What is the Maximum Humidity Level for Indoor Pools?
Installing an indoor pool provides a place for year-round aquatic exercise, but it also creates a number of potential problems caused by humidity. To minimize these, you must keep a healthy level of humidity in the room in which the pool is located and prevent the humidity from leaking out into surrounding spaces.
Testing Humidity
To prevent moisture problems in the room in which an indoor pool is located, you should test the humidity level in the room every week to every month. You can perform this test using a hygrometer -- a device that measures the air in the room and determines the amount of relative humidity. The relative humidity reading is expressed as a percentage and represents the amount of moisture that the air in the room contains.
Maximum Humidity Level
To prevent moisture problems from developing, you must keep the moisture in the pool room at the same maximum humidity level as any other indoor space. The maximum humidity in any indoor space should be no more than 60 percent at any time. This means that the average humidity around an indoor pool should ideally be kept lower than 60 percent, so that when people enter the room, which raises the humidity levels, the room still doesn’t get above 60 percent humidity.
Humidity Problems
The main problems involved with a prolonged humidity level of higher than 60 percent are mold and mildew. These not only create unattractive growths in corners of the room and at the edges of an indoor pool, but they can also lead to health problems ranging from allergies to major respiratory conditions. With prolonged exposure to humidity, building materials, such as drywall, may begin to break down.
- To prevent moisture problems in the room in which an indoor pool is located, you should test the humidity level in the room every week to every month.
- This means that the average humidity around an indoor pool should ideally be kept lower than 60 percent, so that when people enter the room, which raises the humidity levels, the room still doesn’t get above 60 percent humidity.
Maintaining Healthy Humidity
To maintain healthy humidity levels around an indoor pool, keep the air circulating throughout the pool room. Exhaust fans may be installed in the room, circulating the air from the inside of the pool room to the outside of the home and from the outside to the inside as well. This removes the moist air from inside the room and draws in drier air from outside at the same time. Another option is to install a pool dehumidification system, which circulates and dries the air inside the room.
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Alexis Lawrence is a freelance writer, filmmaker and photographer with extensive experience in digital video, book publishing and graphic design. An avid traveler, Lawrence has visited at least 10 cities on each inhabitable continent. She has attended several universities and holds a Bachelor of Science in English.
