A crackling fire, an electric blanket, and an efficient furnace are just three of the ways you and your family can stay nice and warm at home during winter. Unfortunately, such modern luxuries can eliminate moisture from the air, which produces itchy skin, cracked lips, and sore throats. You can avoid all these problems during the season by installing a whole-house humidifier. This appliance improves your winter life in three ways.

Save Money

You normally turn up the home furnace in the winter to get warmer, but the hotter the air gets, then the drier it also becomes. Dry air does not hold warmth as well as air with a slight moisture content. So you turn the heat up higher to get warmer. This vicious circle ends up costing you more money and wears out your furnace.

In contrast, a home with slightly humid air feels warmer, which lets you lower the thermostat. Every degree that you lower your thermostat saves you about four percent, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. The easiest and most convenient way to put moisture back into your home environment is with a whole house humidifier that works with your heating and cooling system.

Improve Your Health

The human body was built to live surrounded by air with slight humidity in it. So having drier air can produce all kinds of health problems, according to Dr. Joseph Mercola, a New York Times Best-Selling Author. For example, your skin can get dry and itchy. Because low humidity increases the evaporation of tears, your eyes can become more irritated. Drier air can irritate the mucous membranes that line your respiratory tract. This can increase your chances of getting infections like the cold and the flu. One study discovered that flu viruses survive longer and spread more readily with low humidity levels.

A whole house humidifier can add just the amounts of moisture into the air that your body is used to. You’ll live healthier because you won’t suffer any of the ills of a dry environment.

Get Comfortable

Dry air can feel uncomfortable because it causes sore throats that can promote snoring, itchy noses that exacerbate allergies or asthma, and scaly skin that feels rough and looks cracked. If the cracks go deep enough or if you keep picking at the scales, your skin may start to bleed.

Lack of moisture can also affect your possessions by drying out wooden furniture and floors, wallpaper, or live plants. Your foliage may die from lack of water, your wooden floors may become less resistant to wear, your wallpaper may start tearing, and your furniture becomes susceptible to breakage.

Because a whole house humidifier adds the same amount of moisture to every room in the house, you’ll feel more comfortable wherever you go (individual room humidifiers will affect each room differently, causing uneven moisture content). You’ll avoid feeling unpleasant, and your possessions in every will last longer.

When you’re ready to discover how a whole-house humidifier can benefit you, call Guaranteed Services for more information.