Moisture Management for Energy Efficiency and Comfort

If you are looking for a SnowHome, you might have an interest in comfort.  It's only one of the criteria buyers present when they want to look for property.  This is certainly true in Summit County, where we have a very dry climate, but lots of snow.  Part of comfort is managing moisture in the home.  Energy efficient homes typically provide some form of moisture management.  The following article from the EcoBroker website provides an understanding of the issue:

Snapshot & Benefits:
You can increase comfort and save money by mindfully managing the moisture content of the air in your home. Humans are most comfortable at a relative humidity of 50%, plus or minus 10%. Relative humidity is the amount of moisture that air contains relative to the maximum amount that it could contain (at any given temperature and pressure). Two separate strategies are required: one for summer and one for winter.

In the winter, air inside the house is cycled repeatedly past heating elements in your heating system, where it gets drier and drier. As room air dries, you will increasingly experience dry and itchy skin, dry eyes and mouth, chapped hands, static electricity and a wide range of other discomforts. From an energy efficiency perspective, the dry air increases the rate of evaporation of body moisture from your skin and this evaporation makes you feel chilled. A normal reaction is to turn up the heat as you attempt to keep warm. The net result is that you will burn extra fuel to maintain a higher room temperature and the air will become progressively drier. In the winter, your strategy is to add moisture to the air.

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