How to choose your humidifier

Dry air in your home causes dry skin, throat irritation, respiratory problems, and even damage to your electronics (due to static electricity).

And, of course, more relevant to this blog, the more comfortable you feel at a certain temperature, the less you run your home's HVAC system and the more energy you save.

Let's say you decide to humidify your home to make you and your family more comfortable.

A good humidifier will make you more comfortable, reduce or eliminate damage to furniture and flooring, and prevent unpleasant health problems.

How do I choose the "right" humidifier?

The humidifier you choose will depend on your personal needs. Comfort may be your first priority. You may need to humidify your entire home... or just one room.

So you need to sit down and make a list of the problems you want to solve and the benefits you want to achieve. And then you need to decide what's most important to you.

3 Types of Humidifiers

Once you start comparing your options, you will find three basic types of humidifiers.

Here's what they are, and the difference between each:

Warm steam humidifiers heat water with an electric element and release it into your room as water vapor. They are popular, but use a lot of energy.

Cool mist humidifiers blow unheated water through a diffuser. The downside is that if you let the water sit too long, it can lead to the growth of unhealthy bacteria. If you forget to change the water, you spread these bacteria throughout your home.

Ultrasonic humidifiers use high-frequency sound vibrations to generate water vapor. They are by far the most energy efficient option. However, they keep the water at room temperature like cool-mist humidifiers, so be sure to change the water regularly.

Here's how the ability to humidify a room works:

If you need to humidify a single room, your humidifier should have a capacity of 1 to 4 gallons of water.
For 2 or 3 rooms, increase the capacity to 5-9 gallons.
For an average sized home of 1500 to 2000 square feet, you need a capacity of 9 gallons or more.

In terms of size, you have 3 options:

Portable humidifiers, which can sit on your table and have a capacity of 1-4 gallons.

Console humidifiers, which are heavy and move on wheels, but have a large capacity.

Full-featured home humidifiers, which integrate with your home's heating, ventilation and air conditioning system, but cover your entire home if it has more than one floor.

Be prepared to save

Basically, you should keep the humidity level in your home at 55 percent or less. Otherwise, conditions become so humid that mold and bacteria grow. An ideal level would be around 40-45%.

But once you reach the right humidity level, you'll feel more comfortable, keep your furniture and wood finishes in better condition and save more energy.

So what are you waiting for?