Balancing Humidity

Balanced humidity is important not only for your family's optimal health and comfort but also for your house.  Lower levels of water vapor in the air can increase bothersome static electricity,and too high humidity levels can encourage molds and mildew.

During winter, the first sign of overly humid air is condensation on the inner surface of windows.  Though this normally isn't a serious problem, the same condensation may collect on the inner surfaces of exterior walls.  This can rot the structure and ruin insulation.  Peeling, blistering or cracking paint usually indicates this condition.

Keeping humidity at the proper level often demands mechanical asistance.  On sultry summer days, when indoor humidity rises abaove the comfort range, many people turn on air conditioners or dehumidifiers to help dry the air.  And when the dry winter heating season sets in and drops relative humididty to skin-chafing lows, boosting the humidity usually calls for a humidifier.

 A humidifier is simply a device that puts water vapor into a home's air.  Depending upon its water-output capacity, it may serve a single room or the entire house.  Room-size humidifiers are referred to as "tabletop" units.  To humidify a whole house, you need either a freestanding cabinet "console" unit or a "central" humidifier that ties into the home's forecd-air heating system.

Central evaporative humidifiers are hooked up to the heating equipment, and water is piped directly to them, so they're out of sight and out of mind most of the time.  Because they deliver humidified air directly to rooms throughout the house, they're particularly efficient.  The only drawbacks are that you need a forced-air system to operate a central humidifier and humidificaiton takes place only when the forced-air system is running (this isn't a problem in most homes because it is generally the heating process that dries out the air).

For professional Duct Cleaning and Furnace Cleaning in Calgary and area call 403-291-1051