In the second installment of our Humidifier 101 series, we take a closer look at home humidifiers. Here are some DIY ways to humidify your home on the cheap.
Placing bowls of water around your home is a simple way to add moisture to the air -- without the cost of buying a humidifier. Chimpr, Flickr
The cold winter weather outside, coupled by indoor heating systems, easily sucks all the moisture out of your home. Low humidity levels can also lead to a host of problems including dry skin, sore throats, along with cracks in paint and wood furniture.
Adding a humidifier is an easy way to replace this lost moisture in your home, but at times humidifiers can require high maintenance and more space and money than you would like to expend. Luckily, even on the tightest of budgets, there are inexpensive tricks to humidify your home.
Essentially a humidifier boils water and evaporates it into the air. These basics make it easy to achieve the same effect without purchasing another gadget. Keep in mind that there are store-bought humidifiers that can be attained at affordable prices, plus have a greater reach than homemade options. But if you're in a pinch or need relief ASAP, these DIY humidifiers will do the trick:
Getty Images
- Boil a large pot of water on the stove. This releases moisture into the air in the form of steam; the same way as a humidifier. The downside to this method is that the moisture is limited to the area in close proximity to the stove. If you want to circulate the moist air, add a fan next to the stove to blow the air out and away, increasing it's reach.
Getty Images
- Run hot water in the shower to produce steam. Alternatively, if you take baths, leave the water in the tub after you've finished bathing. Both are short-term solutions that can help those suffering through a cold. However, they're not without their drawbacks. First, you're wasting quite a bit of water, which can be expensive. In addition, the steam won't extend a great distance from the bathroom. So a fan is also needed or you'll have to sit in the bathroom to absorb the increased humidity. Like boiling water on the stove, you cannot run your shower all night. Therefore, this is a very short-term option that can be much more expensive and wasteful than purchasing an inexpensive humidifier.
- Place bowls of water around your home. Similar to the way
houseplants emit water vapor like living humidifiers, the water from the bowls will evaporate and add moisture to the air. Increase the humidity even more by placing a water bowl on top of a radiator to heat the water. Avoid placing the water bowls near electrical devices.
SEE ALSO:
Humidifiers 101: Say Goodbye to Dry Air
5 Humidifiers to Consider [Apartment Therapy]
How to Humidify Your Home [Lowes]
Controlling Humidity Levels at Home [Re-nest]
The Best Humidifiers [Switch]
Judi Roaman: We Talk Endlessly About the Next President,…
Reader comments (Page 1 of 1)
DON'T BOIL WATER !! THE COST OF THE ELECTRIC IS TOO HIGH FOR THE AMOUNT OF WATER YOU PUT INTO THE AIR.
ReplyGreat freaking article. "DIY Humidifiers for less"....then they go on to tell you how wasteful and inefficient they are.
ReplyGo to the drugstore and buy a $10 plastic humidifier (vicks) It works great!
Danger: a pot on the stove, if the water should empty, will become hot enough to catch the nearby walls or cabinetry on fire from the radiant heat. House fire in our neighborhood from this. Bachelor's humidifier--ice trays with water on the radiator with drapes in the water to act as wicks (they looked terrible the next summer from water stains, but it stopped the nosebleeds).
Reply:)
Once the water evaporates from the ice tray, isn't there a danger that the drapes will catch fire?
boiling water or running the hot water in your tub wastes not only energy but also waste water. the bathroom paint will peel and you could also have a mold or mildew problem if the steam around baseboards or cabinets above the stove aren't wiped down after you forget to check the water and it all evaporates and burns your pots.a store bought humidifier requires only that you fill it when needed, once a day to start and it just sprays a mist of water into the air not steam. imagine if it heated the water to boiling and your toddler fell asleep in front of it or worse knocked it over. you can get a decent humidifier for around $50 and you can move it into your bedroom at night. try doing that with your stove or bath tub. i have a humidifier in my living room and it works fine. in the bedroom we have a small waterfall that flows over rocks and adds water to the air it's only about 8" tall and 4or5 inches wide and the sound of the water is very relaxing. if you have hot air heat which we do in the old part of the house have a humidfier hooked up to your oil burner , less than $200 installed and it works 24/7 can be adjust to what % humidity you desire the 200 bucks is about what you'll spend boiling water and running the tub in about 2 months time. remember you want to correct a problem not create another one. diy is good but i having been in the appliance trade for 40 years find a lot of faults with their quick fixes. like mike holmes says if you're gonna do it do it right the 1st time.
ReplyReally thanks, for suggesting number of most effective and inexpensive ways to humidify our homes like boiling of water on stove, running hot water through showers and by placing bowls of water around home. And, I find placing bowls as one of the easiest trick.
Replyhttp://www.barcodelabelsoftware.net