Did you know that low humidity contributes to dry skin, scratchy throats, and a persistent parched feeling? Or that when humidity is low, more airborne dust and dander assail your lungs causing irritation and exacerbating allergy and asthma problems. Even the cracked hardwood, peeling wallpaper, and difficulty opening and closing doors can be attributed to extremely dry indoor air. Who knew all this could happen right around you? Fortunately, the right home humidification system can improve your health, protect your home, and bring comfort.
Here are things to consider when picking the right home humidification system.
Deciding: Room Humidifiers vs. Whole House Humidifiers
Which of the above you choose depends on where you find your home uncomfortably dry. If you want just your bedroom or kitchen to be more humid, then you should get a room humidifier; if the problem is spread throughout the house (you might see hardwood floors splitting or wallpaper peeling in several rooms), it’s likely more cost-efficient to invest in a whole house humidifier. Though their initial cost is higher, whole house humidifier systems are typically cheaper to run over time and can be controlled from your central HVAC unit.
Types of Room Humidifiers
If you’ve decided to go with a room humidifier, use the volume of the room to determine what gallon-output humidifier you need and then pick a type. There are three types of room humidifiers:
Steam vaporizers – These use a heating element to, as you could guess, turn water to steam. Honestly, it’s not the best investment, as the same effect can be achieved with a pot of boiling water (as long as you’re careful).
Warm mist humidifiers – These release vapor in the form of a clean, transparent mist that tends to warm the room a bit.
Cool mist humidifiers – Also known as “impeller” or “evaporative” humidifiers, these release cool, clear, and clean water vapor into the room – and unlike the previous two, will not heat the room.
Space Volume
Consider the size of the area in need of humidity in terms of volume. For those of us who don’t remember fourth grade science class, volume is equal to length times width times height; this translates to the square footage of your floor times the height in feet to your ceiling. If you’re looking for whole home humidification systems, calculate this for each room in the house and all of the hallways for the total volume of your home. Seek humidifiers accordingly, as this is the amount of space into which it will need to push humid air.
One final thing: if you decide to go for a whole home humidification system, you’ll want to set up a time with a certified HVAC technician to get everything set up. So, head over to Talklocal and let us take care of all of that research and scheduling for free while you prepare to feel the difference your new humidifier will make.
