While your home air conditioner is keeping you comfortable this summer, did you know it’s also serving as a mosquito repellent?
Mosquito bites are annoying and seem to remain itchy for weeks. However, they can also transmit diseases—in North America, most notably West Nile Virus and viral encephalitis. While keeping tall grass cut down and eliminating standing water on your property helps reduce mosquito breeding grounds outdoors, the function of your HVAC system can keep them from thriving indoors, too.
Here are some mosquito repellent features of air conditioning you may not be aware of:
Mosquitoes like it hot.
The insects are most active in air temperatures up around 80 degrees or higher and are repelled by cooler air. Because most A/C units keep indoor temperatures well below their preferred temperature, mosquitoes aren’t attracted to the house.
It’s the heat and the humidity, too.
Mosquitoes are drawn to moist environments with high humidity because it indicates the presence of water to lay eggs. Your air conditioner extracts water vapor from the air to make the house feel cooler, keeping indoor relative humidity usually around 60% or less. To a mosquito, that condition feels uncomfortably dry and they seek breeding grounds elsewhere.
Targets are tougher to track.
Mosquitoes identify bite targets by sensing carbon dioxide emitted by the breath of people and pets. Warm-blooded living creatures produce a trail of CO2 that mosquitoes can detect in still air. However, the circulation of moving air inside a house caused by air conditioning flowing out of the vents in every room disrupts that CO2 trail, making it hard for mosquitoes to get a bite.
They don’t have keys.
Mosquitoes rely on entry points such as open doors and windows to enter your home. In an air conditioned house, there’s no need to open doors and windows to stay comfortable in summer. In fact, most people try hard to keep the premises tightly shut. This keeps air conditioned coolness inside and mosquitoes out.
For mare about the mosquito repellent features of a properly functioning HVAC system, contact Energy 1 Heating & Air Conditioning.
Our goal is to help educate our customers in Lorain, Ohio about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems). For more information about other HVAC topics, download our free Home Comfort Guide or call us at 440-201-2959.
Energy 1 Heating & Air Conditioning
1 (440) 246-5440
Serving the Lorain, OH Area