How can I heat my house without drying out the air?
February 28, 2023 7:30 AM Subscribe
I get very dry eyes sometimes - treated by drops and overnight gel etc - and suspect the central heating in my house is making matters worse by drying out the air. I have the choice of traditional radiators, an oil-filled portable radiator and an electric fire. Is there any appreciable difference in the drying effect these three methods have on the room's air? I've already got a humidifier running in the room where I spend most time, but that's clearly not enough to do the trick on its own.
When I lived in the Midwest and had the heater on all the time in the winter it definitely dried me out - not so much with my eyes that I noticed, but the skin on my hands would get so dry that it would crack to point of bleeding sometimes. Once I moved to a place with baseboard radiators (may also be called "fin and tube") instead of forced air heat, that completely went away. So yes, in my experience there's a difference.
posted by LionIndex at 7:59 AM on February 28, 2023
posted by LionIndex at 7:59 AM on February 28, 2023
Central heating does dry out interior air, but only because it's moving air around at all. The dry air from outside gets sucked in as your furnace intakes interior air. The biggest thing you can do to counteract dry air from a furnace is to improve your draftiness of your house - plastic window clings, foam around doors, etc will prevent dry outside air from entering your space.
Besides adding weather stripping / window clings, installing a whole home humidifier to your furnace is a great solution that should more than offset the dry air outside. Your humidifier running in the room probably outputs at most 5 gallons per day - assuming you continually refill it. A whole home humidifier outputs 10-12 gallons into the air per day and is generally much more effective because it is hands-off.
But... if you don't want to do window clings, or pay $500 to add that humidifier, yes, any heat that doesn't circulate air will not pull in dry air from outdoors. So - I would recommend electric, oil filled, or baseboard-style heating. Keep in mind, most heaters are the same amount of efficiency whether or not they are oil filled/look fancy, so I recommend getting the cheapest one that has some kind of thermostat.
And - don't forget to drink EXTRA water in the winter! That dry air outside dries you out super fast compared to summer!
posted by bbqturtle at 8:06 AM on February 28, 2023 [1 favorite]
Besides adding weather stripping / window clings, installing a whole home humidifier to your furnace is a great solution that should more than offset the dry air outside. Your humidifier running in the room probably outputs at most 5 gallons per day - assuming you continually refill it. A whole home humidifier outputs 10-12 gallons into the air per day and is generally much more effective because it is hands-off.
But... if you don't want to do window clings, or pay $500 to add that humidifier, yes, any heat that doesn't circulate air will not pull in dry air from outdoors. So - I would recommend electric, oil filled, or baseboard-style heating. Keep in mind, most heaters are the same amount of efficiency whether or not they are oil filled/look fancy, so I recommend getting the cheapest one that has some kind of thermostat.
And - don't forget to drink EXTRA water in the winter! That dry air outside dries you out super fast compared to summer!
posted by bbqturtle at 8:06 AM on February 28, 2023 [1 favorite]
If you own and don't rent, you can install a humidifier on your forced hot air.
posted by plinth at 8:16 AM on February 28, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by plinth at 8:16 AM on February 28, 2023 [1 favorite]
During winter, the air outside tends to be colder and drier. When the cold, dry air enters your home and is heated, its relative humidity decreases because the air's capacity to hold moisture increases as temperature rises. I don't think that your humidity will be affected much by the specific type of heating that you use (forced air, radiators, etc.). It's more of an issue with the basic physics of how much water vapor is in the air.
Having a lot of houseplants can help, as can humidifiers. But if you get a humidifier, don't get an ultrasonic one, as those cause harmful particulates to circulate in the air.
posted by alex1965 at 8:20 AM on February 28, 2023 [1 favorite]
Having a lot of houseplants can help, as can humidifiers. But if you get a humidifier, don't get an ultrasonic one, as those cause harmful particulates to circulate in the air.
posted by alex1965 at 8:20 AM on February 28, 2023 [1 favorite]
My parents got an AprilAire whole-home humidifier attached to their forced-air furnace to resolve this issue.
posted by eschatfische at 8:52 AM on February 28, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by eschatfische at 8:52 AM on February 28, 2023 [1 favorite]
The radiators technically should be best as they don't actively remove moisture from the air like forced-air central heat does. Electric fire should still be negligible versus anything that pushes air, but maybe slightly worse than radiators.
