As you heat your home this winter, indoor humidity decreases and creates a host of problems easily solved with a humidifier. While dry air is an uncomfortable nuisance associated with winter, it’s an inevitable side effect of heating your home that can cause serious problems for your health and home.
Low humidity can cause:
- Chapped skin that can lead to painful skin cracks.
- Irritated linings in the nose, throat and sinuses.
- Heightened allergic responses.
- Faster contagious disease transmission.
- Increased reliance on the heating system for comfort.
- Annoying static electricity that can disable electronics with low-voltage parts.
- Damaged wood floors, cabinetry and furniture.
Ideal indoor humidity ranges between 30 and 50 percent year round, but the air naturally dries out as temperatures drop outdoors and your heating system depletes even more of the moisture you create inside from cooking and bathing. Avoiding the problems associated with dry air with humidification systems solves many of the issues that low humidity creates.
The two options include portable units or central humidifiers. Portable units work well for small spaces, but if low humidity affects your entire home and family, a central system offers many more benefits. Dealing with portable devices requires frequent cleaning and refilling with expensive distilled water. They also take up space in your living areas and offer no control over the amount of humidity in the air.
A central humidifier solves those issues because it:
- Attaches to your HVAC system and uses little space.
- Fills directly from your home’s plumbing.
- Needs cleaning only once or twice a season.
- Requires little energy.
- Offers complete humidity control.
Whole-house humidifiers minimize winter discomfort and help stop the spread of communicable diseases. They also save energy because humid air always feels warmer, making it possible to turn down the temperature. You can individualize the amount of humidity in the air automatically with a humidistat that works just like your thermostat.
The experts at Mowery Heating, Cooling and Plumbing can give you more information about a whole-house humidifier. We provide top-notch HVAC and plumbing services for greater Indianapolis homeowners.
Our goal is to help educate our customers in Brownsburg, Indiana and surrounding areas about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems).
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