Anyone remember humidity?
It was everywhere a few months ago. Everyone complained about its summer incarnation–how it dampened shirts, overworked air conditioners and made things moist and just generally uncomfortable.
With the start of home heating season, however, comes the usual change to arid. Our nose starts to itch, our skin starts to dry, and we can’t do enough to welcome humidity back into our homes. Many homeowners attach central humidification systems on our furnaces, or lug portable units from room to room in an effort to increase the “relative humidity”–a measure of moisture held by air compared to the air’s capacity for moistness.
In Death Valley, Calif., the relative humidity runs about 23 percent. Since a heated home can be as dry as 13 percent, our humidity craving is understandable. A dry house is an uncomfortable house.
Aprilaire, a Madison, Wis.-based manufacturer of central humidification units, recently introduced the Auto-Trac control system, aimed at taking some of the past guesswork out of adding moisture to your home’s environment. Auto-Trac is intended to replace the traditional humidistat homeowners have used to increase or decrease the amount of humidity put into the air by a central unit.
“With past central systems, homeowners were not sure if they were getting the right level of humidity in the home. They would see condensation on windows and not be sure how to adjust the system,” said Bob Reichert of Aprilaire.
“Auto-Trac connects indoor and outdoor temperature sensors to a microprocessor, which automatically adjusts to keep the relative indoor humidity at 30 to 50 percent without the homeowner having to make adjustments.”
Reichert added that as the first “smart control” for central humidifiers, the Auto-Trac control system retro-fits to any existing Aprilaire unit for between $40 and $75, though some installations may require more labor than others.
On the surface, such a unit may seem to be a nice, if rather unnecessary technological advance. However, the ongoing medical debate over the value of “artificial” humidification may increase the consumer appeal of such precise automated control.
In the past, the best you could do was use questionable indoor-only gauges and try to play the percentages to safely humidify your home. Under 30 percent and you can still feel dried out and uncomfortable. Over 45 or 50 percent and you create a great environment for the development of dust mites and other respiratory hazards. The percentage is impacted not only by moisture content, but also by the air temperature inside and outside your home.
The Chicago Department of Ventilation says every new furnace must have some type of humidification system. However, Dr. Dean Schraufnagel, president-elect of the Lung Association of Metropolitan Chicago, says the only humidifier the human body really needs is its own respiratory system.
“Lungs don’t need artificial humidity. By the time air gets to the back of the nose it’s 100 percent humidified,” Schraufnagel said. “We probably see a lot more pulmonary problems with humidifiers than without.”
Schraufnagel, also a faculty member at the University of Illinois, said that problems from humidifiers usually stem from a combination of misuse and misunderstanding. Both portable and central units can be fertile breeding areas for mold, mildew and bacteria of all types if they are not thoroughly cleaned on a regular basis.
Additional difficulties can arise for asthma sufferers and even healthy individuals when a home’s relative humidity rises to 45 or 50 percent or higher.
“We see a lot more problems stemming from house dust mites, which are a common cause of asthma attacks and allergy difficulties, in these types of environments,” Schraufnagel said. “That’s because dust mites don’t live in dry environments with humidity below 40 percent.”
So must a homeowner choose between comfort and health during the winter months? Not necessarily, Schraufnagel said. He admitted that while pulmonary specialists usually advise against humidifiers, an ear, nose and throat physician may rightly suggest using them to help sooth coughing or croup.
“As along as you’re meticulous about cleaning them and can stay in the 35 to 50 percent range, you should be able to keep both the comfort you want and avoid health problems that we’ve seen,” he said.
For information on Aprilaire’s Auto-Trac, call 800-545-2219. For additional information on humidifiers and your health, contact the Lung Association of Metropolitan Chicago at 312-243-2000.
– Bits `n’ bytes. Home air cleaners seem to be all the rage these days. Clear the air on what you should and shouldn’t worry about by checking out the Environmental Protection Agency’s Indoor Air Quality home page at www.epa.gov/iaq/. The site includes information on the causes and effects of common home air pollutants, as well as information on school and office air quality.
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Don Hunt and Brian Edwards write about technology related to buying, renting and fixing homes. They can be reached via e–mail at hitekhome@aol.com, or you can write to them: The High-Tech Home, Chicago Tribune, Your Place section, 435 N. Michigan Ave., 4th Floor, Chicago, Ill., 60611.
