How Properly Humidify Your Place Can Boost Your Immune System
What is Relative Humidity?
You might wonder why we talk about relative humidity in the wintertime.
First, don’t get confused with the relative humidity and humidity ratio. To simplify the differences, Relative Humidity is pounds moisture per pound of wet air; the Humidity Ratio is the measurement that we typically describe as pounds moisture per pounds of dry air.
To understand this further, we need to look at the Psychrometric charts. This graphic shows important moist air properties such as wet-bulb/ dry bulb temperature(1), enthalpy, dew point, and relative humidity. The cooler air will hold less moisture than warmer air, as a rule of thumb. Since the atmosphere of higher temperature can have more water, it also makes people “feel” dryer.
Assume your dry-bulb temperature shows 72 F and your wet-bulb temperature shows 60 F, then the RH in your room is 50%. But if you heat the same amount of air to 79 F, you will see the RH in your space drop to 40%.
(See graphic below.)
Why does Relative Humidity matter (in the winter)?
It is inevitable to use a heater during the winter in northern America. Turning up the heat and increasing the indoor air exchange rate (2) might result in low humidity in the space and further impact our respiratory and immune systems. There is growing scientific literature showing that the human respiratory-immune system is more robust when the relative humidity is between 40% to 60%(3). Besides purchasing a regular air humidifier, there are a few other ways you could increase the overall humidity level without mechanical devices.
Simple tips to help increase the Relative Humidity (RH):
Of course you could level up your indoor relative humidity by simply getting a humidifier. However, there are some simple tips that can still humidify your place without buying a machine.
Increase RH + Beautify your space at the same time
- Set up containers with water close to the room registers: Filling flower vases or potteries with water (and glass beads if you like). Then place them close to the air register (or sunny window). That will beautify your space and help increase the humidity level.
- Place indoor plants: studies show evapotranspiration from spider and jade plants can improve relative humidity in an interior environment. Spider plants (Chlorophytum comosum) transpire more during lighted periods. In comparison, the jade plants (Crassula argentea) have more excellent evapotranspiration rates during dark periods. Therefore, you could place more jade plants in your bedrooms or bathrooms and spider plants in your brighter areas, such as the living room or sunroom. That will benefit the overall indoor humidity level.
- Making seasonal ornaments: This good article teaches you how to make seasonal pinecone wreaths without gluing or wiring. The author’s method was to soak the pinecone in advance to bind the pinecones together. Pinecones release air moisture during the pinecone’s hygromorph process (from cold/ wet to warm/ dry), thus increasing the overall indoor humidity level.
Increase RH + Save energy at the same time
- Open the door after using the shower: the warm steam will carry the moisture throughout the house (due to convection). Therefore increases the indoors’ overall humidity.
- Using a drying rack inside a room: I place my drying rack directly below the ceiling registers and lay the clothes for a day before putting them in the dryer. That does not only help me with drying clothes faster, but it also increases the overall humidity level and cuts utility bills.
- Using the stovetop rather than the microwave oven to warm up food: the steam will help carry moisture around the space while cooking food on a stovetop.
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