Air Humidifiers Buyer's Guide

Air humidifiers are vital for creating a quality environment in our homes. The air in our homes can become severely dehydrated, especially in winter when the use of heating leads to reduced humidity. The effect of this is a slew of unpleasant symptoms ranging from cracked lips to increased coughs and colds.

Our wooden furniture and fittings suffer too from this dehydration. Wood floors can warp, cabinets can buckle and guitars can crack. What's more, your house plants can start to wilt for lack of moisture.

Clearly it's in our interests to correct this condition and the great solution is the air humidifier. Compact and easy to use these appliance are inexpensive and cheap to run -electricity usage is typically less than that of a 100-watt bulb.  

Here are the answers to your key questions on air humidifiers.

What Are Air Humidifiers?

Air humidifiers are appliances that increase the level of humidity in your home.

We function best in environments with certain optimum levels of humidity. These levels range roughly between 35% and 45%.

If the level is lower than optimum, we tend to suffer from such conditions as dry eyes and skin, cracked lips, sinus problems and an increased tendency towards asthma, cold and allergy attacks.

What's more, any wooden items in our home including floors, furniture and musical instruments can warp and crack due to drying out. Also paint and plaster can crack.

If the humidity is higher than the optimum level, our homes become prone to dust mites, mold and mildew.

Humidifiers also reduce the level of static electricity in our homes.

What Are the Different Types of Air Humidifier?

Your basic choice is between the cool air humidifier and warm air humidifier.

Cool air humidifiers work by evaporation. They use a wick or filter to draw up water from a storage tank and then blow it out with a fan. These tend to be self-regulating as the dryer the air, the greater the uptake of water and vice versa.

Warm air humidifiers are so called because the unit boils the water and emits the steam into the atmosphere. These types of humidifier are considered better for asthma and allergy sufferers.

The above are examples of point-of-use humidifiers.

Another type is the whole house or central humidifier. As the name suggests, this works to humidify your entire house from one central unit. They function the same as the standard console (floor standing) or table top units but are installed in the ductwork next to your furnace.

One thing to remember is that humidifiers affect the temperature of the room. As a rough guide, the cool air type will lower the temperature a degree or two, while the warm air type will raise it a degree or two.

How do I known if I need one?

First, check the symptoms and signs. See if you're showing the symptoms of dry air - dry throat, cracked lips, sinus attacks etc. On the other hand, if you can see condensation on your windows, this suggests overly high humidity.

If you want to be sure, you can use a small, inexpensive and easy-to-use device called a hygrometer to measure the level of relative humidity in your home.

What's The Best Humidifier For Me?