8 Ways To Increase Humidity In Your Home

Struggling With Dry Air In The Winter? Try These 8 Ways to Increase Humidity In Your Home

By James K. Kim

The cold winter temperatures in Westchester County will likely keep your forced air heating system (such as a furnace or heat pump) running for several months on end.

While the comfort and warmth of a central heating system blowing warm air throughout your home for extended periods each day can keep things nice and cozy, it can also come with an unpleasant side effect: dry air due to low humidity in the home.

You may be feeling these effects of dry air in the form of dried, cracked skin, increased static electricity (i.e. shocks when you touch metal), dried-out nasal passages, sore throats, dry itchy eyes, respiratory issues, and other unpleasant symptoms.

In addition to health issues, dry air can also negatively impact your home as well. Hardwood floors, and other wooden components such as furniture, doors, and windows can become dried out and misshapen, creating cracks and gaps or making it hard to close doors.

Even paper items such as books and artwork can become brittle and warped. Wooden musical instruments can also suffer damage from too much exposure to dry air.

According to the US Environmental Protection Agency, the ideal year-round range for indoor humidity in a typical home is between 30-50%.

Homeowners are tasked to find ways to increase humidity in the home to fit this range during the cold winter months to counter the negative effects of forced air heating.

Here are 8 simple but effective ways to increase your home’s humidity in the wintertime:

1. Install a humidifier

Perhaps the most straightforward approach to tackling low humidity issues in your home during the winter is to simply install a humidifier.

Humidifiers are available in a variety of different brands and styles. Most people are probably familiar with the small, portable humidifiers readily available at hardware stores and online retailers that can humidify single rooms and smaller spaces.

However, one may find that these types of humidifiers can actually consume quite a bit of energy, plus you will be required to constantly refill the water compartment.

A step up from the portable humidifier is a bypass humidifier that can be mounted directly onto the furnace itself. This allows for humidity to circulate throughout the home via the ductwork when the furnace is in heating operation mode.

Another alternative humidifier option to consider is a whole-house steam humidifier that adds moisture to the home with steam dispersed into the ductwork.

Due to its complex installation, wiring, and connection to a water source, adding a bypass or steam humidifier to your existing forced air heating system would best be suited for installation by a licensed and trained HVAC specialist, such as Cottam Heating and Air Conditioning.

You can book a free estimate to learn more about your potential whole-home humidifier options for your Westchester County home by clicking here.

2. Get more houseplants

If you’re looking for an affordable and environmentally friendly way to add moisture to your home and increase humidity during the winter, consider adding more house plants.

By their very nature, plants absorb water up through their roots, traveling up the plant and released back into the air, adding to the humidity of the home.

3. Place open containers of water around the home

Consider placing water-filled vases, bowls, buckets, and other containers on or near heat sources (e.g. supply registers, radiators, etc.)

This will cause the water in the containers to evaporate into the air, in turn raising the humidity in the room. The more containers full of water you place around the home, the more humidity will increase.

4. Cook more meals at home

Boiling, steaming, and other cooking methods that produce condensation into the air can help contribute to increased humidity levels in the home.

If you normally use lids and covers on pots and pans when cooking, consider leaving them off to let the steam rise if it is safe to do so.

5. Run the dishwasher

And if you are cooking more at home, it will make sense that you will be using your dishwasher more.

Dishwashers actually produce a fair amount of detectable humidity when in operation. If your dishwasher has a wash-only cycle, you could open the dishwasher door after the wash to allow the dishes to air dry and kick out even more humidity into the air.

6. Hit the showers

We all know how much steam is produced from taking a hot shower. You may be able to utilize this moisture to increase humidity in the home by keeping your bathroom door open when showering, allowing the moisture to circulate to surrounding parts of the home.

Similarly, if you enjoy taking baths, you may consider pulling the plug to drain the tub well after you are finished bathing and the water has cooled.

The water vapor produced from the cooling bathwater will contribute to the humidity level of the home.

7. Dry laundry indoors

Give your clothes dryer a break and instead break out the drying rack. Hang your drying laundry near vents/radiators and other heat sources. As the clothes dry, moisture will evaporate into the air, increasing the humidity.

Not only will you be decreasing your utility bill by leaving your dryer off, but you’ll also be naturally increasing humidity levels in the home.

8. Use an essential oil water-based diffuser

You can easily find these types of essential oil diffusers online or in craft and wellness shops. They work by mixing a few drops of your favorite essential oil into a base container of water.

The diffuser is then switched on to diffuse the water/essential oil mix into an aromatic vapor that fills the air with both a pleasant fragrance, as well as moisture for increased humidity.

Conclusion

In addition to the installation of a whole-home humidifier, we have outlined a few small but collectively effective methods for increasing humidity in your home during winter to counteract the dry air resulting from furnace heat.

If you still feel that the humidity levels are not comfortable, you can reach out to Cottam Heating and Air Conditioning to test the humidity levels in the home and investigate potential causes of the issue.

Sometimes the solution is just a simple repair or an adjustment in equipment settings, or even a new humidifier replacement.

Call us by clicking below, or book online today.