Humidifiers and Dehumidifiers: Controlling the Moisture in Your Home

Some people don't think too much about humidity, but it's an important factor to consider when trying to create a feeling of comfort in your home. Humidity affects how your home and the people inside of it feel by compounding higher and lower temperatures. There are other adverse affects of unbalanced humidity levels. Excess humidity helps the growth of undesirable organisms like mold, mildew and dust mites. Mold can cause acute illness or worse. It can wear down a person's immune system and resistance to respiratory allergies and related infections. Excessive dryness in your home dries out skin and irritates throat and sinuses which makes those areas more susceptible to infection. Indoor air that is too dry also causes wood to contract and crack, especially the thinner wood used to make guitars and violins. If wood is exposed over a long period of time, the dry air can even crack solid wood beams or logs and some kinds of plaster.

According to the Environmental Protection Agency, the recommended humidity for indoor environments should range between 30-50 percent relative humidity. Relative humidity refers to the amount of water vapor the air contains compared to the maximum amount it could hold at any give temperature. You can control your indoor humidity with dehumidifiers and humidifiers. The goal of using humidity control equipment should be to maintain the optimum level of indoor humidity without adversely affecting some other factor. Heaters and air conditioners can affect your home's humidity imprecisely, but sometimes there is no need for heating or cooling and humidity control is still needed. That's where humidifiers and dehumidifiers come in.

Dehumidifiers, like the NewAir AD-400, are useful in damp or humid indoor un-conditioned environments. For environments that are intensely humid and air conditioned, a dehumidifier assists the air conditioner with its work. Dehumidifiers pull indoor air across warm and cool coils that contain refrigerant as air passes over. Moisture condenses and is collected in a container to be emptied.

Humidifiers, like the NewAir AU-100 are great for arid climates and for when furnaces dry out indoor air during cold weather. Humidifiers add water vapor to indoor air. There are four different ways that vapor is produced from water:

1. Evaporating of Water with Fan: Wicking action pulls water into a cloth-like filter or media and the fan helps disperse and evaporate the water. No heat is added.

2. Boiling to Produce Steam: There is an electric element heat source that boils the water, resulting in steam. Some humidifiers cool the water slightly before dispersing into the air for safety.

3. Rapid Stirring with "Impeller": There is a high speed rotating disk. There is no heat added.

4. Ultrasonic Sound Vibrations: A metal diaphragm vibrating at an ultrasonic frequency to create water droplets that are expelled out into the room to help maintain the desired humidity level. No heat is added.

These four kinds of humidifiers have a few things in common. The water reservoir needs to be replenished. There is a need for cleaning and maintenance and every kind needs a power source. Some types of humidifiers connect with central heating systems. These whole house systems can be connected to plumbing system as well to avoid manual refilling. These connect with HVAC and plumbing systems so they require professional installation.