Posted by admin on February 01, 2016
During the warmer months, you fight against humidity to keep your home from feeling hot and muggy inside. While humidity’s effects are not as readily apparent during the winter, it can still cause a number of health and comfort problems. These include an increased likelihood of catching colds and flus, dry and itchy skin, aggravated asthma, cracking and peeling of woodwork and paint, and a temperature that feels lower than it is, wasting energy by you to turning up the heat. To combat these problems, there are a number of steps you can take to keep your home humidity levels up.
Creative Ways to Increase Home Humidity Levels
- Air dry your dishes and clothes. The evaporating water will add moisture to your home and cut down on the energy you use on drying cycles.
- Skip running your bathroom exhaust fan when you shower. Instead, use a small fan to blow the humid post-shower air throughout your home
- Keep houseplants well-watered. Instead of letting them suck up all of the water, leave a little extra to be evaporated into your home.
- Use a spray bottle. In a pinch, you can increase home humidity levels by using a handheld spray bottle to spread a light mist around your home. Take care not to soak your furniture, walls, or flooring to prevent damage. The mist should evaporate quickly.
For Optimum Home Humidity Levels, Use a Whole Home Humidifier
The above tricks work for quickly adding humidity when your home starts to feel uncomfortable, but they won’t help you fully control your home humidity levels. Ideally, your home humidity levels should be between 30% and 50%. Without these imprecise tricks, you could quickly find yourself in a situation where your humidity is too high instead of too low.
To achieve maximum comfort and energy savings at the proper humidity levels, install a whole home humidifier. A whole home humidifier monitors the humidity levels in your home using a hygrometer and increases them as needed.
Depending on the size of your home and layout of your current HVAC system, your whole home humidifier may tie into your existing ductwork, or it may be installed as a standalone unit. Humidifiers use significantly less energy than furnaces, so once it’s installed, you should start to see your energy bills drop even as your comfort increases.
To learn more about whole home humidifiers or to request a free estimate, contact Climate Experts today.