Humidifiers, Varieties and Benefits

The quality of air has increasingly become a concern for us in the age of industrialization and pollution. However, we tend to ignore the same issue in the places where we live and spend most of our time: our homes. Humidifiers play an important role in improving air quality in our homes and workplace. Being of varying benefit to different environments, winters are primarily when humidifiers are needed most. Heaters dry up the air from 44-55 percent humidity to an average of 5-10 percent, leaving us vulnerable to respiratory ailments that include cold and allergies besides skin problems.

Humidifiers can improve humidity and increase moisture in the air. Ideally, humidity levels should be 30 to 50 percent. There are lots of humidifiers but all work in the same way i.e. water flows into a tank and injected into the air.

Of all the varieties of humidifiers, warm mist humidifiers are the most common and warm water before discharging it into the air. Cool mist humidifiers use fans to blow water and evaporate mist into the air. Warm mist humidifiers don't need a filter as the mechanism eliminates bacteria. Alternatively, steam humidifiers boil water and release the moisture and steam into the air and medicated inhalant can be added for colds and coughs.

Humidifiers are different in size, area served and capacity. For example, a tabletop humidifier is designed for only one room. They can be either of a cool mist or warm mist type. Console models are bigger and are used for more than one room. Furnace humidifiers are installed in furnace ducts and are used to treat the entire house. Though costly they need less maintenance and are cheaper to run in the long term.

While deciding the type of humidifier the type of unit as well as the size of your home and the hardness of your water has to be taken into account. Furthermore, it is important to clean a humidifier. Filters must be changed and cleaned too, failure of which could result in germs and bacteria spreading through the air. Such lack of maintenance can be worse compared to the problems related excessive amounts of dry air.

An important feature is the automatic shut off which is a safety feature that enables humidifiers to shut off as soon as the water tank is empty. Due to risks of fire a model with a an automatic shut off feature is better. If you've determined that you have low humidity in your home or work space, and that you need a humidifier; your choice will mostly depend on your circumstances.

However, the proven health benefits are more than enough justification to treat it as an essential item of a household, especially in dry, cold or allergy prone environments. Besides health problems, a dry environment can make paint chip from walls and wall paper to peel. Furniture and different electronic appliances are prone to damage from overly dry air as well due to more static in the air.