Google searches say it should be 40-50%, but I feel like we never get lower than the low 50's and right now it says it's 63% in the House. Not uncommon to wake up with condensation on the exterior of the windows.

Single pane windows, built in 2001, 5 ton 13 seer unit that's about 3yrs old. Coil just replaced a month ago.

What can we do to lower it? Only option a dehumidifier?

Ducks4brkfast said:

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Sounds like youre a prime candidate for someone that can enable your system to blow about 8-12 degrees colder/less humid air with a one time service

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Yeah, and for only $500+...

Clearly a sarcastic/joke response, guessing in response to what an AC guy would say. Forgive me for not catching it, I feel like I should

Also it's worth noting I'm only measuring inside humidity by use of the thermostat. Newer Honeywell WiFi

MrJonMan said:

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Google searches say it should be 40-50%, but I feel like we never get lower than the low 50's and right now it says it's 63% in the House. Not uncommon to wake up with condensation on the exterior of the windows.

Single pane windows, built in 2001, 5 ton 13 seer unit that's about 3yrs old. Coil just replaced a month ago.

What can we do to lower it? Only option a dehumidifier?

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What is your home square footage? One story or two? I assume normal/ minimal insulation (fiberglass batts in the walls, blown in the attic ceiling. 5 tons could be oversized, depending on your home conditions/ calculations, and you could be short cycling, meeting the temp demands but not running long enough to lower the humidity.

Condensation on the exterior of the windows would indicate moisture outside, correct? I wouldn't be surprised of that with single pane windows, cold inside, warm/ humid outside. Same premise as a glass of ice water inside the house. If you had condensation on the inside of the windows, I'd be concerned.

toolshed said:

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MrJonMan said:

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Google searches say it should be 40-50%, but I feel like we never get lower than the low 50's and right now it says it's 63% in the House. Not uncommon to wake up with condensation on the exterior of the windows.

Single pane windows, built in 2001, 5 ton 13 seer unit that's about 3yrs old. Coil just replaced a month ago.

What can we do to lower it? Only option a dehumidifier?

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What is your home square footage? One story or two? I assume normal/ minimal insulation (fiberglass batts in the walls, blown in the attic ceiling. 5 tons could be oversized, depending on your home conditions/ calculations, and you could be short cycling, meeting the temp demands but not running long enough to lower the humidity.

Condensation on the exterior of the windows would indicate moisture outside, correct? I wouldn't be surprised of that with single pane windows, cold inside, warm/ humid outside. Same premise as a glass of ice water inside the house. If you had condensation on the inside of the windows, I'd be concerned.

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Yes, condensation I figured was a direct result of the single pane.

Home size is 2500 sqft 1 story.

Insulation exactly as you stated.

Air conditioning by it's process takes humidity out of the air. This is why your coils drip water when it is running.

A system that is too large for the space will not pull enough humidity out of the air before the temperature of the space is satisfied resulting in cool, but humid air. you may find yourself keeping your house at a cooler temp than usual to overcome the high humidity feeling.

A right sized unit will take longer to cool the space, but will run longer and therefore take more humidity out of the air. The air at the same temp will feel cooler at a lower humidity.

Since you just replaced part of your unit, a dehumidifier may be your best bet. When you have the entire system replaced, you may need to have them check on the size before you replace like for like.


Condensation on the exterior of your windows is just the cool glass reacting with the warm outside air and has nothing to do with the humidity inside. (aside from you super-cooling the inside to try and overcome the sticky feeling from high humidity) Just a side effect of single pane windows. Insulated windows would solve this issue.


***EDIT - Toolshed beat me to it.

Hmmm....house had an old 5 ton when we moved in, so I figured 5 ton is what I needed. 2500 sqft isn't huge but since it's a 1 story, it's a decent size foot print.

I imagine placing a humidifier centrally in the house is best?

Must say, don't like the idea of constantly emptying it

You can put one inline with your HVAC and have it piped. Not sure of cost.

Single pane in 2001?
Is this house out of the city limits ?

