I love Autumn – the fall colours, and the crisp cool air, but unfortunately when it starts to get cooler and cooler the furnace soon comes on. Once the air outside gets cooler and the furnace starts going on several times a day I find the air inside the house becomes very dry. My skin gets drier so I have to use more hand creams and body lotions, and when the air is really dry I even get a slightly sore throat.
The first few years that we owned our house this wasn’t so much of a problem. We have a humidifier built into the furnace. All we had to do was remember to turn on the water supply once the cool weather hit, and clean the tray and uh roller/filter regularly, and the air in the whole house was much more comfortable. Unfortunately one of the sides of the piece that holds the filter in our furnace humidifier broke last year and we couldn’t find a replacement.
The air was so dry in the house that it affected my eyes! One morning I woke up and my left eye felt like someone had punched me right in the eyeball. It hurt so bad I ended up in emerg a day or so later, and the doctor there got me an emergency ophthalmologist visit for the following day because he thought the pressure was elevated in my eye.
If the pressure had been raised in my eye during the ER visit it wasn’t by the time I saw the ophthalmologist. He diagnosed me with dry eye which as I’ve described can be a very painful condition. He even tried suggesting I get something inserted into my tear ducts to help me create more tears to soothe my eyes.
Uh huh. I opted to go out and get a humidifier. It helped a lot! Unfortunately it’s only big enough to humidify one floor of our house, so we have it upstairs right now.
Now I’d like to find a new humidifier that will humidify the main floor of our house, or even the whole house. I was looking around on the web for some information on humidifiers and I found the complete guide to buying a house humidifier. This seems to be a pretty good site if you are having trouble figuring out just what kind of humidifier you need for your home.
The section of the guide that talks about the optimum humidity levels for your home was very helpful. As were many of the other section. Now I think I know what type of humidifier I want to get for our house, all I have to do is get out there and get one.
Great post. A humidifier is a must needed appliance in our household, in the winter time. With the furnace running alot, this will dry out not only your skin, but also your wood furniture, or any perishable items you may own, such as cigars etc. We have went through alot of humidifiers through the years but have found that Air O Swiss brand lasts the longest.
Great article on the benefits of proper home humidification.
Another important thing to remember is to keep your humidifiers clean, especially the ones that you have to manually refill with water.
Bacteria and mold can become a serious health hazard from standing water and build up in the humidifier tank.