In winter, the air in your home becomes very dry. This is primarily due to home heating and the fact that fresh outdoor air, laden with moisture, no longer enters from open windows.

This dried out indoor air draws whatever moisture it can from household objects and occupants. Dry skin is a direct result of thirsty indoor air.

Indoor air also dries out the mucous membranes of the throat and nose, causing discomfort and congestion and reducing their ability to act as barriers against infection. Dried out mucous membranes develop tiny cracks that are open invitations for opportunistic germs including the viruses that cause colds and flu.

The Ideal Humidity
Health Canada recommends that your home’s relative humidity be maintained between 30 and 55 percent during the colder months. When the humidity falls much lower than this, your lungs and airways become deprived of essential moisture, increasing your chances of developing a respiratory illness.

How Humidifiers Help
A home humidifier will help to keep the air in your home moist, significantly reducing the risk of contracting a cold, flu or other sickness.  Humidifiers also help soothe air passages when someone is sick with a respiratory illness and are helpful for those with asthma.

As well as helping to keep the airways moist and healthy, humidifiers keep the skin moist, preventing dry skin and reducing the itching caused by psoriasis.

Choosing a Humidifier
Humidifiers fall into two categories: warm mist and cool mist. Cool mist humidifiers can be further separated into evaporative and ultrasonic models.

Both types of humidifier effectively raise the level of humidity in your home.

Warm mist humidifiers produce a warm, soothing mist by heating water to boiling point. The process of boiling kills bacteria and removes most of the unwanted minerals, releasing pure, clean vapour.

When released into the air, the hot water droplets cool rapidly, eliminating the possibility of scalding. A medication cup is often included with warm mist models, allowing you to dispense liquid inhalants and aromatic medications to ease winter ills. (Do not use the “chest-rub” variety of inhalant, as this will likely damage the unit.)

Evaporative cool mist humidifiers produce a cool, invisible mist using a cotton fibre filter, or wick. A fan forces dry air through the moist wick, trapping minerals and impurities. Ultrasonic cool mist humidifiers produce moisture that you can see and feel. Water flows from the tank into a purifying filter, where unwanted minerals are removed. It then passes over a transducer and is turned into a cool mist. Ultrasonic humidifiers operate very quietly.

Whichever type of humidifier you choose, remember to carefully follow the manufacturer’s instructions and to change filters or wicks as often as recommended.

Back to Top