Rough location ?

Houston ?
San Diego ?

East coast ?

Has it been raining the past day or so there ?

What's the current outside humidity ?

Cypress, TX

So outside Houston.

And yes severa days of rain, which I know raises humidity, but I was more just wondering what I should expect or shoot for on inside

I'm gonna venture a guess that your single pane are leaking and the ac is pulling the outside humidity into the conditioned space. Are you always running bath vent fan everytime a shower or bath is taken ? And for 15 minutes after it has last drained ?

45-55% is usually normal range

I would get another humidity gauge and move it room to room to compare readings

Don't depend on your thermostat for accurate temperature or humidity readings. Check it independently if you must know what it is. Honeywells (and others) can be tinkered with to adjust offsets in order to more accurately represent the temperature and humidity if its off.

Is this a recent phenomenon? Like in the last week? It's been rainy, which means high humidity but also considerably lighter heat loads. You may just be experiencing a short term over sized situation for your AC. How does it perform when its 95-100 out?

You can try lowering the fan speed, the slower moving air will result in more moisture being pulled out of the air.

Just make sure that you don't go too slow or you'll freeze the coil.

5 tons is a whole lot for a house that size unless your ceilings are just crazy high or there's a ton of windows and west/southwest exposure.

We're at half a ton less and 700 sq ft larger but there are still some rooms with 8' ceilings. No radiant barrier (yet). Still had to add a Honeywell DR90 dehumidifier but everything is under control now!

The Fife said:

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5 tons is a whole lot for a house that size unless your ceilings are just crazy high or there's a ton of windows and west/southwest exposure.

We're at half a ton less and 700 sq ft larger but there are still some rooms with 8' ceilings. No radiant barrier (yet). Still had to add a Honeywell DR90 dehumidifier but everything is under control now!

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We have roughly 30 windows depending how you count oversized/double windows. No radiant barrier. Just 10ft ceilings. House roughly sits North to South, really probably more like NW to SE (back to front).

BrazosDog02 said:

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Don't depend on your thermostat for accurate temperature or humidity readings. Check it independently if you must know what it is. Honeywells (and others) can be tinkered with to adjust offsets in order to more accurately represent the temperature and humidity if its off.

Is this a recent phenomenon? Like in the last week? It's been rainy, which means high humidity but also considerably lighter heat loads. You may just be experiencing a short term over sized situation for your AC. How does it perform when its 95-100 out?

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Yes i saw in the settings where you can adjust the temp or humidity to help with offsets. Yes, with the rain i noticed it being worse this past week.

Not a recent phenomenon, just something i always say i'm Going to look into and never do.

This morning (according to thermostat) its 54% inside & 96% outside.

EMY92 said:

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You can try lowering the fan speed, the slower moving air will result in more moisture being pulled out of the air.

Just make sure that you don't go too slow or you'll freeze the coil.

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I never knew that was a option

This will depend on your system and the changes may need to be made in the air handler itself, if it has the capability. I would have the AC folks out to make sure the DEHUMIDIFY feature is set up with your air handler and your t-stat. That does exactly what was suggested...slows the fan down to remove humidity. It may already be set up like that, but I couldn't tell you.

Older home, and made several effiency upgrades, but humidity in the shoulder months is still pretty miserable.

I'm really considering getting an in-line de humidifier.

Sent a few messages to my AC guy this morning. He said that if I'm 50-55% then that's about average for what he sees in our area. If I can't get below 60% then we have an issue.

Told him I'm going to grab humidity gauge today and see how it compares. Said to let him know and if need be he can come by and lower the fan speed.

MrJonMan said:

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Clearly a sarcastic/joke response, guessing in response to what an AC guy would say. Forgive me for not catching it, I feel like I should

Also it's worth noting I'm only measuring inside humidity by use of the thermostat. Newer Honeywell WiFi

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Regarding that "joke" some knucklehead came on here touting him and his buddies additive or some such wanting to revolutionize your home AC. I think he was there in BCS. Sad thing is I don't think he was an internet/board troll. Pure snake oil salesman.

