How to Lower Humidity in a House Without a Dehumidifier

By Shelley Frost

June 13, 2024

Does the inside of your home feel like a swamp? High humidity creates a muggy, uncomfortable feeling, but it can also cause a funky, musty odor, encourage mold growth and even cause damage to wood in your home.

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Fixing these problems as they compound is expensive … but dehumidifiers can be, too. Fortunately for homeowners on a budget, there are some ways you can release humidity in your home without buying a new piece of equipment.

Is It Possible to Lower the Humidity in Your Home Without a Dehumidifier?

Yes, you can lower humidity in a house without a dehumidifier. While a dehumidifier is a fast, effective way to handle humidity control, you don't have to spend money on one. Other strategies help with humidity removal to varying degrees. Depending on how humid your home is, you may need to combine multiple techniques to reach a comfortable humidity level.

Open Windows

On mild days without much outdoor humidity, opening your windows can help reduce the sticky feel in your house. It increases airflow, which can help control moisture. However, opening your windows while you have the AC running wastes money by making the system work harder.

Use Ventilation Fans

Activities such as cooking and showering increase humidity levels inside your home. Luckily, kitchens and bathrooms often feature ventilation fans to help zap excess moisture. Turn on your ventilation fan before you start those moisture-creating activities. Leave it running during and after the activity.

If you don't have a ventilation fan, opening a window slightly, as long as it's not humid outside, can help. Other options include running a regular fan, leaving the bathroom door open while you shower and wiping the excess moisture off walls and countertops.

Change Your Habits

You can minimize how much humidity you produce during certain activities by changing your habits. Here are a few examples:

Place lids on pots while cooking to contain the moisture.
Hang wet clothes outdoors or use a dryer instead of hanging the wet clothes indoors.
Wipe away any moisture that collects on surfaces in your home.
Reduce the temperature of your showers to decrease condensation.
Move plants outdoors if possible, and avoid overwatering indoor plants.
Place covers on aquariums.

Fix Water Issues

Leaky pipes and plumbing fixtures allow excess water to build up in the home. Likewise, drainage issues outside the home can allow outside water to seep in. For instance, clogged gutters cause rain to collect along your foundation, where it can enter your home. Poor grading that slopes toward your foundation could cause water to seep in. Fixing these issues reduces water entering your home and helps lower humidity.

Make Home Improvements

Gaps and cracks along your foundation, windows and doors can let humid air inside your home. Check those areas closely to look for issues, such as missing caulk around windows or no weatherstripping on your doors. Making those repairs helps block humid air from entering.

Improve Circulation

Keeping the air moving helps reduce moisture in the air and minimize condensation. Adding ventilation in your attic can improve circulation in your home. Simple steps, such as leaving doors open between rooms and running fans, also keep the airflow moving.

Upgrade Doors and Windows

Moisture can condense on doors and windows when the temperatures inside and outside are significantly different. In colder months, the warm air inside your home can make water condense on windows, for instance. Installing storm doors and windows creates a buffer to reduce that issue. Installing energy-efficient windows, including those with low-e coatings and gas fills, can also reduce condensation on the inside.

Adding insulation to your attic and walls can help with condensation issues as well. The insulation creates a barrier between outside and inside temperatures to cut down on condensation.

Use Moisture Absorbers

For small humid areas, like closets or utility rooms, using products that absorb moisture can help. Charcoal briquettes, silica gel and rock salt are a few examples of desiccants that pull moisture out of the air. You'll need to replace them once they become saturated with moisture.

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Can You Use Air Conditioning to Lower the Humidity?

Running your air conditioning during the warmer months helps control high humidity. A properly working AC unit removes some humidity from the air as part of its normal operation.

Here's how it works: Warm air from your home goes over the cold evaporator coil, which pulls out the heat and condenses the moisture. When the cooled air goes back through your vents and into your home, it's less humid than it was.

However, your air conditioner might not be enough to handle humidity removal. While an air conditioner has dehumidifying effects, it's not a dehumidifier. In high-humidity situations, you'll likely need to use other dehumidifying actions. It's also important to keep your HVAC system in good working order to maximize the dehumidifying effects.

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