whole-house humidifier

6 Benefits of Adding a Humidifier to Your HVAC System

October 8, 2019 by Thomas Hoffmann Leave a Comment

If you notice that your skin tends to get very dry in the winter and hot days are almost insufferable during the summer, you might have a problem with dry air.

Do you ever feel like the air in your home is not making you comfortable enough, although you carefully control the temperature all the time through the HVAC system? If you notice that your skin tends to get very dry in the winter and hot days are almost insufferable during the summer, you might have a problem with dry air.

Many households have an air humidity level that is too low, leading to various issues. Ideally, you would have a 40-60% moisture level in the air. Using a humidifier to keep this level constant will improve your health, protect your house and help you spend less money.

Health Benefits

Having an air humidifier installed in your home brings numerous health benefits. You will immediately start seeing improvements in various breathing and skin problems. Here are some examples:

Improves Allergy Symptoms

Dry air feels extremely uncomfortable for people with allergies. It leads to difficulty breathing, itchy nose and skin, coughing, dry skin and throat, and so on. Humid air alleviates allergy symptoms and complements your treatment, helping you feel better again.

Alleviates Cough Symptoms

A humidifier can be bliss when you have a cough. It improves the air quality and helps your throat by keeping your airways moist.

Helps You Breathe Easier

Raising the humidity in your home can also dramatically improve a stuffy nose. Increase the air humidity levels to 60-70% and you will immediately see the difference. This change will also help you and your children sleep better.

Prevents Dry and Cracked Skin

If you’ve been dealing with dry skin, cracked heels, elbows, and lips and generally feel like you constantly need to apply lotion, the air in your home may be to blame. A humidifier will relieve the dry skin symptoms and keep you better hydrated and more comfortable.

Protecting Your House and Belongings

Dry air doesn’t only affect your health and comfort level, but it can damage your property as well. If the air humidity drops below 30-40%, your wood items and structure can suffer.

By constantly pumping heat in your home and not checking the air humidity levels with a hygrometer, you are drawing moisture out of your furniture, wood panels, and floors. Dry wood may crack easily, leading to expensive repairs and replacements.

Another sign that the moisture levels in your house are much too low is static electricity. If you receive a shock each time you handle your linens or try to put a sweater on, check the air humidity level.

Saving Money

An air humidifier will help you save money too. Humid heat feels hotter than dry heat thanks to the water particles carrying the energy. Therefore, you won’t have to turn the heat up so much when your house has optimal moisture levels.

Adding a humidifier to your HVAC system is the best way of enjoying these benefits, without worrying too much about maintaining it and constantly moving it from one room to another. Give Thomas Hoffmann Air Conditioning & Heating LLC a call today at (314) 471-7625 to learn more!

6 Low-Cost Ways to Increase Air Quality in Your Home

January 28, 2019 by Thomas Hoffmann Leave a Comment

Applying these six low-cost methods can increase the quality of your air.

Do you ever get the feeling that your air quality at home isn’t up to standard? While this suspicion is difficult to confirm, there is a good chance that you’re correct. The reason is that humans have an excellent sense of when conditions aren’t quite right. If you feel that way about your surroundings, then it may be time to make some changes that will benefit your air quality. We detail some of the best of them in the sections below.

Keep it Clean

One of the primary pollutants that compromises in-home air quality is dust. As you might imagine, the best way to avoid it is by cleaning it up. You can do so by purchasing a vacuum with a HEPA filter for the floors, then using cleaning products for the rest of your surfaces. One thing to watch out for is that many of these products contain potentially harmful chemicals, so be careful with which ones you choose.

Control Humidity

The interesting thing about humidity is that is isn’t all bad or all good. Instead, having too much or too little of it are both bad for your air quality. The result is that your best bet is reaching a healthy equilibrium. Fortunately, humidifiers and dehumidifiers are both reliable products, so you can purchase the one that your home needs.

Don’t Smoke Inside

One of the worst things you can do for air quality in your home is smoke. Doing so adds particulates and many other harmful compounds into the air, and they will cause your health to suffer. If you or a guest in your home decide to smoke, your best bet is doing so outside.

Use an Exhaust Fan or Crack the Windows

Cooking is another everyday activity that decreases the quality of your air. The reason is that many stoves and ovens use burning gas to heat your food. The result of doing so can release harmful chemicals into your home. Using an exhaust fan or opening a nearby window decreasing your exposure significantly.

