With temperatures cooling down quickly, it’s time to make sure your home is prepared for the winter season just around the corner. This means first ensuring that you’ve had or at least scheduled heating maintenance—but there’s more to winter preparation than just that.
Do you find yourself with more sore throats, irritated sinuses, and/or dryness with your skin and hair during the winter? This is because of dry air, which can cause a number of problems. Fortunately, there is a solution, in a Bergen County, NJ humidifier installation. An installation of this kind can make you far more comfortable, not to mention healthier, in your home. But how?
Understanding Humidity
When you think of humidity, you probably think of the excess moisture we experience in the summer, that often makes temperatures seem even warmer than they are. Therefore, the thought of adding humidity to your home might seem counter-intuitive.
But the thing is, your home can also have too little humidity. Humidity is defined as the amount of water vapor in the air, and the ideal relative humidity level is between 30%-50%. Fall and Winter conditions in our area are dry because cold air doesn’t retain water vapor—in fact when it’s cold enough it freezes the water vapor and this is what makes snow. Water vapor during this time of the year adds comfort to your home, because it acts as an insulator.
How a Humidifier Combats Dry Air
Having a whole-house humidifier installed benefits you in a number of ways, which we’ve highlighted below.
- A humidifier will keep you healthier. It’s not a coincidence that cold and flu season hits in the fall and winter. This is because the human body lacks moisture in cold weather, and breathing dry winter air dehydrates the mucous membranes in your sinuses, throat, and nose. The problem with this is that it makes you more susceptible to germs, and therefore illness. When your home is dry enough it makes it easier to get sick, and harder to recover. If you or anyone in your household has respiratory problems such as allergies or asthma, then it’s important that there is an appropriate level of moisture in your home at all times. When humidity is maintained at a proper level during colder weather, lungs stay lubricated and allergy and asthma sufferers experience less coughing and wheezing.
- A humidifier will help the health of your home, too. Dry air isn’t just a threat to you, it’s a threat to your home, too. Dry air can cause your walls, woodwork, hardwood floors, and even precision wood instruments to crack. Additionally, when you have the right level of humidity in your home during the winter, it will help you feel warmer. This means you won’t have to set your thermostat as high to maintain comfort, and therefore can conserve energy and save money as a result.