Yuma’s dry climate makes for a comfortable summer, but during the winter, it can negatively impact your home and health. Did you know that dry air can actually aggravate respiratory ailments, and even promote a person’s susceptibility to the flu and colds?
Here’s how lack of humidity can affect your health, and what to do about it.
When Is It Too Dry?
Ideally, your home should contain between 30 and 50 percent humidity. Any less, and a home’s occupants may suffer from cracked lips, raspy throats, dry noses and dry skin. What’s more, flu and cold viruses, which may be living inside your home on surfaces, such as keyboards, remote control devices and counters, survive best at relative humidity below 40 percent.
Humidifiers to the Rescue
When your home environment is too dry for comfort or health, the best means of improving humidity is by a humidifier. Humidifiers come in whole-house or portable models. The former models are installed in the HVAC system. The most common types include:
Drum: Evaporative system requiring considerable maintenance to prevent mold.
Flow-through: Evaporative system, requiring more water than others, but produces no standing water.
Mist/vaporizer: Most expensive, but very effective. Because they produce mist rather than relying on evaporation, you can control humidity better. They inject cold or hot steam into supply line and have a low mold risk.
Portable models are cheaper, but have to be moved from room to room. Some types include:
Warm mist humidifiers/steam vaporizers. These models heat water and release it as steam or mist. Some medications can be added.
Cool mist humidifiers. Available as impellers (release water droplets in the air), evaporative (a fan blows moisture through an absorbent material) and ultrasonic (releases a cool mist by means of vibrations).
Console humidifiers. These work like evaporative humidifiers and can add moisture to your entire house.
Ask your HVAC service pro about how to calculate what size humidifier you need based on square footage. For expert advice on humidifiers and how they can improve your home’s health, contact Hansberger Refrigeration and Electric Company in Yuma today.
Our goal is to help educate our customers in Yuma, Arizona about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems). For more information about humidifiers and other HVAC topics, download our free Home Comfort Resource guide.
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