Clean Your HVAC Filter

As we mentioned above, dust is a crucial factor in your home’s air quality. While cleaning will do a lot to neutralize it, there are other sources of dust in your home. The most important of them is your HVAC filter, which can clog up quickly. You can protect yourself by cleaning it regularly.

Get More Plants

Not only are plants beautiful pieces of home decor, but they are also little air cleaning machines. The result is a house that looks better and protects your health.

Applying these six low-cost methods can increase the quality of your air. Unfortunately, there are sometimes other problems that require professional help, and they almost always come from your HVAC system. If you suspect this is the case in your home, give Thomas Hoffmann Air Conditioning and Heating a call at (314) 471-7625.

Benefits of a Whole House Humidifier – How Does it Work?

July 30, 2018 by Thomas Hoffmann Leave a Comment

A whole house humidifier eliminates symptoms such as dry skin, nosebleeds, static electricity, and scratchy throats.

You may be tempted to blame the temperature when your home feels uncomfortable inside. But in reality there’s another factor at work that affects the way your house feels, humidity levels.

During the summer months in St. Louis we don’t seem to lack any humidity. But during the winter months, it can get very dry because humidity levels lower. This can make you feel colder, dry out your skin, damage your home, and make it easier for viruses to spread between family members. However, these problems can be solved by having a whole-house humidifier installed.

How a Whole-House Humidifier Works

You are likely familiar with the portable humidifiers that are set up in a baby’s nursery or in your kid’s room when they are sick. But a whole house humidifier takes the same technology a step further, it ensures that the indoor air quality in your home remains high all year.

It works right along with your existing heating and cooling system. Attached to your system, a whole house humidifier brings water vapor into the duct system through a distribution tray. This helps adjust the humidity levels in your home and also prevents harmful materials from entering the air. You’re able to monitor and control the humidity level with your thermostat.

Benefits of a Whole House Humidifier

There are several benefits of having a whole house humidifier installed but here are the 4 primary benefits:

Provides Total Comfort
Protects Your Family’s Health
Protects Your Home and Furnishings
Saves Energy and Money

Provides Total Comfort

A whole house humidifier eliminates symptoms such as dry skin, nosebleeds, static electricity, and scratchy throats. It helps the temperature remain consistent all year long.

Protects Your Family’s Health

In addition to helping with dry noses, skin and throats, humidifiers help prevent your family’s likelihood of catching the flu or a cold. Our respiratory systems has a mucus membrane that defends our body from viruses and germs. When humidity levels are low, the mucus membrane can dry out and reduce our body’s ability to fight off illnesses.

Protects Your Home and Furnishings

A humidifier protects furniture and wood flooring as well. Because wood relies on a certain amount of moisture in the air, when the air is dry furniture and floors can crack and even warp over time.

Saves Energy and Money

It is possible to save as much as 4% on your heating bill for every degree you lower your thermostat. When humidity levels are higher, you will feel warmer which will allow you to keep your house at a lower temperature thus saving you money!

St. Louis Whole House Humidifier

Whether you need a brand new humidifier installed or you need repair or maintenance to your current humidifier system, trust Thomas Hoffmann Air Conditioning & Heating LLC to help answer any questions and solve your indoor air quality issues.

We are one of the few heating and air conditioning companies in St. Louis that has a master technician and mechanical engineer as an owner. This fact, combined with our more than 30 years of experience gives us an advantage over our competition. Call us today at (314) 471-7625 or fill out our online contact form.

Should I Buy a Humidifier or a Dehumidifier For My Home?

December 16, 2014 by Thomas Hoffmann 1 Comment

Some homes are just too humid in the summer and too dry in the winter.

Humidity levels inside a home should range between 30 to 60 percent, depending on what season it is. In the summer, the humidity level can go as high as 60 percent; in the winter the heat pump can bring the level down to below 30 percent. To keep your family comfortable, you will need to invest in both a humidifier and dehumidifier to take care of the seasonal fluctuations in relative humidity. When the humidity drops below 30 percent, the humidifier can bring it up to a comfortable level, and when it hits the 50 percent mark, the dehumidifier will do the trick.

Relative Humidity – How It Affects Your Health

Too high or too low humidity can have an adverse affect on your health, and it may be necessary to use a mechanical device to bring it up or down to a normal level. If you feel your skin is too dry or you are experiencing other skin problems such as eczema, then it is a sign you need to increase the humidity. Dry air can cause other symptoms as well, including congestion, sore throat, nosebleeds, dry sinuses, and a persistent cough. To alleviate these symptoms, invest in a humidifier.