Dang....guess I missed that post

MrJonMan said:

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BrazosDog02 said:

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Don't depend on your thermostat for accurate temperature or humidity readings. Check it independently if you must know what it is. Honeywells (and others) can be tinkered with to adjust offsets in order to more accurately represent the temperature and humidity if its off.

Is this a recent phenomenon? Like in the last week? It's been rainy, which means high humidity but also considerably lighter heat loads. You may just be experiencing a short term over sized situation for your AC. How does it perform when its 95-100 out?

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Yes i saw in the settings where you can adjust the temp or humidity to help with offsets. Yes, with the rain i noticed it being worse this past week.

Not a recent phenomenon, just something i always say i'm Going to look into and never do.

This morning (according to thermostat) its 54% inside & 96% outside.

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This morning in BCS it was 78 outside with 96% humidity

My Inside was 75 degrees at 47% humidity

Currently the air is on 75 and it says 58%

Turned it to 74 before I got to the house. It says 54%. Have the humidity gauge set up sitting on the mantle, so see what it says after a little bit of acclimation time

UPDATE:
Thermostat is the same reading

The Accurite humidity gauge I bought says it's 77 in the house and 51% after 45min on the mantle. Roughly 10ft from thermostat

And an old weather station I forgot I had says it's 74.3 and 56%

Set the new gauge on the thermostat....showed a 2 degree difference in temperature. It was 2 warmer than the thermostat said. So I adjusted the offset +2. Let's see what happens

Had the same problem. AC guy came out and slowed the blower which dropped it about 4%. I then bought a fridgidaire 50 dehumidifier and that dropped it another 4 or 5. From 58 to 49 or 50 made a huge difference in how it feels.

Right now the thermostat and the new gauge I bought are the same temp and humidity. Seems to be hovering 48-51%. Give this a few days and see

I had a problem with humidity in the house recently. Check your soffit vents and make sure they are clean.

Our roof was replaced in 2017, including new power attic vents. In the spring, I noticed that the vents were never hooked up. The roofer sent his electrician it in late May and wired them. Within hours the humidity in the house shot up to 75-80%. However, I didn't catch it until a few days later when the wife and I both commented on how hot it had gotten in the house.

After thinking about it, I remembered that my soffit vents were very dirty. When the new power vents turned on, they couldn't pull air through the soffits, so it pulled air from inside the house. I unscrewed them one at a time, hosed off the dirt, dried then with my blower, and put them back. The openings were otherwise clear of insulation. Within an hour of cleaning them, the humidity dropped back into the 50-60% range (where it had been running previously).

I've noticed the humidity has been lucky to get to 60% today even with long run times. It's been between 60-66%. Its set at 75 degrees and about 93 degrees outside so I know it'll be longer run times, but it's not successfully removing humidity. Is this a symptom of anything wrong or normal?

All I can say is the humidity levels this year have been stupid high. I've never had this much trouble keeping the levels down in the house before. It'll get better a little later when the drier heat gets here.

Yeah true. Inside air handler is original from 2002 and outside heat pump is from 2008 and 13 seer so I'm wondering if it's just a symptom of a leaky coil since they were extremely dirty/corroded when we moved in 2 years ago.

I filed a warranty claim on a new build for the same reason. I was running low to mid 70s and it was just as humid in the house last week in the high 90s-100s, as it was in January/February in the 30s. 14 seer 4 ton down stairs and a 13 seer 3 ton for upstairs. Knowing that it's not sized perfectly year round, I held off...but once it hit those temps consistently and no improvement, I filed.

The technician came out and verified that the ventilator bringing the outside air was already off, as that would have made it worse. He opened up the vents on both my returns upstairs and the one in the master, from about a 30 degree opening to almost 90. I'm now running in the mid 50s and it is much more comfortable in the house. It also reduced the noise the units made significantly, where it is a barely noticeable hum as opposed to a loud whir. Just a thought, as it may work for you too.