Humid Houses for the Dummy Homeowner

sources of water vapor in a house

In the bad old days before the Google Panda update killed off content farms like AssociatedContent and Helium, many a self-appointed freelancer would post content at multiple sites. Sometimes, they'd just rework an article enough to defeat the plagiarism detector, others they'd "craft" new content. The ones who used the same name at several sites amuse our staffers most when they're caught posting dumbassery wherever they go. Take, for instance, Cindi Pearce, first spotted at Catalogs.com, who also wrote at eHow.com as shown by her HomeSteady.com post, "The Reasons for High Humidity in the Home."¹

Pearce, who probably should have stuck to children's literature, penned a wide-ranging agglomeration of factoids warning people about the dangers of high humidity – allergens, mold, dust mites (dust mites?) – and briefly mentioning that perhaps your house isn't constructed properly and that,

"Swamp coolers can be used to reduce the moisture in a house."

That's strange: we thought forcing hot dry air through a wet fiber pad would increase the humidity (we were right, by the way). Perhaps Cindi should have mentioned hot air furnaces and air conditioners, both of which decrease humidity. Besides that stupidity, however, Pearce's post has a problem: she only briefly addresses the OQ's question! That's right, after misinforming readers about swamp coolers and blathering about allergens, Cindi finally gets to the point in the last 'graph:

"Control your indoor humidity problem by opening doors, increasing the ventilation, using exhaust fans in the bathroom and kitchen, covering water pipes with insulation and making sure that your dryer is vented properly."

We're pretty sure that "[cover] water pipes with insulation" bull wouldn't be much help, though the exhaust fan and dryer vent suggestions are useful. What Pearce missed is the more insidious culprits like a poorly vented attic, lack of a vapor barrier above a crawl space, poorly constructed gutters, or leaking plumbing. Add that to her misinformation about HVAC, and Cindi has just picked up another Dumbass of the Day award. Yay, Cindi.

¹ The original has been deleted by Leaf Group, but can still be accessed using the Wayback machine at archive.org. Its URL was   ehow.com/info_8386362_reasons-high-humidity-home.html

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