Can Air Conditioners Remove Humidity?

As the summer season approaches rapidly, we know you can’t wait to pull your bathing suits, shorts, and sundresses from your storage closets and enjoy the sun’s tan. While there’s a lot to enjoy from the summer’s heat, a lot can go wrong. Normally, if you think about it, what bothers you most isn’t the heat that comes with it, but the discomfort that comes with constant sneezing, eye irritation, and rashes from high humid conditions. High humidity during summertime seems to make the heat hotter. Fortunately, air conditioners have become the latest saviors with the ability to reduce humidity. But how? Let’s find out.

Do air conditioners really dehumidify air?

A common myth among homeowners is the concept that your air conditioner’s only responsibility is to blow cool air into your house to a point set on the thermostat. This is its primary purpose, without a doubt. But what remains widely unknown to the average homeowner is that your air conditioning unit is also tasked with removing moisture from the air, also known as humidity. To answer this question, air conditioners can reduce humidity levels in your home, although that isn’t their primary purpose.

What’s the explanation behind dehumidifying using an air conditioner?

Today, most modern air conditioning units are designed to regulate humidity as part of maintaining comfort in a room. Your AC unit has an evaporator coil whose primary goal is to vaporize cooling chemicals from liquid forms to gas and simultaneously absorb heat. You will see a condensate pan that acts as a reservoir for the water vapor below the evaporator coil.

In layman’s language, your air conditioning unit absorbs warm air from your home and utilizes the cold evaporator coil to condense the excess moisture from the air. By trapping and removing excess moisture from the air in your home, the unit successfully removes humidity. The condensed water vapor then recollects on the condenser pan and gets redirected out of your home.

What if your air conditioning unit isn’t sufficient?

Finding the right size air conditioner is vital to establish reduced humidity and adequate cooling cycles for your space. Unfortunately, even after investing in a good AC unit, you might find that you are still struggling with high humid temperatures during the summer. If that’s the case, consider calling in an HVAC professional to help you decide if you need to add a dehumidifier to your air conditioning unit. The dehumidifier will supplement your air conditioner and ensure maximum removal of excess moisture from the air, making your indoor air quality better, cooler and dryer.

Don’t allow the interruption of humid and extreme heat conditions to destroy your summer season. Contact 4Front Energy to learn more about your HVAC system and receive professional help from our HVAC experts.

Interested in scheduling an appointment with 4Front Energy? Contact us at (952) 933-1868 or get started by scheduling your service online today!