It is Hot and Humid at our Little House
I love summer, but the heat and humidity that Arkansas is known for has definitely set in and that means more moisture problems here at Our Little House.
Dakota
Last week, I had to take Dakota to the vet as she had what turned out to be a scratch on her cornea, as well as a double ear infection. The vet told me dogs get these yeast infections in their ears when there is a lot of humidity.
I’ve written here before about the humidity issues in the basement at The Belle Writer’s Studio, as well as in the metal storage building where most of our furniture is stored.
Humidity is not a problem in Our Little House during the winter when we’re heating with the wood burning stove. As a matter of fact, I have a steamer I use sometimes just to put some moisture in the air.
Now the humidity in the summer in Our Little House isn’t just causing our pills and vitamins to go bad if they’re not used right away, or my spices to clump up, it’s affecting our health as well. I’m guessing this also might be a partial cause of my migraines, which didn’t start until we moved here.
There are several different factors that cause a small home to have higher humidity problems, including doing laundry, cooking and showering all within a small space.
We don’t have mold issues in Our Little House that I know about, but evidently my efforts, such as opening windows and pulling the air out, opening the window in the bathroom and turning on exhaust fans is not doing enough.
We do have extra issues to deal with:
- Our builder didn’t run the dryer hose out of the house, just down into the basement. This is definitely something Dale is going to have to correct.
- A lake about 100 yards from our house.
We do plan on purchasing dehumidifiers, but we need three of them, so this is going to be a major budgeted expense.
Any other ideas on how to reduce humidity in the home immediately?
We tried a dehumidifier for awhile here in Ky., but it actually put off a lot of heat. Not sure how to help with humidity, but we've found that keeping the curtains/shades pulled on the side of the house getting the sun keeps the heat from building up & lets us feel much cooler. This makes a BIG difference, even though we have fairly new, well insulated windows. I learned this little trick from reading the novel "Love in the Time of Cholera."
All of this humidity in Arkansas did ruin many of my photo negatives. The bad smell it adds to the outdoors and indoors is something I could do without.
I agree, Mary! My mother always thought the only place worse than Kansas for the humidity was Arkansas. Florida is bad too, though.
Hey Kerri,
We are on the NC coast and boy do we ever get humid in the summer here. No wonder so many people in the old days, before air conditioning, spent summers at their beach houses where cool breezes cooled their homes. If it weren't for the AC pulling the humidity out of our house we would have a mildew problem for sure!
Would a window AC unit help?
Thanks for the suggestion, Sandy. I should have mentioned in the post we do have a window air unit. I just don't want to use the energy or spend the money to turn it on yet. We ran it on Sunday afternoon as it got so hot I couldn't stand it anymore. I can't clean a house when I'm sweating.
I like what you've done with the blog. I find it nice to keep my finger on the pulse of things Keep blogging.You do a great job.
Kerri– I feel for you! Humidity sucks the life and energy right out of me! Sounds like you are getting lots of good advice from your readers. I think this is why our grandmothers had summer kitchens– outdoor cooking areas. At least now that it's warm, you can do a lot of your cooking outside on the grill. Hope some of the suggestions here provide you and Dale relief!
Thanks, Kathleen! We do a lot of our cooking on the weekends for the week on the grill. Try not to heat up the kitchen too much. You're right, getting good suggestions here, Living Large readers are the best!
Mold can be such a major problem. You might want to check more closely … could be the reason for your migraines.
Will do that, Alexandra, thanks. I think it's just a combo of allergies mixing with the humidity, though. I don't get them often or year around.
Hi, saw a RT from twitter and came over. We live in Montana and also have a small house. If you've stopped by our website (nearing completion) you'll see we do lots of baking. So it sounds like we have many of the same issues. Our builder also did the famous no-no with the dryer vent. #bad builder! Bad builder! (Scolding as you would a dog or child haha). This act — especially in our area WILL cause MOLD!! We have fixed this issue even with cement walls and oh my the difference! You just won't believe it! Make this a top priority, you'll immediately be thankful and cooler.
Have you gone to your local hardware store and inquired about a "whole house fan"? Its placed in the celing — large sq box with louvers. When you turn it on be sure papers are tied down, windows open. A draw of air ebters from the cooler outside into the home, pushing out the heat & humidity into the attic. From there another min or two of running and cooler air from the house pushes the hot out of the attic adding another layer of cool to the home. Whole process takes between 3 — 10 mins depending on temp difference inside and out.
I thought my mom was crazy when I was a kid putting this in but 1 use and the results were clear. Now I can't wait to have 1 in my home!
Good luck!
Sam
Welcome, from Big Sky country, Sam! Love your website, always looking for good treats for the Fearsome Four!
Thanks for the idea on the whole house fan, don't know why I didn't think of it.
In the meantime, I'll get the husband to work on that dryer vent. We don't use it much, but I can really tell when I do. I really can't scold my builder, he was a gem, but we had a wacky project manager with some strange ideas. We weren't on site when we were in construction. Anyway, welcome to Living Large, very glad you stopped by and I hope you visit often!
No, Rick, I hadn't even heard of them. This is great, thank you!
Have you considered trying the homemade dehumidifiers. I found multiple plans using charcoal or rock salt by doing a google search.