But if your actual outdoor humidity is low, there's nothing to do for it except add moisture as the heat isn't the problem. We use this cheap 3-station indoor-outdoor weather monitor to compare indoor and outdoor humidity and augment as needed. This would let you experiment and track your symptoms versus the data.
posted by Lyn Never at 8:53 AM on February 28, 2023
But if your actual outdoor humidity is low, there's nothing to do for it except add moisture as the heat isn't the problem. We use this cheap 3-station indoor-outdoor weather monitor to compare indoor and outdoor humidity and augment as needed. This would let you experiment and track your symptoms versus the data.
posted by Lyn Never at 8:53 AM on February 28, 2023
When I was a child, my mother used to drape a damp washcloth over the radiator in my room overnight: sleeping in a cold room triggers my asthma, but dry air doesn't do me any favours either. I don't know that it would achieve anything that your humidifier isn't already doing, but if you've got radiators suitable for that, I'd give it a go.
posted by ManyLeggedCreature at 8:56 AM on February 28, 2023
posted by ManyLeggedCreature at 8:56 AM on February 28, 2023
I have found that using a fan to push humidity from showering into the house during cold weather, instead of exhausting it, makes a difference.
posted by The Half Language Plant at 9:03 AM on February 28, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by The Half Language Plant at 9:03 AM on February 28, 2023 [1 favorite]
If you can sleep on your back all or part of the night... I find sleeping with a damp folded washcloth over my eyes does wonders.
posted by evilmomlady at 9:08 AM on February 28, 2023
posted by evilmomlady at 9:08 AM on February 28, 2023
If your traditional radiator is a hot water radiator (meaning, no electricity, just a big metal hunk that gets really hot) then try putting damp paper towels or damp laundry on top of it.
The less fire hazardy version: If you have the space (and, I guess, time, though it's not a huge difference) you can get a clothes drying rack and hang your clothes to dry in the winter instead of using the dryer. It helps. If you run out of laundry you can just wet some sheets or towels and hang them.
Also, might not be practical depending on where you live, but is heating the air any less an option? Like, in bed might a heavy blanket or electric blanket cut it, and outside of bed there are hot water bottles and smaller electric blankets (and wearable electric clothing).
posted by trig at 9:17 AM on February 28, 2023 [5 favorites]
The less fire hazardy version: If you have the space (and, I guess, time, though it's not a huge difference) you can get a clothes drying rack and hang your clothes to dry in the winter instead of using the dryer. It helps. If you run out of laundry you can just wet some sheets or towels and hang them.
Also, might not be practical depending on where you live, but is heating the air any less an option? Like, in bed might a heavy blanket or electric blanket cut it, and outside of bed there are hot water bottles and smaller electric blankets (and wearable electric clothing).
posted by trig at 9:17 AM on February 28, 2023 [5 favorites]
if you get a humidifier, don't get an ultrasonic one, as those cause harmful particulates to circulate in the air.
They won't do that if you only ever run distilled or reverse-osmosis-filtered water in them. Ultrasonic humidifiers work by smashing water into tiny droplets that disperse and then evaporate, and the particulates they create are made of whatever is dissolved in that water and therefore gets carried into the air inside the droplets. If the water has nothing dissolved in it to begin with, then the droplets will evaporate completely and leave behind no dust.
Running tap water in a non-ultrasonic humidifier will also cause problems with scale buildup inside the humidifier itself. You won't be breathing that directly, obviously, but you might well find that the concentration of dissolved substances left behind in the humidifier as water keeps evaporating from it rises to the point where it starts acting as a nutrient to assorted microorganisms that you will then end up breathing.
Any humidifier needs regular attention paid to it to keep it clean, or it's going to cause you more health problems than it solves.
posted by flabdablet at 9:44 AM on February 28, 2023
They won't do that if you only ever run distilled or reverse-osmosis-filtered water in them. Ultrasonic humidifiers work by smashing water into tiny droplets that disperse and then evaporate, and the particulates they create are made of whatever is dissolved in that water and therefore gets carried into the air inside the droplets. If the water has nothing dissolved in it to begin with, then the droplets will evaporate completely and leave behind no dust.
Running tap water in a non-ultrasonic humidifier will also cause problems with scale buildup inside the humidifier itself. You won't be breathing that directly, obviously, but you might well find that the concentration of dissolved substances left behind in the humidifier as water keeps evaporating from it rises to the point where it starts acting as a nutrient to assorted microorganisms that you will then end up breathing.
Any humidifier needs regular attention paid to it to keep it clean, or it's going to cause you more health problems than it solves.
posted by flabdablet at 9:44 AM on February 28, 2023
To directly answer your question -- no, there's not much difference in the drying effects of those options. A traditional radiator may be the best of the three by a small margin, since some water vapor can be released from steam radiator valves.
