It happens every year. When the weather gets colder, the skin on my hands begins to chap and crack. It’s not the cold that does this. It’s the dryness in the air.
Something I learned this week—the humidity of your house contributes to how warm you feel during winter months. When I attended last year’s Avista Energy Fair, my goody bag included a small digital gauge. It looked like a thermometer, but it had an extra number on it. It measures the humidity of a room. You can find these on Amazon for under $5.
I wondered what effect humidity has on your home in the winter and found lots of resources online. I found this blog post very helpful. When the humidity of a room drops below 30 percent, your skin gets chapped and it feels colder.
You don’t have to get a whole humidifier to add moisture to the room. You can boil a pot or kettle of water on your stove as long as you keep an eye on it. Leave the door open when you shower, or if you are a bath person, open the door when you are finished and let the water cool on its own.
One creative way to add moisture to a room is to place vases of water on elevated surfaces in a room. You want it high enough so it is away from children or pets. You can add decorative rocks, essential oils, cranberries…whatever you want. I took a vase and added some glow-in-the-dark plastic plants for an aquarium, filled it with water and added some plastic fish. You can also get luminary lanterns with floating candles and place them around
your room.These humidity vases may take a little longer than a humidifier, but if you have more humidity, you can turn your heaters down a bit and still feel comfortable.
Lisa, an Avista customer, bought her 1910 house because she loved the old-world character, some of which doesn’t make her house very energy efficient. Lisa is sharing her experience on taking some simple do-it-yourself improvements to inspire others to do the same. You’ll find her stories right here every Tuesday.