Excessive indoor humidity in homes is a serious and worsening problem. Not only is it a threat to our health, but it also threatens building structures and internal finishes. Mostly, people rely on their central air conditioners to manage humidity, but this equipment isn’t especially good at this task. Usually, air conditioners don’t know what the humidity is in the house and aren’t able to switch into high dehumidification mode when needed.
Researchers working for the US DOE’s Building America program recently, and cleverly, enabled air conditioners to combat high humidity conditions. In tests their innovations worked, keeping humidity within acceptable amounts, with little additional cost or energy consumption. Although much work remains to be done, their innovation seems to be an ideal next step for the domestic HVAC industry to empower its customers to better manage humidity.
