Only a couple of years back, I moved to the deep south.
I was upset to get away from the sub zero rapidly adjusting temperatures, ice & snowfall. I’d had enough of bundling up in my wool coat, lacing up heavy boots & spending so much time shoveling snow & scraping ice. I hated being stuck inside the apartment for more than half the year, reliant on the gas furnace. My heating bills were enormous. With the natural gas furnace blasting at maximum capacity for nearly seventeen straight weeks, so the indoor environment would become overly dry. The insufficient humidity led to concerns with dry and chapped lips, frizzy hair, headaches & difficulty sleeping. Because dry air feels cooler than properly humid air, it’s regularly tempting to turn up the thermostat. This makes the problem worse & increases the cost of the utility bills. After putting up with long, dire winters for forty years, I was ready for a change. I looked forward to feeling sunlight & sizzling weather. I wasn’t prepared for the challenge of high humidity. It wasn’t too long before I realized that moving south easy created the opposite concerns. I now feel trapped in the house because of brutal heat. Despite the cooling system running at maximum capacity, there was still condensation running down the windows & the air felt sticky! Overly high humidity levels make for a perfect breeding ground for mold, mildew, bacteria & dust mites. It causes chronic fatigue & health concerns & encourages lower thermostat settings. I finally contacted a local Heating, Ventilation and A/C supplier & looked into the peculiar styles of whole-house sized dehumidifiers. I wanted to be comfortable in my modern home, be proactive about air quality & avoid a needless expense.