Nothing else will be as effective at getting more water into the air as a good humidifier in a tightly-sealed house. So if your current humidifier isn't helping much the best option is to get a better humidifier or add an additional unit to your setup, while making your house as airtight as possible. If you have leaky old windows look into using shrink film to seal them during the cold months.
Another, perhaps less ideal option, is to lower the temperature in your house by several degrees. Assuming the absolute water content of the air remains constant, lowering the temperature will increase relative humidity.
posted by theory at 9:45 AM on February 28, 2023 [1 favorite]
Nothing else will be as effective at getting more water into the air as a good humidifier in a tightly-sealed house. So if your current humidifier isn't helping much the best option is to get a better humidifier or add an additional unit to your setup, while making your house as airtight as possible. If you have leaky old windows look into using shrink film to seal them during the cold months.
Another, perhaps less ideal option, is to lower the temperature in your house by several degrees. Assuming the absolute water content of the air remains constant, lowering the temperature will increase relative humidity.
posted by theory at 9:45 AM on February 28, 2023 [1 favorite]
I agree with trig that air-drying laundry (and wet towels post-shower) near radiators and using electric blankets (so I can lower the thermostat in the room by 3 or 4 degrees) has helped keep the humidity higher in my apartment in winter. You don't need to hang up dripping wet laundry if you don't want to, you can just briefly dry the clothes but hang them up when they are still damp. Since my cats have started clambering up on drying racks, I tend to put everything on hangers and then hang them up on garment racks or over-door hooks.
I also agree with The Half Language Plant on making use of shower humidity. I don't even use a fan, I just keep the door open for 30 minutes to 1 hour after showering.
posted by spamandkimchi at 10:14 AM on February 28, 2023
I also agree with The Half Language Plant on making use of shower humidity. I don't even use a fan, I just keep the door open for 30 minutes to 1 hour after showering.
posted by spamandkimchi at 10:14 AM on February 28, 2023
A bit of misinformation in here, which is reasonable because the metrics we use to discuss humidity are very confusing. To clear it up:
* Absolute humidity is the amount of water in the air. This is what matters for health.
* Relative humidity is the amount of water in the air divided by the amount of water the air can hold at maximum.
Imagine a cold glass of water. If you bring it outside in when it is 15 degrees F, no condensation will form on the sides - because the air is quite dry.
Bring that glass of ice water inside your warm house, which has 40% relative humidity at 70 degrees. That glass of water will quickly get condensation on the outside. That's because the 40% at 70 degrees has TWICE the water in the air as 100% at 15 degrees.
Your lungs are the glass, and heating the air allows it to hold more moisture. So while the percentage may be lower, the amount of water our lungs get can be higher.
So no, turning down the temperature in your house will not help your dryness.
Do use a whole home humidifier (aprilaire) or shrink film on windows and drink lots of water!
posted by bbqturtle at 11:16 AM on February 28, 2023 [2 favorites]
* Absolute humidity is the amount of water in the air. This is what matters for health.
* Relative humidity is the amount of water in the air divided by the amount of water the air can hold at maximum.
Imagine a cold glass of water. If you bring it outside in when it is 15 degrees F, no condensation will form on the sides - because the air is quite dry.
Bring that glass of ice water inside your warm house, which has 40% relative humidity at 70 degrees. That glass of water will quickly get condensation on the outside. That's because the 40% at 70 degrees has TWICE the water in the air as 100% at 15 degrees.
Your lungs are the glass, and heating the air allows it to hold more moisture. So while the percentage may be lower, the amount of water our lungs get can be higher.
So no, turning down the temperature in your house will not help your dryness.
Do use a whole home humidifier (aprilaire) or shrink film on windows and drink lots of water!
posted by bbqturtle at 11:16 AM on February 28, 2023 [2 favorites]
If you have any interest in houseplants you can display them on tables or windowsills, or even on the floor, placed on a bed of gravel scattered thickly on waterproof rimmed trays. Then pour water in the trays to just below the tray rim, and below the bottom of the pots. Water your plants as usual, and any dripping will go into the tray. The water will gradually evaporate and at the same time keep your plants humidified. (Tip - rimmed trays are usually found in abundance at thrift stores. Trays with higher rims need less refilling.) In the summer, when you want a drier environment just don't add extra water. You can use glass beads, flat rocks, river rocks, stacked ceramic tile, etc. if you prefer those to gravel, anything to lift the pots above the water level. Bonus, your pots will not require saucers beneath them. Depending on how many trays you have this can add a surprising amount of humidity to your rooms.
posted by citygirl at 4:53 PM on February 28, 2023
posted by citygirl at 4:53 PM on February 28, 2023
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posted by never.was.and.never.will.be. at 7:51 AM on February 28, 2023