• Lower Levels of Humidity – aggravate skin allergies and respiratory infections.
  • Higher Levels of Humidity – increase the spread of mold, bacteria and viruses. Dust mites reproduce actively when the humidity is above 50%.

Why Install a Furnace Humidifier?

The air in your house during the winter time gets dry. Most homes can lose 12,000 – 15,000 gallons of water per day. The humidifier for your furnace will save you money by evaporating water and making your home more humid.

Furnace Humidifiers and How It Works: This humidifier places heat into the moisture so that your home feels warmer without having to turn up the thermostat. Dialing down your thermostat just three degrees can reduce your heating bill by as much as 5%.

Below, you will find some of the most frequent reasons for humidifying your home:

Humidify your home for comfort

Everyone loses heat energy to the surrounding air, regardless of their activity level and it is important to know that heat energy takes two forms.

  • Sensible Heat Transfer – is when your warm body comes in contact with room air and warms the air by way of convection and radiation. The air takes the heat from your body and keeps you cool.
  • Latent Heat Transfer – happens when moisture on the surface of the skin evaporates. The heat energy for the evaporation is also taken from your body, cooling you further.

Air soaks up heat like a sponge, and when you have dry air, the air will begin to take in moisture from sources like your skin. This event causes your skin to dry up faster and triggers the reaction of feeling colder. When we feel cold, we instinctively turn up the heater. However, doing this will increase your energy costs.

Raising the moisture level of the air will prevent the need to turn up the thermostat. This is where a furnace humidifier comes into play, raising the relative humidity decreases the rate of evaporation. A humidistat provides you the comfort you want without costing you more money to get it.

Humidify your home for health

Experts say home’s relative humidity should be kept between 30% and 55% in winter. Multiple medical studies prove that maintaining your home’s humidity in this optimum range hinders the survival of viruses that cause influenza and measles.

Maintaining an appropriate level of humidity in your home will reduce dry skin problems. Severe cracking of skin on the hands and face are signs of a problem with a lack of moisture.
Children who experience spontaneous nosebleeds, especially at night, are commonly live in homes with reduced humidity levels.

An added benefit of introducing more moisture into the air is that your newly moistened nasal tissues can now fulfill their job of expelling potential irritants and allergens from your nasal cavity, reducing your allergy symptoms.

Furnace Humidifiers Best Types 

  • Point-Of-Use Humidifier – These household appliances are usually portable. They’re capable of humidifying the air in several rooms.
  • Evaporative humidifier – Is also known as a cold mist humidifier. This type of humidifier uses a reservoir, wick, and filter to spread room temperature water vapor through the air. You can program some models. You can also find a model that has a hygrometer. A hygrometer is useful for maintaining an optimal humidity level. You must change filters regularly to avoid mold overgrowth and mineral saturation from tap water.
  • Vaporizers (which produce steam), impeller humidifiers, and ultrasonic humidifiers. Impeller and ultrasonic models may deposit crystals on nearby furniture. This is because they don’t use a filter to remove minerals. This deposit appears as a fine dust. Vaporizers are effective, but they use much more energy than an evaporative humidifier.

Contact One Hour Heating & Air Conditioning® of Elk Grove to help you set up a humidifier for your furnace so that you can stay warm at a lower cost for your energy!

Learn more about our residential heating services. We serve Elk Grove Village and surrounding areas in the state Illinois.

Call: (847) 744-9447