The Whole House Humidifier Story Every Parent Needs To Read
As a parent, did you know a whole house humidifier can solve the frustration of room humidifiers, keep kids healthy, and protect your home? Read on for my personal story!
As I stood there in the dark, bare feet on the cold wet carpet, holding in the normal screams of pain that should accompany such a jolt to the senses to prevent waking the sleeping baby, I promised that it would never happened again. Any parent who’s ever used a room humidifier for their kids knows this frustration, or an associated one, of these allegedly helpful contraptions. Ours (pictured below) seems benign enough, happy even. And maybe my story is a touch hyperbolic, but not much.
If it’s not kicking it over in the middle of the night, it’s the tedious and messy process of refilling it daily. With the water in Indiana, mine seemed to become immediately scaled with lime. So then I felt compelled to attempt to clean in with Lime Away. Then I was concerned I was pumping harmful chemicals into our newborns room. As he started crawling, our anxiety then moved to the fact that we had something full of water plugged into the wall, and our tiny electrician would find a way to electrocute himself. Again, maybe I’m just a crazy new parent whose mind races to the worst case scenario. Maybe you, too, have dealt with similar issues and slippery slope scenarios.
What my window into the heating and cooling industry has provided is the awareness that there is an easier, better, and not too expensive way to permanently address this issue, a whole house humidifier.
Starting with the basics, there are three main types of a whole house humidifier: bypass, fan-powered, or steam. For most homes the bypass or fan-powered is a sufficient solution that can put upwards of 15 – 20 gallons of moisture into your homes air daily.
If you’re a parent, you know the practical benefit for your children to keeping a healthy relative humidity level in the air. While the effort to refill the room humidifier daily isn’t overwhelming, I can tell you from personal experience that not having to think about that detail is very nice. Especially with two kids now, “going to bed” is already time and effort intensive enough. Outside of the benefits for your kids and your time, the benefits are numerous helping homeowners overcome a number of common winter problems.
The installation process is usually straightforward and easy, taking around a half day to complete for one technician. He will directly tap into the waterline so that the humidifier can pull water as needed to meet the humidity setting. That humidity setting is controlled either through a device called a humidistat or a thermostat with a humidity control feature. Just like you would set your temperature on a thermostat, you can set your ideal humidity level, which usually ranges between 35-45% relative humidity.
Once it is installed, maintenance is minimal. You or your heating and cooling technician needs to replace your humidifier pad at least once per year. With the hard water in Indiana, this pad serves as a filter to keep the mechanical components of your system protected.
We’ve had our whole house humidifier for 6 winters now. No room humidifiers needed. I can’t isolate it to this one thing, but our kids have largely avoided being sick. We have no static in our home. I no longer need to sleep with a water bottle next to my bed. Our wood floors and crown molding has stopped cracking.
Sound like something you’re interested in? Setup a complimentary appointment with a Homesense Comfort Technician today via 317-203-8149 with any other questions.