On the other hand, if the humidity is too high, it can aggravate allergy symptoms and asthma. In the summer when you are using your air conditioning system, you may not require a dehumidifier; but in the fall and spring when your HVAC system is not in use, you may need a dehumidifier.

Relative Humidity – How It Affects Your Home

Dry air can have an adverse affect on natural materials such as leather and wood. You will need a humidifier to bring the humidity to the 40 percent mark to prevent cracking of musical instruments, leather furniture, window panes, and other such things in your home.
High moisture can promote the growth of mold and mildew. The early signs of high humidity inside a home are wet stains, a musty smell, window condensation, and rotting wood. If you have noticed these problems in your home, then you need a dehumidifier.

Choosing a Dehumidifier and Humidifier

It is important to choose a humidifier that is the right size for your home. You can choose between a tower, console, or tabletop humidifier. Humidifiers are available in two types: hot mist humidifier and cool mist humidifiers. If you want to humidify the entire house, you can invest in a whole house humidifier that is integrated with your HVAC system. Look for features such as a digital display, adjustable humidity level, automatic shut-off, and timer.

When choosing a dehumidifier for your home, capacity should be your first criteria. You can choose between a portable and whole house dehumidifier. The various features that you can look for are adjustable humidistat, digital display, auto shut-off, built-in pump, multispeed fan, and automatic defrost.

To get the moisture levels inside your home under control, get in touch with Thomas Hoffmann Air Conditioning & Heating LLC at (314) 471-7625.

Benefits of a Humidifier in an HVAC System

March 4, 2014 by Thomas Hoffmann Leave a Comment

HVAC experts recommend whole-house humidifiers to best improve the internal air quality.

A humidifier is an appliance that adds moisture to the air in the form of water vapors. There are various types of humidifiers available in the market. From stand alone humidifiers for a single room to whole-house humidifiers you have enough choice to meet your needs. A whole-house humidifier is attached to the home’s HVAC system. It connects directly with the water supply of the house and produces steam humidification. This steam travels through the duct work of the HVAC system and humidifies air in the entire house.

Assessing the Need for a Whole-House Humidifier

Most modern HVAC systems come equipped with a humidifier. If you do not have one in your HVAC system, you should call on a HVAC company to have it installed, because no matter how sophisticated your HVAC system is, it would never be able to provide you with perfect air quality unless it has a humidifier installed with it. If you are feeling cold in spite of your heating system working at its full capacity, or if you suffer from an irritated nose quite often, then there are chances that the air inside your house is too dry, and you need a humidifier.

Dry air can cause many problems. It cannot only damage your health and comfort, but also play havoc with your furniture, flooring, wall paint, and other property. Here are some benefits that you can achieve by installing a humidifier in your HVAC system:

Health Benefits

Dry air causes discomfort and several respiratory problems. You may find it hard to breathe in dry winter air and the nose tends to remain dry and irritated. Patients of asthma become particularly troubled in dry air. Not only this, dry air also causes skin irritation, skin dryness, and chapped lips. Dry air also makes the membranes thinner causing nose bleeds. A humidifier can help improve the air quality and relieve all the discomfort and prevent health problems caused by dry air.

Energy Savings

Dry air makes you feel colder, but on the other hand, moist air makes you feel warmer even at the same temperature. The humidifier increases the moisture in the air and so you feel less cold. So, if you feel cold even when the heating system is on, it means you need a humidifier in your HVAC system. This helps take some load off the heating system, and saves energy. This translates into lower power bills.

Other Benefits

Dry air not only poses health threats, but also causes the flooring and furniture to crack and become brittle. It may also cause the furniture finish and paint to peel. A humidifier can make the air moist and prolong the life of your property. If you plan to get a humidifier installed in your HVAC system, or you need to carry out routine maintenance on your humidifier and HVAC system, you can get in touch with Thomas Hoffmann Air Conditioning & Heating LLC at (314) 471-7625.

Photo credit: Debbie Kirkland Realtor via Flickr

6 Benefits of Adding a Humidifier to Your HVAC System

If you notice that your skin tends to get very dry in the winter and hot days are almost insufferable during the summer, you might have a problem with dry air.