Humidity naturally rises in the summer and falls in the winter. The humidity can get so low during the colder months that your skin dries and cracks, woodwork in your home shrinks and splinters, static electricity builds up, and wooden musical instruments become damaged. Whole-house humidification adds moisture to the air in your home and puts an end to all of these issues.

In general, people feel the most comfortable when the humidity’s 45 to 55 percent. To prevent damage to woodwork, slightly lower relative humidity is desirable. Then again, the current outdoor temperature is an important consideration when you’re choosing a setting for your whole-house humidification system. This is because high relative humidity, combined with the warmer temperature inside, comes into contact with the bitter cold and low relative humidity outside at the windows. This causes high levels of condensation that can damage your window frames.

Condensation on your windows is the first sign that it’s too humid in your home. While some condensation is bound to occur in the winter, too much is a sign that you need to change the setting on your whole-house humidification system.

To help you set your humidifier correctly, check the temperature outside. Then follow these recommendations:

• 40 degrees F – 45 percent relative humidity.
• 32 degrees F – 40 percent relative humidity.
• 20 degrees F – 35 percent relative humidity.
• 10 degrees F – 30 percent relative humidity.
• 0 degrees F – 25 percent relative humidity.
• -10 degrees F – 20 percent relative humidity.

These recommendations are sure to keep you comfortable without causing your window frames to rot, peel or blister.

Clearly, when it comes to whole-house humidification, it’s all relative. If you have more questions about whole-house humidifiers, or you’re interested in upgrading to a system that can do away with the discomforts of lower humidity in the winter, contact New River Heating & Airtoday.

Our goal is to help educate our customers about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems).  For more information about humidifiers and other HVAC topics, download our free Home Comfort Resource guide.

New River Heating and Air services the New River Valley area in Virginia. Visit our website to see our special offers and get started today!