you Menard's and crew for being there for us during this current public health crisis; I also picked up some milk and packaged snacks and added another bag of cat litter to our reserves).

(Basement humidity and temperature)

It has been raining a lot the past few days and it has been foggy much of the time when it wasn't raining.  Everything inside the domicile is looking good so far.  I tell ya, my fossilized sinuses are really enjoying the extra humidity but there is a fine line between too little and too much.

They say (and I believe it to be true) that the best indoor relative humidity is 50%.  Unfortunately, it is darned difficult (impossible?) to maintain EXACTLY 50% so the best most of us can do is attempt to stay somewhere in the middle of the "Healthy Range."

To avoid condensation problems, we all are supposed to surf the indoor RH down with the falling outside air temperatures.  When seasonal outdoor temps trend over 40F, our indoor climate gets somewhat easier to manage.

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