Keep Your Home Air Dry This Winter

A dry home can be an uncomfortable place to be. Worse, dry air can cause health problems, damage your wood floors and furniture, and make it necessary to turn your thermostat up to increase the warmth of your home. When air is too dry, a whole-house humidifier is a great way to solve the problem, and to increase both your comfort and your home’s energy efficiency.

Why you need a whole-house humidifier
You may benefit from using a whole-house humidifier year-round, but it typically becomes most important in winter, when the air tends to be at its driest. And as you run the furnace to warm up the air in your house, your home tends to become more and more dry. As the air in your house dries out, potential problems can develop, including:

A house that feels too cold. When your home is too dry, the moisture from your skin will evaporate. Latent heat loss occurs during this process, making you feel cooler. Air that is dry can make a big difference in how comfortable the temperature feels in your home, with a 10 percent increase in humidity allowing you to lower the thermostat by a full degree.
Dehydration-related problems. Dry skin, eyes, throat and nose are all examples of dehydration problems, as are bloody noses and headaches. Adding moisture to the air will alleviate these problems.
Increased chance of illness. Bacteria thrive when humidity is very low, but they’ll die quickly in a home kept at the proper humidity level. In fact, bacteria can die up to 70 percent more quickly when humidity is kept at a healthy range, typically between 45 to 55 percent.
Damage to your wood products. Improper humidity levels in the home can cause hardwood floors, for instance, to develop damage that results from excess expansion and contraction of the wood. Using a whole-house humidifier can keep word products in good condition all winter long.

A whole-house humidifier is the best way to avoid these problems, because you can set it one time and forget it. For more information on whole-house humidifiers, contact T.F. O’Brien Cooling & Heating.

Our goal is to help educate our customers about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems). For more information about whole-house humidifiers and other HVAC topics, download our free Home Comfort Resource guide.

T.F. O’Brien services the Long Island, New York area. Visit our website to see our special offers to get started today!

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