LESLIE: Dawn in California listens to The Money Pit on KSRO. What can we do for you?
DAWN: I wanted to know about my air conditioning unit I had installed a year ago. Since I’m starting to use it now, I was wondering if there’s any way … is it going to make the house just as dry … the air in the house just as dry as the furnace does?
TOM: No, it does the reverse, in fact. In the summer, the air is so much more humid that what an air conditioner does is it will take some of the moisture out of the air. By the way, it doesn’t do it as well as a product like a whole home dehumidifier, which is specifically designed to reduce humidity in the home. It will take out some of the moisture in the home.
A furnace, on the other hand, takes out even more moisture in the home and dries that out and makes it very dry. That’s why you feel very parched. So generally, in the winter, if you have hot air heat, you add humidity. But in the summer, you do things to take it away; either by running your central air conditioning and, hopefully, by adding a whole home dehumidifier. For example, Aprilaire makes one that takes out like 90 pints of water a day. And the more humidity you take out of the air, the more comfortable you will be all summer long.
Dawn, thanks so much for calling us at 888-MONEY-PIT.
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