Tuesday, July 23, 2019

Aprilair Settings Affect Indoor Humidity?

We had a fairly decent HVAC system in the Midwest. When we converted the one car garage in to a family room and added on a two car garage in front of it, we had a separate HVAC system installed for that space. On Capitol Hill, we didn’t have our own HVAC unit. The 1890’s building had a systemwide unit and the heat and air conditioning were dictated to us twice a year. Even though there was a thermostat in the unit, it never worked right. When we moved to our Virginia condo over three months ago, we now have our own HVAC system housed in a closet by the foyer. Inside the closet is an Aprilair unit, and I was beginning to wonder if it was affecting the humidity inside the house. It’s been really rainy lately, but that shouldn’t affect the inside of a house if the windows are tight. And, we didn’t notice humidity at all when we first moved in. Something was happening because it just started to feel “humid.” The doors were sticking, the bathroom mirror was fogging up, the towels weren’t drying out, and parts of the wood floor were expanding. So we asked the building engineer if he could help us learn more about the Aprilair unit. The unit was set on 30 - whatever that means. All we learned was that it would be a rare opportunity to use Aprilair. Maybe two days a year when it’s beautiful outside and you want only the fan setting on (no heat or air conditioning.) So we just turned the unit OFF and I’m hoping we begin to see a difference inside the house soon. That was yesterday, and so far I can’t say I notice much of a change. Apparently these systems are meant to support a “green” building design. I wonder how many people really understand how they work and actually use them. The next lesson will be the combination heat/AC HVAC system. That set up was too confusing too so we just keep it on AC right now.







 


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