AirIQ: Managing Humidity in Today’s Well-Insulated Homes is Tricky

It’s not the heat, it’s the humidity, right? Living in the south comes with knowing how to handle humidity inside and out, but even facility managers might not realize the lasting impact humidity has on a building and its occupants. On this episode of AirIQ with Field Controls, host Daniel Litwin sat down with Tim Begoske, Midwest regional manager for North Carolina-based Field Controls, to discuss controlling humidity levels indoors.

There are a variety of reasons why the humidity rises or lowers in a building, but often has to do with how tightly constructed and well-insulated its construction is. “It’s important we manage humidity to some tighter tolerances for comfort and health reasons,” Begoske said.

Field Controls creates indoor environment solutions such as the new Fresh Air Ventilation Control (FAVC), which manages fresh outdoor air intake and stale indoor air exhaust to monitor the indoor relative humidity and provide whole-dwelling ventilation. For example, if the inside air reaches 50 percent humidity, the FAVC lowers the outside air intake by 25 percent, and the system continues monitoring and adjusting to keep humidity in check.

“If we just make it cold, we could be clammy and not comfortable because you’d still be wet,” Begoske said. “Ideally with air conditioning you want to wring out that moisture by dehumidification.”

When it comes down to it, human comfort has a common denominator: “We’re all carbon bags of water,” Begoske said.

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