North Dallas, 2900 s.f., single story home.

I'm experiencing high humidity % in my house recently, and comfort level is not very achievable

It has definitely been a wet/humid week or two, but I'm trying to figure out some solutions short of having an in-line dehumidifier installed into the HVAC, as I'm not going to see the ROI before we sell the house in the next year to 18 months
Currently, I've got a portable dehumidifier in the living quarters of the house, and empty it every day (sometimes twice).
I've been targeting two areas to try to combat heat and humidity - 1) installing a barn fan with louvers in my garage with an intake on opposite end of the garage to try to knock down heat entering the attic; 2) installing two skirt vent fans to force draw air through the crawl space

I've got slightly more than adequate amount of blown in insulation in the attic, and HVAC is no more than 6 years old, at most
But, it's this darn humidity that I can't seem to conquer

Any suggestions?

Sounds like the type of house in which I grew up.
Actually many here in HUMID Aggieland are Maroon/BurntOrange families and move here vs Austin, so A-OK.

Without more data, these are our bullet points:

Ample ridge & soffit vents (reading attic is not foamed) - consult roofer for CFM calculations; he may suggest re-roofing that your Realtor might applaud for a furture sale & home insurance might lower rates. (Power venting poopoo'd by "The Money Pit" show")

Sealing: Silicone & can polyFoam any outside infiltration (& vermin) + replace outer threasholds if worn/leaking + HVAC: inspection for leaky ducts!!, proper tons/SF calculations & coil pan drainage w/slimeout tabs

Add more vent fans in bathrooms, check efficiency/CFM kitchen hood (all must pipe vent to exteriors, through roof or soffits)

Seal fireplace damper Easter-Thanksgiving

Drain exterior rainfall & gutter leaders/downspouts away from perimeters, min. 10ft; block/dam all from crawl space mentioned

If all of this is done & no improvement seen in your dehumidifier collections, then time to call in a Licensed Home Inspector ... one will be required for house sale later anyway.

Our problems in this vein for decades was immediately solved with a high-IQ proper tons/sf calculation then served by top-o-line variable stage system. Maybe not in your budget so ask Realtor about ROI and better sales offers.

normalhorn said:

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North Dallas, 2900 s.f., single story home.

I'm experiencing high humidity % in my house recently, and comfort level is not very achievable

It has definitely been a wet/humid week or two, but I'm trying to figure out some solutions short of having an in-line dehumidifier installed into the HVAC, as I'm not going to see the ROI before we sell the house in the next year to 18 months
Currently, I've got a portable dehumidifier in the living quarters of the house, and empty it every day (sometimes twice).
I've been targeting two areas to try to combat heat and humidity - 1) installing a barn fan with louvers in my garage with an intake on opposite end of the garage to try to knock down heat entering the attic; 2) installing two skirt vent fans to force draw air through the crawl space

I've got slightly more than adequate amount of blown in insulation in the attic, and HVAC is no more than 6 years old, at most
But, it's this darn humidity that I can't seem to conquer

Any suggestions?

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What time of the year do you plan on selling?

If it's in the hot humid months then the ROI may be there. I can only speak for myself but if I were buying a house I'd ask for some concession if the humidity was high all the time. I'm not saying you have to give in to the concessions but they may come up.

I'd be interested to see if 88Agswin replies...

I don't think think either option will provide relief for you.

Run the ac colder/more often (there's an acute risk of harming the floors if you're on pier and beam) or increase the dehumidifier capacity

My only suggestion is to sell your house early in the spring if you don't find an easy fix.

When we got a new AC in our 2500 sq ft home 1960's house, it made such a huge difference because the de-humidifier will run even when the AC is not running. The house is a zillion times more comfortable now and our big regret was not replacing it sooner.

I've thought about this more.

Op- running a fan for the crawl space won't do you anything as it won't effect the humidity. If there is space, you could spray an inch of closed cell foam on the sub floor and that would prevent any moisture transfer.

Otherwise, youre just introducing humid/hot air to replace humid/hot air. If there is an issue with standing water, then put a fan in

The attic fan will marginally help with heat in the attic, but, will not over come the heat gain from the roof. It is important that the attic space is well vented if the insulation is on the ceiling. Won't do anything for your humidity issues.

If you do not want to spend money, the only things you could do are:

Run colder ac and/or run it more often. That will remove the humidity from the house

Pipe the dehumidifier so that it can run continuously. You're asking a lot of such a unit to run it until the bucket is full, then turn off and have to try and catch up later.

The real solution is probably a whole home dehumidifier and erv system

Thanks for the replies

After thinking about it more, there are some good answers that showed flaws in my ideas

1) the crawl space fans wouldn't likely put a dent in my humidity, but could aide in drying out the wet crawl space
2) the garage fan isn't going to help with humidity, either. It was mainly to help knock down the excessive heat in my garage and mitigate what radiates/bleeds into the attic and has to be pushed out through the whirlybirds

I'm calling an energy efficiency company to come out and assess the house. Two things I want to talk about is adding a vapor barrier in the crawl space, and discuss a whole house in-line dehumidifier

Thanks again for the replies.