In many ways, home comfort is not about the actual temperature of the home, but how hot or cold the home feels. As you seek to maximize the efficiency of your HVAC system, you may be able to increase or decrease the thermostat setting, depending on the season, by addressing the “feels like” temperature of your Calgary home. The “feels like” temperature is the temperature that your body feels, even if it is actually hotter or colder in your home. While several factors can affect the “feels like” temperature, humidity is one of the most important.
How Humidity Affects the Feeling of Your Air
When the air inside your home is moist and clammy due to high indoor air humidity levels, you will fee warmer. This can be beneficial in the winter, allowing you to lower your thermostat setting and save on heating costs. In the summer, however, when you are running the air conditioning, excessive humidity can make the house feel hot and stuffy. This, then, causes you to be uncomfortable, and may make you reach for the thermostat to lower the air conditioning setting.
Consider this. If you set the thermostat on your home to 23 degrees Celsius on a hot summer day, but can effectively reduce the relative humidity in your home to 10 percent, you will feel as though the home is only 21 degrees Celsius. This is a significant difference in the temperature you feel.
Other Factors Affecting the “Feels Like” Temperature
Humidity is the most important factor affecting how hot or cold your home may feel, but other factors are important as well. Air flow is one of those. Running a fan in the room you are sitting in can make you feel cooler than the room actually is. Heat gain from windows can warm up a space without changing the thermostat setting.
Do you have further questions about controlling the “feels like” temperature in your home? Contact the team at Arpi’s Industries for expert advice from qualified home comfort professionals.
Our goal is to help educate our customers in Calgary, Alberta about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems). For more information about the “feels like” temperature and other HVAC topics, download our free Home Comfort Guide.
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