Low humidity inside a house is caused when the humidity levels outside are low. Heaters, once combined with cooler weather, can dry out your home’s indoor air.
Everyone knows how important humidity is for your hair, skin, and overall health. However, many of you probably don’t know that it is also essential for your home’s health.
When the humidity levels get too low, your home and your furniture will deteriorate, with some germs thriving and spreading.
The ideal humidity levels inside a house should be around 45%. Anything over 50% is considered high while anything below 30% is already too dry. And once the humidity is lower than 15%, the dry air may make you suffer from health problems and damage your house at the same time.
How to Determine If Your Home Has Low Humidity
You can buy a hygrometer that you can use for measuring humidity levels.
You can also try a simple humidity test. Place several ice cubes in a glass then put the glass in the specific room that has low humidity.
Leave this alone and don’t go to the room for several minutes. Upon your return, you have to search for droplets of water on the outer side of the glass.
Once you spot them, it means that the humidity in the room is likely fine. But, if the glass doesn’t have “sweat,” there is a chance that the room has low humidity.
Low Humidity and Its Effect on Your Home
Dry air may warp or split wood furniture, floors, and doors. It may also dry out glue or caulk, which causes it to shrink.
This would make gaps around your windows, doors, and fixtures. Conditioned air may leak out of such gaps, which can result in high energy bills as the HVAC system works for compensating for less efficient home.
Low Humidity Level – How It Affects the Body?
It is not comfortable to breathe in dry air.
As you breathe in air that is low in humidity level, nasal passages will dry up. To compensate, the body produces more mucus and you could end up with a stuffy nose.
Moreover, dry air is a breeding ground for viruses, particularly flu. In a study, it showed that flu is transmitted at twenty percent humidity.
How to Boost Humidity in Your House
There are some ways to add moisture to the air.
A boiling pot of water is probably the least expensive and easiest way to increase the level of humidity in the kitchen and other surrounding rooms.
You may buy portable humidifiers to increase low humidity level in your room and some rooms upstairs, yet such need maintenance and cleaning and would only affect small parts of your home.
If a low level of humidity is a serious problem in your house, consider adding a humidifier.
Central humidifiers are a good choice for controlling humidity in your home and more efficient compared to different portable humidifiers.
