Humidity Control
Winter Control
Protect you home and your family from these ravages of dry air.
Your home comes apart at the seams. In winter you can literally watch your home come apart. Hardwood Floors separate at the seams. Banisters wobble. Drawers loosen. Gaps appear in moldings. Furniture and collectibles shrink, warp and crack as moisture is sucked out of them by desert-dry indoor air.
The National Wood Flooring Association woodfloors.org strongly recommends using a humidifier during the heating season to minimize wood movement and shrinkage.
Musical instruments drift out of tune. Desert-dry indoor air literally pulls moisture out of wooden musical instruments, which can cause them to shrink, crack and go out of tune. That's why companies making pianos, tiac.net and other fine wooden musical instruments recommend the use of humidifiers. A humidifier not only preserves the beautiful finish, it can reduce the need for frequent and costly retuning.
Dry air can aggravate upper respiratory problems. Itchy skin, dry throat coughs and cracked nasal membranes are all consequences of dry air.
You feel colder, even with the thermostat turned up. Dry air makes you feel colder than the actual thermostat setting because evaporating moisture on your skin causes a cooling effect. A humidifier can help lower heating bills because humidified air feels warmer. For example, a 20°C or 69°F temperature at 35% relative humidity feels just as warm as a 22°C or 72°F setting at 19% relative humidity. Setting your thermostat back by three degrees can reduce annual heating bills by as much as 5 percent.
Static shocks "zap" you and sensitive equipment. How many times have you shuffled across the carpet, only to be rudely surprised by the crackle of static as you reach for the light switch! It's no fun when it happens to you, and even less so when you reach out and "zap" a loved one. With the capacity to hold a static charge up to 20,000 volts, your body can also wreak havoc on home computers and other sensitive electronic devices. By maintaining indoor relative humidity at 35 percent or higher, static shocks are greatly reduced.
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