If you're about to have a furnace installed in your home or have an old furnace replaced, add a new whole-house humidifier at the same time. Using heat can dry out the air in a home by reducing the humidity level, and while dry heat is normally better than humid heat in terms of weather, adding humidity back into your home, such as with a whole-house humidifier, can make the inside of a house much more comfortable after a furnace installation.
Dry Skin and Nasal Problems
Much of the time, furnaces produce heat that feels comforting and that prevents you from shivering in your own home. However, heaters don't replace the moisture they pull out of the air. If the air in your home gets too dry, your skin can dry out, your throat can feel scratchy, and your mucous membranes inside your nose and mouth can become so dry that they crack and bleed. Mild cases of dryness might be treatable with hand lotion, but if you're at the point where you're waking up with blood on your pillow from nosebleeds overnight, you need to add some moisture to the air. You could get a portable humidifier, but a whole house unit makes the air in all the rooms uniformly humid.
Furniture, Art, and Flooring
Dry air can make wood warp and crack, and paint can dry out and crack as well. Instead of risking making your floor uneven or ruining the artworks on your home's walls, you can keep everything in relatively good shape just by adding a little more moisture to the air. Whole house humidifier units come with controls that let you set the exact level of humidity that you want.
Viruses and Bacteria
When warm, dry air dries out your nasal passages and throat, it makes it easier for viruses and bacteria to gain a foothold in your body. So, an atmosphere that's too dry can contribute to you feeling bad, at the very least, if not actually helping you get sick. Remember, it's not the heat that's making you ill, it's that you've already been exposed to the germs, and the dryness is making it easier for the germs to cross into your body. However, the extra dryness caused by the dry air can make you feel a lot sicker than you are, too.
If you'd like to find out what size of humidifier your house would need, or you'd like to find out more about how making things less dry can help keep you well, talk to furnace installers who also add humidifier units during installation.
