In winter, the simple act of turning up your thermostat dries out your house. That's because warm, dry air acts like a giant sponge that soaks up moisture from everything it touches.
The unpleasant results: You experience dry skin, chapped lips and clogged sinuses. Hardwood floors separate at the seams. Woodwork and furniture shrink, warp and crack. The piano goes out of tune. Wallpaper peels at the edges.
Fact is that wintertime relative humidity inside the average home hovers around a bone-dry 15%.
Fortunately, you can solve the problem by installing a whole-house humidifier. Humidifiers replenish the humidity in the air in a safe, water vapor form (no mist or droplets). They are the right choice for a more comfortable and healthy home.
Your home comes apart at the seams. In winter you can literally watch your home come apart. Hardwood Floors separate at the seams. Banisters wobble. Drawers loosen. Gaps appear in moldings. Furniture and collectibles shrink, warp and crack as moisture is sucked out of them by desert-dry indoor air.
Dry air can aggravate upper respiratory problems. Itchy skin, dry throat coughs and cracked nasal membranes are all consequences of dry air.
You feel colder, even with the thermostat turned up. Dry air makes you feel colder than the actual thermostat setting because evaporating moisture on your skin causes a cooling effect. A humidifier can help lower heating bills because humidified air feels warmer.
For example, a 20°C or 69°F temperature at 35% relative humidity feels just as warm as a 22°C or 72°F setting at 19% relative humidity. Setting your thermostat back by three degrees can reduce annual heating bills by as much as 5 percent. .
Static shocks "zap" you and sensitive equipment. How many times have you shuffled across the carpet, only to be rudely surprised by the crackle of static as you reach for the light switch! It's no fun when it happens to you, and even less so when you reach out and "zap" a loved one.With the capacity to hold a static charge up to 20,000 volts, your body can also wreak havoc on home computers and other sensitive electronic devices.
By maintaining indoor relative humidity at 35 percent or higher, static shocks are greatly reduced.
