Summertime in the Southeast United States is… hot. If you live in the Augusta area, you’ve surely heard the phrase, “It’s not the heat, it’s the humidity that gets ya!” Well, you aren’t the only thing that the humidity is getting to. Your appliances are affected as well! If your house feels humid, that means that there is a higher amount of water vapor in the air than there normally is. More water vapor means more condensation on various surfaces throughout your home. Depending on what that surface is, this could lead to rust, corrosion, mold, or something potentially worse such as a fire. If you’re a homeowner in the Augusta, Ga area, we want to give you the warning signs to look out for when considering the effects of high humidity levels around your household appliances. Plus, we’ll give you some tips on how to ensure your appliances can withstand our volatile weather conditions!
Understanding Humidity
Before we get into how humidity effects your appliances, we first need to understand what humidity is. As briefly stated above, humidity refers to the amount of moisture, or water vapor, that is present in the air. The more humid a room is, the more hot it will feel.
Many things in your home are built to withstand a certain amount of humidity. For example, most electrical devices can operate at a range of between 30% to 50% humidity. These percentages mean that the air contains 30 to 50% of the maximum possible moisture that it could hold. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) states that 30% is the humidity level that you should aim for within your home for comfort, health, and safety reasons. Once you reach 50-60%, you start running the risk of attracting pests, mold, mildew, rot, corrosion, and more.
How to Control Humidity Indoors
So how can you ensure that the humidity levels inside your home stay around 30%? There are a few different ways.
The first way, and probably the most common, is to use a dehumidifier. You can buy a small, portable dehumidifier to move from room to room to remove excess moisture from where you notice it the most. Second, and similarly, you should utilize the exhaust fans in your kitchen and bathrooms. These suck out all of the heat and extra moisture from cooking or taking a long, steamy shower.
Other strategies for reducing humidity include sealing air leaks around windows or doors that bring in unwanted humidity from outside. Or, on the flip side, opening windows and doors when its colder (or less humid) outside than it is inside! Lastly, even some houseplants can help absorb extra moisture from the air! You may want to consider getting some Boston ferns, peace lilies, or orchids, if you can.
How High Humidity Levels Affect Your Appliances
If your home’s humidity levels are higher than normal and you don’t do anything about it, your appliances can pay the price. For example, your refrigerator may have to work twice as hard to keep your food at an appropriate temperature if every time you open it, warm, moist air enters. The compressor will have to work harder to cool itself down, and in turn, you may end up having food spoilage sooner than you expected.
Humidity not only causes an increase in energy consumption, leading to higher energy bills and faster appliance wear and tear. It can also cause metal parts on your appliances to rust and corrode. As a result, any surrounding electrical parts will soon begin to malfunction.
Even worse, if you have any tears in any wiring on your appliances, moisture buildup can seep into these tears and cause short circuiting or even a fire. If you are at risk for combating high humidity levels within the next few months, you need to make sure your appliances can handle it.
Preparing Your Appliances for the Summer
You can fight against the risks that increased humidity brings by being prepared. Call Premier Appliance of Augusta, your residential appliance repair experts, to perform some pre-summer maintenance before those crazy temperatures arrive. We can take a look at your kitchen, laundry, and outdoor kitchen appliances to make sure there is no rust, corrosion, or faulty wiring.
It’s likely time for your routine preventative maintenance, anyways. So think of it like you’re checking two ‘to-dos’ off the list at once! Remember, preparedness now prevents disaster later!
