Hello, and welcome to my blog! My name is Matthew Gotto, and I am the Product Marketing Manager for dehumidification and ventilation products for Aprilaire. Before I started here at Aprilaire, I knew very little about the quality of the air inside my home, but more importantly, I had no real idea on how to control it for the health of my family and home. I guess you could say I was like everyone else, kind of “in the dark” on the whole thing. My family and I just moved into a new Energy-Star, Green-Built home. Knowing what I now know about how high humidity levels can affect your family’s health as well as the sustainability of your home, having the right solution to reduce and control excess humidity is essential. Being that my new home is so efficient and "tight", I can more easily see first-hand how high humidity inside my home affects my family, especially having family members that are allergy sufferers. The goal of my blog is to help you identify humidity issues and problems that may exist in your home today, and how we can help you identify options and/or solutions to take care of them.
Hello all!
As I noted in my last blog, I wanted to get you up-to-speed with the health benefits of controlling excess humidity, and why having the right dehumidifier is essential in achieving it. Many reputable organizations provide information on why high humidity levels can have an adverse affect on your health. Typically, the information is focused on asthmatic and allergic affects due to mold, mildew, and dust mites.
Most people don't realize that having a relative humidity above 50% in your home can provide an environment for dust mites to thrive. Dust mites are a leading contributor to allergies, and is one of the first things you are tested for at the clinic to find out what you're allergic to. Dust mites survive by absorbing moisture into their bodies; remove the moisture - remove the dust mites.
Asthma is another nemesis to millions of people. Mold is one of the key triggers to asthmatic conditions. Mold grows when a high moisture environment is present; removed the moisture - remove the mold. I think you get the picture.
The EPA has some really good information about asthma, including how mold and dust mites are triggers. See my last blog to review the relative humidity levels and the adverse affects it can have depending on where you are at. See the EPA's website below for more information.
Using a whole-home dehumidifier is going to be a critical factor to ensuring proper humidity control in your WHOLE home, ensuring the health of your WHOLE family.
Talk to you soon!
MG
Well, we are getting covered in blankets of snow recently as we are just starting to get into what I anticipate will be an active winter season. I believe everyone gets a blast of the arctic, cold air; it's just the amount and type of precipitation that may be different. As some of you are looking to add humidity back into your homes, due to the dry, cold air, it should be easy for you to understand why CONTROLLING humidity in your home is so critical to the health and comfort of you family, but also to the preservation of your home and furnishings. If you are too dry, I recommend that you take a look at Dennie's blog on that, and take special note of the comfort window he demonstrates...it is a very important chart to understand.
The takeaway is that you don't want to be out of that center "optimum zone". If you are on either end of that chart, your humidity is out of control and you need to seriously think about getting the right product to take care of it.
My discussions are about bringing humidity down, and why having the right dehumidifier is so critical. Why is bringing humidity down so important? Well, that's why I want you to consider: how do you want to live your life in 2009? In the Southern climates, this question is very important as we get into the early months of 2009. We have four key benefits to bringing your humidity down to appropriate levels, which I recommend is 50% Rh.
- Health of you and your family
- Comfort of you and your family
- Preservation of your home and furnishings
- Energy savings opportunities
The greatest advantage of having the right dehumidifier for your home is that everyone gets access to all of those benefits at one time, not just dry air. I will cover each point in subsequent posts. So, look for my next post as I go into more discussion on point #1 - HEALTH.
Happy holidays and look forward to talking to you more as we get ready for 2009!
MG
Hello all! I would like to continue on with the discussion about what you need to consider in a dehumidifier solution. First, I would like to give you an introduction to the product.
A whole-home dehumidifier, also called a central dehumidifier, is a product that is like no other. Forget the portable; I know first-hand the poor performance those things typically provide you, and constantly changing out the buckets?...forget it. I was always emptying the bucket, the dehumidifier would come on and run forever, turn off when the bucket was full, later on I would figure out it stopped, usually when the air got really bad, and the cycle would start over again. That's frustrating. What you seriously need to consider is a dehumidifier that is truly designed to control excess humidity in your WHOLE home, not just a small room. A whole-home, central dehumidifier is the solution.
Whole-home, central dehumidifiers are a relatively new product category for residential homes, and the best ones provide air filtration and fresh air ventilation. They are also designed specifically to keep humidity under control in the WHOLE home. Reducing humidity in the whole home will improve the health, comfort, and well being of your family, but also the preservation of your home, so you don't get the moldy, damp walls, warped wood trim and floors, and a long-term weakening of the structure of your home (long-term exposure to excess moisture will break down the materials, like wood, in the walls). Think about a window sill that has been exposed to excess moisture for an extended time; you remember that soft, rotten portion that needed to be replaced? An Aprilaire whole-home, central dehumidifier will alleviate that! 
Well, this is a good start to what I hope is a long and engaging conversation on what really goes on in your home, and how an Aprilaire whole-home, central dehumidifier can be the solution you were looking for. If you'd like to do a little homework on the product, visit the link below!
http://www.aprilaire.com/index.php?znfAction=ProductsCat&category=dehumid
You can also check out Aprilaire's website http://www.aprilaire.com/ for more information on all of our indoor air quality products.
Talk to you soon, have a great day!
MG
Hello all! I have to start off by telling you that before I starting working for Aprilaire, I knew very little about indoor air quality. More specifically, I realize I didn't really know a lot about how excess humidity affects your life, or what a dehumidifier should do to control it. I grew up with a portable dehumidifier in my basement. The issue was that it never quite "worked right", so we just got used to having a damp, musty, smelly basement. Feel, look, sound familiar? Consequently, we never spent much, if any, time in the basement growing up. Since I started here at Aprilaire, I have a whole new understanding of how dehumidification is an essential aspect of your life: it affects your family's health and comfort, as well as the preservation of your home. So, what do I hope to educate everyone on?...how reducing the levels of humidity in your home are essential in ensuring the health of your family and home.
This is where I hope to get you the right information so that you can make the right decision for your family and home. I'm excited to be able to reach out to you, and introduce you to a new way to live in your home...one where you're not sacrificing your family's health or home. Get rid of that indoor air quality issue that you have lived with for such a long time, get a whole-home, central dehumidifier. Look for more of my posts on these topics.
You can also check out our Aprilaire website for more information, http://www.aprilaire.com/
Look forward to hearing from and talking to you soon, have a great day!
MG
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