If your property frequently has high levels of moisture in the air, you could be facing problems to your home and your health. High levels of moisture in the air can lead to a rise in molds growing in your home, all of which can cause damage to your health. A simple dehumidifier (or luftbefeuchter in Germany as I discovered) can lower the levels of moisture within the air.
However, if you are finding yourself always running a dehumidifier, you may want to get your home looked at for structural problems. Alternatively, if you are searching for a new home to buy, finding any existing mold problems is important before you take the keys.
When searching for a new home, you should always pay attention to any smells. Smells are a good sign that there is mold within the home. Even if you can smell bleach, this may be a sign that the current owners are trying to remove mold using the combination of bleach and water.
Most molds will create a musty smell in the house, particularly in and around bathrooms and basements.
A university in America is currently building a new system which would allow you to monitor the air quality in a specified area of your town. Although this system only works for outside air quality, you could get a vague idea of what it’s like inside. Generally if the air quality is poor and full of moisture outside, this can often spread into the homes in the area.
Unfortunately, this system is still within testing, plus it would require sensors in all areas of the city to monitor the air quality. If you don’t want to wait for that, you could use a thermo-hygrometer while house hunting to monitor the air quality.
If you do currently have mold problems within your home, a dehumidifier is one way to control it. However, if you don’t control it, the mold spores could spread around the house and damage the property. Resolving issues caused by molds can be costly, and if they are not looked at quickly, they can cause damage to your health.
It’s odd though, as I was researching into this post, the foreign equivalent kept appearing. It’s strange hour the Mexican work for dehumidifiers, humidificadores, and the same word in French, humidificateurs, can be so similar whereas the German, luftbefeuchter, is entirely different.