IAQ: Low Humidity Effects on Your Health

When the cold weather settles in and your heating system is running, the humidity inside your home can plummet to unhealthy levels. Low humidity is worse in winter because cold outdoor air doesn’t hold moisture very well, and the heating process dries it out even further. Living with low humidity can have significant adverse effects on your family’s health, including:

• Eye irritation. The human eye produces tears to flush out airborne irritants and contaminants. When humidity is too low, your natural tears dry up, and it’s easier for your eyes to become irritated or infected.
• Respiratory distress. Breathing in dry air pulls needed moisture from the mucus membranes that line the respiratory system. This not only causes irritation to the nasal passages and lungs, it can worsen the symptoms of allergies, asthma and other breathing problems like COPD and chronic bronchitis.
• Thirsty skin. The dry air in your home will draw moisture from your skin, leaving it feeling parched, scaly and itchy. As the skin dries out, minute cracks form on the surface, which makes it easier for bacteria to enter the body.
• Exposure to airborne illnesses. Many bacteria and viruses thrive when humidity is low, and they’re easily transmitted in dry air, so you have a higher risk of coming down with the cold, flu or a respiratory infection.

How to Improve Low Indoor Humidity

The ideal indoor humidity range for good health in the winter is 30 to 50 percent. There are two reliable methods for boosting the humidity level in your home:

• Room-size humidifiers. These devices are plugged-in then filled with water, and they’re well-suited for use in a bedroom to make breathing easier while sleeping.
• Whole-home humidifiers. Installed on the HVAC air handler, these devices add moisture to the air heated by the furnace before it’s distributed through the ductwork. They’re plumbed in so they don’t need refilling and have a humidistat control to install in a convenient spot so it’s easy to set/adjust a preferred humidity level.

For help addressing low humidity issues in your Lorain-area home, contact us at Energy 1 Heating & Air Conditioning.

Our goal is to help educate our customers in Lorain, Ohio about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems). For more information about home safety and other HVAC topics, download our free Home Comfort Guide or call us at 440-201-2959.