Did you know a good humidifier can help reduce the severity and frequency of allergy outbreaks?
Well it’s true, they can. Allergy sufferers who’ve purchased high-quality humidifiers often report a dramatically reduced incidence of their most troublesome symptoms.
Types of Humidifiers and How They Function
The basic premise of the humidifier is simple and straightforward. Continue to add liquid water to the machine and it will be converted it to water vapor or steam, which the humidifier will then discharge into the surrounding air space, either under its own power or with additional mechanical assistance.
Point-of-use humidifiers are small, mobile and generally used on a room-by-room basis. If you head to your local hardware store to pick up a humidifier this is the type you’ll be purchasing. But another option is the whole-house humidifier, which as the name implies is built to handle all the humidifying needs of a particular home or place of business. Whole-house humidifiers can be incorporated directly into HVAC systems and will piggyback on their delivery systems to spread moisture-laden air throughout a home’s interior.
How Dry Air Makes Allergies Worse
Dry indoor air is a frequent problem in winter, thanks to the natural dehumidifying effect of extreme outdoor temperatures. But constantly running air conditioners are also potent promoters of excessive atmospheric dryness.
Regardless of the cause, dry indoor air will inevitably increase the intensity of your allergy symptoms. Sore, itchy, dried-out skin, throat, nose, eyes and even ears are common symptoms connected with allergy attacks, and when the air in your home is unusually dry these conditions can become virtually unbearable. Cracked and peeling skin can be especially painful, and if anyone in your family has an existing skin condition it will undoubtedly worsen in the presence of low-humidity air.
Making things worse, when your home is buttoned up tight to protect you against severe weather your risk of an allergy attack will often increase. Indoor air pollution is a serious problem in many, if not most homes, and when ventilation is lacking all the chemical traces, floating dust particles, mold spores, airborne bacteria, pet dander and noxious fumes that cause indoor contamination—and allergy outbreaks—have nowhere to go but directly into your lungs. The air you breathe becomes a toxic stew and there’s nothing you can do to protect yourself from its damaging effects.
To decrease the severity of allergy symptoms, humidifiers should be set to produce relative indoor humidity in the 40-49 percent range. You can experiment to find the setting that feels right to you, but you should be careful to avoid humidity levels above 50 percent since this can encourage the growth of mold and other types of organisms that thrive on excessive moisture.
Mick’s Heating & Air: Your Home Humidity Leaders
Here’s the bottom line: if someone in your family has trouble with allergies, having a humidifier in the home will make them feel better. Humidifiers don’t eliminate allergies but they do provide relief from their symptoms.
Dry air is a familiar problem to Orange County and Southern California homeowners, but if you are dealing with this unpleasant situation you should know help is available. Mick’s Heating & Air is an authorized dealer of Bryant air quality products, and we offer an impressive line of home humidifiers fit for any residential setting. In addition to humidifiers we also sell other outstanding air quality management appliances from Bryant, including air purifiers, ventilators and UV lamps, all of which can help protect you from the ravages of allergies and polluted indoor air.
Your health and the health of your family depends on the quality of the air you breathe. Please call us today to arrange for a visit from one of Mick’s trained experts, who will consult with you and help you develop an aggressive strategy to improve your home’s air quality starting immediately.
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