5 Signs Your Home Could Use a Humidifier
Are your sinuses acting up? Do you find yourself catching a static shock whenever you enter your home? It could be a stroke of bad luck, but it’s more likely these are signs your home could use a humidifier.
As the temperature drops, so does the level of moisture in the air. Low humidity is a common complaint from the late fall to early spring, especially in homes with central heating, which makes the air even drier.
Humidifiers can help to alleviate the ailments caused by low humidity. Here are signs your home could use one!
1. Your Sinuses Keep Acting Up
When the air is too dry, it can irritate the membranes in your nose and leave you prone to sinus congestion and inflammation. That’s one reason why many people are more likely to get sinus infections in the winter.
Moist, humid air helps to relieve sinus pain by keeping nasal passages lubricated, which is why it helps to take a hot shower when you’re stuffed up. While it may not cure the source of your sinus pain, adding a humidifier to your home can help keep congestion under control and reduce the chance of getting an infection.
2. You’re Always Getting Static Shocks
Ever notice how static shocks seem worse in the winter? It’s not just you. Dry air acts as an insulator, making it easy for a static charge to sneak up and zap you.
If it feels like you’re getting a shock from everything you touch, it may be because the air inside your home is too dry. Buying a humidifier will reduce static electricity and get those annoying static shocks off your heels.
3. The Floorboards Creak Beneath Your Feet
Wood naturally reacts to changes in humidity. It’s normal for hardwood flooring to lose moisture and shrink slightly when the humidity drops. But major fluctuations in humidity over time can stress the wood, even to the point of splitting and cracking along the grain. Other wood structures, like doors and window frames, are also susceptible to damage from low humidity.
Creaky floorboards is one of the early warning signs your home could use a humidifier. Maintaining consistent humidity level will help keep the floorboards beautiful (and silent) for years to come.
4. Your Houseplants Are Withering Away
Many species of indoor plants hail from tropical climates. Like many of us, they prefer warm temperatures and moist, humid air. It’s no surprise, then, that even a veteran Canadian gardener can have difficulty keeping houseplants alive through the winter.
One of the biggest reasons houseplants wilt in the winter is low humidity. The solution? Place a humidifier in the room. With proper humidity and a green thumb, you can keep your houseplants alive and well until spring.
5. You Have Really Dry Skin
Chapped lips, cracked knuckles, and itchy, flaking skin is a prevalent winter problem. The drier the air, the faster water in the skin evaporates, leaving you feeling sore and dry.
There are numerous products and home remedies meant to soothe dry skin, but one of the simplest solutions is buying a humidifier for your home. Place it in your bedroom to help replenish the moisture in your skin overnight. You may even find that having a humidifier in the room helps you sleep better at night!
Buying a Humidifier for Your Home
You have several options when it comes to buying a humidifier for your home. Small humidifier models, such as vaporizers, are a good choice if you need to increase the humidity in one room. To add humidity to an entire home, you should invest in a whole-house humidifier that injects water vapor into the ductwork of your forced-air system. Our first choice is the GeneralAire furnace humidifier.
Want to learn more? We’re happy to help. We offer top-notch service for all types of humidifiers, so feel free to give us a call or request a quote today.
