When winter weather arrives and you’re running the furnace continually, the humidity or the amount of moisture in your indoor air can fall to an unhealthy level. Low humidity is a common issue in winter since cold air can’t hold moisture well, and your heating system dries it out even more. Living in a low-humidity environment can impact your heath in various ways, including:
- Irritated eyes. Your eyes produce tears to protect them from irritants and contaminants. In low-humidity conditions, this natural lubrication dries up, so your eyes can get irritated or even infected much easier.
- Respiratory problems. When the air you’re breathing contains too little moisture, the mucus membranes lining your nasal and respiratory passages dry out. This can cause nose bleeds, sore throats, congestion and coughing, and worsen asthma, allergies, chronic bronchitis and COPD.
- Parched skin. Dry air also pulls moisture from the skin, leaving it scaly, scratchy and parched. Small cracks start to form in the skin too, which gives bacteria an easy entry route and promotes infections.
- Airborne illnesses. Many viruses and bacteria flourish in dry air, and they’re more easily transmitted too, so there’s a greater risk of contracting colds, flu and respiratory infections when humidity is low.
Ways to Boost Low Indoor Humidity
For a healthy winter home, your humidity should stay between 30 and 50 percent. The two most reliable ways to safely increase humidity in the home are:
- Individual room humidifiers. These plug-in humidifiers hold a few gallons of water, and they’re most effective for use in a single room, like your bedroom or a child’s room, to relieve dry-air symptoms and make breathing more comfortable at night.
- Whole-home humidifiers. These units are added to an HVAC system’s air handler and directly connected to a water line so they never need refilling. Whole-home units also have a humidistat that can be installed in a convenient location so you can easily set how much moisture is added to the heated air being distributed through the air ducts.
For help resolving low humidity issues in your Dayton home, contact us at Ace Hardware Home Services.
Our goal is to help educate our customers in Dayton, Ohio about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems).
