The Importance of Humidity Inside Your Home

When we think of humidity, we usually think of summer. Our biggest concern is keeping the humidity outside. When winter rolls around, however, we forget all about humidity. Here’s a reminder why the right amount of humidity inside your home during the winter months is extremely important.

Heating your home in the winter dries out the air. Not only can dry air pull moisture from you, but everything else inside your home. The results? For starters, dry irritated skin, cracked walls and static electricity. Unfortunately, that’s not all. Learn how a furnace humidifier works to put moisture back into the air in your home here.

Discomfort

When humidity levels fall below the optimal range, you may experience a variety of physical discomforts, such as itchy skin, dry sinuses, bloody noses and cracked lips. It also caused those annoying—and often times painful—static shocks. Find out how to avoid them here. You can also feel cold at normal temperatures if the air inside your home isn’t humidified enough.

Unhealthy Air

Unlike bacteria that thrive in high humidity, viruses thrive in low humidity. An overly dry environment in your home can increase the likelihood of catching a cold, the flu or other upper respiratory viruses. Dirty humidifier reservoirs and filters can also contribute to unhealthy air in your home. Be sure to empty the reservoir often and change the filters regularly to prevent mold and bacteria from forming.

You can check the humidity in your home with a relatively inexpensive hygrometer. Here’s a DIY way to check the humidity in your home if you don’t have a hygrometer handy.

Home Damage

When heated air isn’t properly humidified, it causes walls and ceilings to crack and wood floors and trim to shrink and separate. Expensive musical instruments like pianos, violins and guitars can go out of tune and electronic equipment can build up static electric charges, requiring costly repair or even replacement.

Higher Energy Costs

Dry air robs your skin of moisture, making you feel colder. What do you do when you feel cold in the winter? You turn up the heat. Keeping the air in your home at the right humidity level can actually save you money. For example, if you have the temperature at 69 degrees Fahrenheit at 35% humidity, it feels just as warm as 72 degrees. Your thermostat is set to 69, but you still feel warm.

Optimum Humidity Levels

Ideally, humidity in your home should be between 30 and 50 percent.

Why we recommend a whole-house humidifier.

Whole-house humidifiers have many benefits. The first being lower maintenance. Lower water requirements mean whole-house humidifiers can run for about eight to twelve weeks, depending on the hardness of your water, before needing a thorough cleaning and filter replacement. On the other hand, console or room humidifiers need to be refilled daily. They also need to be cleaned out weekly to remove any mold and bacteria build up.

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We have been serving Metro Detroit since 1983. Our goal at Accu-Temp Heating & Cooling is to provide comfort you can feel from a family company you can trust. Give us a call today at 586-598-2828.