Air is naturally drier in winter, and your home’s heating system can exacerbate that dryness. The Environmental Protection Agency warns against letting your home’s relative humidity drop below 30%. A humidifier makes it easy to reach the target of 30% to 50%. Let’s explore all the benefits that come along with this piece of equipment.
Optimal Relative Humidity Throughout a Home
For the full benefits of humidification, you need to experience adequate relative humidity, or RH, throughout your entire home. Portable humidifiers are an option and certainly cheaper initially. They’re not more affordable over the long run, however, and they’re not as effective. Most provide a lower RH only in your immediate space and not throughout an entire room. With a whole-home system, we’ll integrate it into your central heating system. This will provide adequate moisture in all your living spaces.
Precise and Automatic RH Control
Two other issues with portable units are control and consistency. Portable units often give you RH readings and allow for an RH setting. The problem is that they’re reacting to and influencing that immediate space. They’re also prone to RH fluctuations. Whole-home systems, on the other hand, provide much finer control. We can integrate it into your smart thermostat, which can even have multiple RH sensors throughout the home. The system will automatically achieve your optimal RH, and it will keep it there consistently even when the heat is running.
More Comfortable Heat
Air is naturally drier during the winter because colder air holds less water vapor. As mentioned, home heating exacerbates this. If your home is very dry, this may lead to you feeling like you need to increase the temperature on your thermostat to make it feel more comfortable. However, this can lead to your air feeling even drier, creating a difficult situation regarding the humidity in your home.
More Efficient Heating
The effect that increasing the humidity in your home has can be so noticeable that many households can drop their normal winter interior temperature by one to several degrees. With a lower setting, your heating system won’t cycle as often, which will prevent wear and tear. Also, your system won’t use as much electricity or fuel, which will lower your operating costs and your household’s carbon footprint.
Better Respiratory Heath
Humidity plays an important role in the health of your respiratory system. When the air is dry, it soaks up moisture from its environment. That includes your eyes, nose, mouth, throat, and lungs. Dryness in your nose can lead to cracking and irritation, which is why people experience more nosebleeds in winter. The dryness also makes you prone to irritation and even inflammation, which is your body’s immune response to that irritation. This affects everyone but is particularly noticeable for people with allergies, asthma, and other respiratory conditions. It can trigger attacks more often and exacerbate symptoms.
More Restful Sleep and Less Snoring
One reason many medical professionals recommend 40% relative humidity is that it’s ideal for sleeping. This is especially true if you keep the interior temperature set between 65 and 68 degrees Fahrenheit. Low levels of humidity in the home can disrupt your deep sleep cycle. This is an important period when your body heals and recharges. A disruption in sleep cycles can make a person wake up feeling fatigued even though they have gotten a full eight hours of rest.
Less Prone to Illnesses
A common way you get sick in the winter months is by encountering bacteria and viruses that cause infections. You can encounter these germs in the air and on surfaces. Inflammation in your respiratory system makes you more prone to those infections. You can reduce your risk of sickness by increasing humidity but also by using an ultraviolet lamp. A UV lamp, for instance, can neutralize over 99% of the bacteria, viruses, and other pathogens that pass through your ducts.
Improved Skin and Hair Health
Dry air also draws moisture from your skin and hair. This is why people are more prone to itchiness and irritated skin in the winter. Dry skin can make you more prone to several skin conditions. For people already prone to conditions like dermatitis and eczema, low relative humidity can worsen the symptoms. With dry air, you’re also more prone to bad hair days. Your hair can be harder to control because of an increase in frizz. The dryness also makes it more prone to splitting and breaking.
Home Maintenance
Humidity is an important consideration for your home as well. The dry air not only draws moisture from you but everything around you. It shortens the life of paint and wallpaper and can cause drywall and plaster to crack. It can damage wood, including doors, molding, hardwood flooring, and wood furniture. Low RH can damage your possessions too, including electronics, artwork, musical instruments, and documents.
Eliminate Static Electricity
Moisture in the air helps dissipate static charges that occur naturally. When there’s low moisture in the air, those charges can build up elsewhere, such as on doorknobs, carpets, and clothing. Static electricity is an annoyance but generally harmless to people and pets. Still, under the right circumstances, it can damage electronics and appliances.
No Need to Refill
Another inconvenient aspect of portable humidifiers is that you must refill them, often multiple times daily. When the reservoir is empty, the system won’t work, and you’ll be without the benefits. This isn’t a concern with whole-house humidifiers, as you don’t have to refill them. Instead, we connect them to the home’s plumbing system. This lets the humidifier draw all the water it needs to increase the humidity in your home.
Service Once a Year
Dirty humidifiers are a concern and can undermine your indoor air quality. It’s particularly problematic with portable units. They’re prone to mold and can release spores into your air. They release bacteria too. This can worsen asthma and allergy symptoms. It can also lead to flu-like symptoms. This includes a runny nose, nasal congestion, and sore throat. This is why experts recommend frequent cleaning of portable units with periodic changes of the unit’s filter. Whole-home systems don’t have this problem because they don’t store excess water. You’ll only need to schedule annual cleaning and maintenance.
Install a Whole-Home Humidifier in Richmond
If you’d like to install a whole-home humidifier, Davis & Green is the company to trust. We’ve been serving homeowners and businesses throughout Richmond, VA, and the surrounding areas since 1984. Our indoor air quality team specializes in whole-house dehumidifiers, air purifiers, and UV lamps as well. Our HVAC technicians install, maintain, and repair furnaces, boilers, heat pumps, air conditioners, and ductless mini-splits. We have licensed electricians for inspections, installations, maintenance, repairs, and whole-home rewiring. Count on us for indoor and outdoor lighting, ceiling fans, outlets, smoke detectors, CO detectors, and EV chargers. We have plumbers available for drain cleaning, pipe repair, sewer repair, and leak detection. Our plumbers also install and service tank-based and tankless water heaters and sump pumps.
Call Davis & Green today or contact us online to schedule an on-site consultation or service appointment.
