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I have a humidistat which is basically connected to a blower and intake vents in each of my 3 restrooms and 1 in the kitchen.

In each restroom, there's additionally a switch to turn on the central blower.

The humidistat is in a hallway, by the thermostat. What exactly is the utility of this?

I don't see how this could possibly remove humidity from the house at large. In fact, if I set it to 55%, it'll never turn on, if I set it to 50%, it'll never turn off.

When I got the house the previous owner said it was to keep the humidity down for the wood floors, but I'm wondering if any people with experience can confirm my suspicion that it's largely a useless feature.

It could be venting air from elsewhere as well, but it appears to just be venting the restrooms and kitchen. Am I correct that a humidistat in a hallway is useless, and that turning on what's effectively a bathroom fan does absolutely nothing to my houses humidity level (outside of getting rid of water vapor from the shower)?

Gorchestopher H
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I would agree that a humidistat is only needed in bathrooms and possibly kitchens. Some might say this is opinion but my moms 2 bathrooms did not have fans, after taking a shower the large picture window in the living room would fog up with condensation during the winter especially. I added exhaust fans and vented both bathrooms and the condensation on the picture window was eliminated.

If there were a problem with the flooring the humidistat would be helpful. As far as if needed in other parts of the home I don’t think the hallway will be doing much good (it’s not a space we hang out in). If there were another area that might benefit from an exhaust it would be the bedrooms.

We exhale moist air and although not at the level of a bathroom I do know some folks that have dehumidifiers in there bedrooms to reduce moisture and mold growth issues (oregon= rain, mold, slugs) but I haven’t seen flooring issues and many old homes have T&G flooring but are leaky compared to modern homes so there may be an issue but I haven’t seen it.

So I would agree that a stay in the hallway is a waste.

Ed Beal
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