Winter means dry air in our part of the world, and most furnaces don’t help the matter much. While warm temperatures are vital during the coldest months of the year and you should never skimp when it comes to reliable heating, it’s not the only component involved in your home’ comfort levels. Low humidity levels can cause a huge number of problems in your home, and if you don’t take steps to remedy it, you may never be entirely comfortable no matter what temperature you set your heater to. Luckily, there’s a solution: whole-house humidifiers can take care of dry air for you and often provide a number of other advantages as well.
Why Is a Humidifier Necessary?
Dry air is never welcome in your home. As human beings, we’re most comfortable when the relative humidity levels sit somewhere between 30% and 50%. When it gets lower than that, the air is dry enough to leech moisture out of nearby materials, such as human skin. That leads to the dry, itchy feeling on your skin, as well as dry sinuses, which leave you more vulnerable to colds and illnesses. Static electricity goes up, and no one likes those nasty shocks that come whenever you touch a wall or metal object.
But it goes beyond that. Dry air tends to feel cooler than moist air, which means that your heating system needs to work much harder than it should to warm your home whenever the air turns dry. That means your monthly bills will go up and the added strain increases the risk of a breakdown elsewhere in your system.
Dry Air Is Inevitable, But Humidifiers Can Help
Unfortunately, there’s not a lot you can do to stop dry air in your home in the winter. As the temperature drops, ambient moisture in the air shifts to liquid form—little droplets that form dew in the spring and summer—which leaves the remaining air much drier than normal. There’s nothing you can do to stop the temperature from falling in the winter, but there are things you can do to restore the moisture levels of the air in your home.
That’s where a whole-house humidifier comes in. It’s a fairly simple system: a pad or wick fed moisture from a reservoir. A fan blows across the top of the pad or wick in conjunction with your heating system, spreading ambient moisture through your home every time you turn your heating system on. As a result, the air feels more comfortable, and incidents of illness in your home will go down. When applied over time, it will also reduce wear and tear on your heating system, extending its lifespan as well as lowering the cost of running it every month. And while it requires professional installation, it’s a reliable once it’s put into place, and provided you keep the reservoir filled, you can rely on it for many winters to come.
Call Westland Heating & Air today to install and repair a humidifier in your Bay Village, OH home!
