Maintaining optimum humidity levels in your home can be challenging. The ideal relative humidity level, denoted as the amount of water vapor in the air represented as a percentage of the saturation point for the house, is 30 to 50%. Keeping an ideal relative humidity level optimal for health makes your home feel comfortable and prevents static electricity.
What is the Use of a Humidifier?
In winter, the air is dry and cold. Heaters compound the situation by removing most of the moisture in the house, making it dry. With houses running furnaces on full blast during chilly conditions can dry out your indoor air below 30%. This can lead to skin issues such as eczema, psoriasis, chapped lips, etc.
Dry air is not only a health hazard; it can also impact your heating systems’ efficiency and cause damage to your home. Dry air can damage your wood doors, crown molding, floors and furniture from moisture loss. In addition, dry air can cause bubbling, gaps, ruin home décor, or cracking in wood & furniture. These issues can have long-term effects that can cost you money to repair or replace.
In addition, dry air does not hold heat well; a humidifier adds moisture to the atmosphere to balance the humidity. As a result, moist air feels warmer and prevents your heating systems from working overtime, thus aiding you in keeping the utility bills lower.
Humidifiers add moisture to the air, preventing dryness that irritates the body during the dry winter months. They are beneficial for treating dryness of the skin, nose, throat, and lips and easing symptoms related to flu or the common cold. In addition, humidifiers can help protect your family and home by controlling the humidity levels inside. Because humidifiers are used to treat dryness, they are typically used during the winter months and sometimes in the summer as the air conditioning is high.
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Optimum humidity levels help keep your skin free from irritation caused by dryness and keep nasal passages and airways healthy. This, in turn, reduces your susceptibility to catching colds and the flu. Additionally, the additional moisture generated by humidifiers will help your nasal passage open and enable the more effortless flow of mucus, giving you less trouble breathing. These appliances are also helpful in reducing allergens that can trigger allergies or asthma.
Signs You Need a Humidifier
You may want to consider a humidifier if your home is not well-insulated and has dry, cold air. The family frequently experiences chapped lips, nose bleeds, or dry skin and hair, there is a lot of static electricity, and there are cracks in wood floor panels or furniture.
What is the Use of a Dehumidifier?
Dehumidifiers pull excess moisture from the air when it is too humid, alleviating allergies and respiratory problems while improving air quality and avoiding mold buildup in your home. Dehumidifiers are useful in warm and muggy temperatures. However, they are primarily used in spring and summers to control seasonal allergies and eliminate the sticky, stale feeling a house can have when humidity is high.
Because they are designed for warmer temperatures, dehumidifier efficiency decreases as temperatures drop. Therefore, it is recommended not to operate them below 60 degrees Fahrenheit. The drawn-out moisture in the air can freeze and damage the unit.
Do Dehumidifiers Work in winter?
Dehumidifiers are typically used in the warmer summer months or more tropical, humid climates. But do dehumidifiers work in winter? A dehumidifier can be critical in winter or utterly pointless. It depends on multiple factors related to the place you live and the climatic conditions prevalent there.
Do You Need a Dehumidifier in Winter?
Cold winter air holds less moisture than warm air and is generally quite dry; hence dehumidifiers are not used much in winter. However, some people use a dehumidifier during winter to prevent mold growth in your basement.
If you live in a frigid climate, there’s no reason to use a dehumidifier during the winter. Dehumidifiers pull moisture out of the air; they hold the moisture inside their coils and release it into an enclosed system. If you use one in freezing temperatures, the coils will ultimately freeze up, and the machine will stop working.
Suppose you live in places that remain warm and experience a lot of high relative humidity on a near-constant basis humid during winter. In that case, you may want to consider using a dehumidifier almost year-round.
Do You Still Want To Buy a Dehumidifier?
Please pay attention to whether or not the dehumidifier is freezing up when you try to use it; along with that, take note of the condition of the particular area in which you are using it. For example, is there a lot of excess moisture in the room? Do things feel damp, or do you notice mold growing anywhere? If the answer is yes, you may need a dehumidifier regardless of the time of year.
However, suppose the answer to these questions is no, and you notice that the dehumidifier you are using is freezing up. In that case, the dehumidifier may not provide any benefit except wasting electricity. And it may get damaged by running needlessly. In that case, set it aside so that you can use it during warmer months.
How to Efficiently Run a Dehumidifier in winter
Monitor Your Dehumidifier Regularly: Turn the dehumidifier off if the temperature or humidity drops below the ideal level. This may lead to the coils or water freezing which can cause lasting damage to the device.
If you cannot monitor your device constantly, modern age dehumidifiers are equipped with a hygrometer that can measure the current humidity levels in your place. You can set up a threshold of 30% humidity for dehumidifiers to start operating.
Check the Room Temperature: If you notice that your space is cold but still suffers from high humidity, run a heater for a few hours every day to regulate the temperature in the room and maintain optimal humidity levels.
How Long To Run Your Dehumidifier in Winter
If you run a dehumidifier around the clock, you might make the room too dry. On the bright side, this isn’t usually the case– it only tends to happen when you use the dehumidifier for more than 8 hours, resulting in a relative humidity of less than 15%.
While extremely low humidity is not hazardous, it can irritate your throat and dry out your sinuses. Therefore, always check the relative humidity before leaving the dehumidifier overnight!
The Right Humidity Levels for Winter
If you use a dehumidifier for health reasons, ensure that you don’t lower your home’s relative levels below 30%. At this level, frost and moisture can accumulate, leading to significant damage to both your HVAC system and property.
So to conclude, if your house remains muggy and you remain in a relatively tropical climate, you may consider using a dehumidifier in winter. However, if you stay in a place that experiences chilly conditions and the air remains dry, a humidifier would be a better choice.