Hello Jesse! Great article. I felt the need to translate the article into Spanish to make it accessible for Spanish-speaking individuals! That being said, I’m from Florida, where my home has perennially battled with high humidity. Since childhood, I’ve dealt with allergies and frequent respiratory illnesses and even saw my mother develop rhinitis. We were under the impression that our HVAC system was functioning optimally, but after reviewing this article, I’ve come to understand that there’s considerable scope for improvement and proactive maintenance. As you mentioned, the workforce isn’t very instructed on what to do or has the best interests in installing a safe and reliable system. Thanks again for this. I learned a lot and will put it to use.
Florida is a challenging environment. Right-sizing (manual J) of cooling equipment is especially important in humid climates. In over-sized systems, short run times tend to satisfy the thermostat but not properly dehumidify, because this takes much longer. In addition, Florida has many duct systems in unconditioned attics, and duct leakage draws humid air and contaminants from outdoors. If you have a system in an unconditioned attic this should be at minimum fastidiously sealed. Many people in building geek circles feel that conditioned attics are warranted, but my experience suggests that these aren’t often cost-effective retrofits: https://buildingscience.com/documents/building-science-insights-newsletters/bsi-119-conditioned-unconditioned
The final 2 considerations are 1) turning the AC fan to the lowest possible speed that can be sustained without freezing the indoor coil. This is generally ~325 cubic feet/minute per nominal ton of cooling. And 2) adding supplemental dehumidification. Target <55% relative humidity at ~75F. This can be a simple standalone dehumidifier piped directly to a sump or condensate pump.
For filtration, recommendations largely in line with pandemic seem fine for small particulate too—i.e. MERV 13 filters in centralized systems. IAQ monitors can be great tools as well!
Hello Jesse! Great article. I felt the need to translate the article into Spanish to make it accessible for Spanish-speaking individuals! That being said, I’m from Florida, where my home has perennially battled with high humidity. Since childhood, I’ve dealt with allergies and frequent respiratory illnesses and even saw my mother develop rhinitis. We were under the impression that our HVAC system was functioning optimally, but after reviewing this article, I’ve come to understand that there’s considerable scope for improvement and proactive maintenance. As you mentioned, the workforce isn’t very instructed on what to do or has the best interests in installing a safe and reliable system. Thanks again for this. I learned a lot and will put it to use.
Thanks so much for doing that!
Florida is a challenging environment. Right-sizing (manual J) of cooling equipment is especially important in humid climates. In over-sized systems, short run times tend to satisfy the thermostat but not properly dehumidify, because this takes much longer. In addition, Florida has many duct systems in unconditioned attics, and duct leakage draws humid air and contaminants from outdoors. If you have a system in an unconditioned attic this should be at minimum fastidiously sealed. Many people in building geek circles feel that conditioned attics are warranted, but my experience suggests that these aren’t often cost-effective retrofits: https://buildingscience.com/documents/building-science-insights-newsletters/bsi-119-conditioned-unconditioned
The final 2 considerations are 1) turning the AC fan to the lowest possible speed that can be sustained without freezing the indoor coil. This is generally ~325 cubic feet/minute per nominal ton of cooling. And 2) adding supplemental dehumidification. Target <55% relative humidity at ~75F. This can be a simple standalone dehumidifier piped directly to a sump or condensate pump.
For filtration, recommendations largely in line with pandemic seem fine for small particulate too—i.e. MERV 13 filters in centralized systems. IAQ monitors can be great tools as well!
Reach out directly if you need anything!