We offer humidification and air cleaning systems in Chicago, IL to help our customers combat the air quality troubles that can harm their businesses. Humidity is a major problem that often gets overlooked in commercial environments. Humidity is more than just something that makes people feel hotter on warm days. It can have extreme effects on a commercial facility that can lead to expensive repairs and refurbishing, and harm to the health of people indoors.
The Problems of High Humidity
To explain why proper humidity balance indoors is so important for a commercial facility, we’ll go over several of the major problems high humidity creates.
Comfort issues and high HVAC costs
This is usually what people think of when they hear about humidity: it makes warm conditions feel worse. This is because humidity slows down the human body’s release of heat, making it harder to cool down. High humidity will make conditions unappealing for customers, clients, and tenants, and it will affect employee performance. The AC system will need to run more often to overcome the effects, and this will lead to much higher energy bills.
Mold and bacteria
Bacterial growths and mold occur in places with high moisture levels. They often grow in dark areas, such as between walls and in the ventilation system, so your business may start to develop serious mold problems without seeing any initial signs. Toxic mold spores cause respiratory problems and asthma, and both mold and mildew will eat away at building materials and cause unpleasant odors throughout a facility.
Damage to equipment
Few things will cause mechanical equipment to wear down faster and fail earlier than high moisture levels. Most electrical devices are sensitive to moisture, and metal parts are likely to develop corrosion. Proper humidity control is essential for any business that uses advanced computer technology to run.
Building damage
High humidity is a major source of wood rot and wood swelling. It also does damage to insulation, paint, roofing materials, and more. All of this can lead to expensive repairs and refurbishing, as well as individual problems like loss of energy efficiency because of damaged insulation and roofing.
Health concerns
We already mentioned that toxic mold spores are an unhealthy consequence of high moisture. Humidity can also be the source of heat exhaustion and other heat-related problems, such as heat rash and heat cramps.
How We Can Help
You have several sources to help control humidity in your facility, such as regular upkeep for insulation and building materials. But in most cases, you’ll need the assistance of commercial professionals like us to help balance humidity levels.
We offer extensive dehumidification solutions (as well as humidification in case you have issues with dry air) to find the correct humidity balance for your facility’s needs. We can provide multiple humidity zones as well if your facility requires different conditions in different places. You can trust that we’ll customize any humidity solution to meet the specific needs of your business.
Call Althoff Industries, Inc. to help with all your ventilation and air quality concerns for your business in Chicagoland. Challenges Accepted!