It’s a bit confusing. Whole-home humidifiers and whole-home dehumidifiers are alike in one important respect. Both appliances balance your indoor relative humidity level and improve indoor air quality throughout your house. However, the problems they solve are at opposite ends of the humidity spectrum.
Find out whether you need a humidifier or dehumidifier for your home.
What Is The Best Level Of Humidity At Home?
Indoor relative humidity should fall somewhere between 30 and 55 percent, with 35-50 as the best level of humidity. In winter, it should be a little lower to prevent condensation on the interior of your window panes.
This level is comfortable and healthy for the occupants of your home.
Relative humidity that is too low will dry out your family’s skin and irritate their nasal passages. On the other hand, overly high humidity makes us humans feel unpleasant; it can also lead to mould growth in the house.
If you think you might have a problem with relative humidity — either too high or too low — you can verify it with a hygrometer. This small, inexpensive device accurately measures moisture levels inside your home. Several apps allow you to check indoor humidity.
What’s The Difference Between Humidifiers And Dehumidifiers?
A humidifier adds moisture to your inside air, compensating for extra-low relative humidity. A dehumidifier does the reverse, removing moisture to mitigate excessively high relative humidity indoors. Humidifiers are most frequently used during the winter when the air tends to be drier.
By contrast, dehumidifiers are more commonly utilized in summer. Your air conditioning system has a built-in dehumidifier, but it’s often inadequate. What’s more, installing a whole-home dehumidifier will allow you to save energy by turning up the AC several degrees — and you’ll still stay cool.
Signs You Need A Whole-Home Humidifier
- Health issues. If you feel like you are suffering from a cold or flu all winter long, and your allergies are especially bad, lack of moisture in the air could be drying out your mucous membrane. That eliminates your first line of defence against respiratory irritation.
- Dry skin and hair. When your lips are badly chapped, your skin is parched, and your hair is ultra-dry and flyaway, low humidity is the most likely cause.
- Dry hardwood. Even your wooden floors and furniture suffer when the indoor humidity sinks way, way down. Wood furnishings can be permanently damaged if you don’t add some moisture to the rooms.
- Static buildup. You know when you touch another person or an object indoors in wintertime, and you get a crackly, electric-feeling shock? That’s due to static buildup, the result of dried-out air.
- Heavy furnace use. If it’s a year when the weather in Ottawa stays bitterly cold without a break, you might run your furnace at the max almost all the time. It’ll keep you toasty, but it will leave your indoor air super dry as a side effect.
Signs You Need A Whole-Home Dehumidifier
- Health issues. Just like overly dry air, an excess of moisture in your home leads to health issues — coughing, sneezing, and respiratory irritation. Folks with allergies or asthma suffer the worst.
- Musty odour. Does your home’s interior have an embarrassing musty odour? You might not notice it so much anymore, but it makes visitors crinkle up their noses. That’s a sign the air is too damp. That acrid, musty smell often goes along with water stains “mysteriously” appearing on your ceiling or walls.
- Mould and mildew growth. If you thought the musty odour was terrible, just wait till your walls start sprouting mould and mildew. Not only do these growths look horrible, but they can also do a lot of damage to your home and its contents.
- Seasonal discomfort. Your house is too sticky in summer, too clammy in winter. Sorry to sound like Goldilocks, but wouldn’t it be nice to have indoor air that feels “just right”?
Ottawa Home Services Will Make Your Air Feel “Just Right”
Ottawa Home Services carries and installs durable, low-maintenance whole-home humidifiers and dehumidifiers in the Ottawa area. We work with top brands like Honeywell Humidifiers and GeneralAire Humidifiers.
Want to make your indoor air comfortable and healthy? Talk with us today!
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