On Sun, 19 Mar 2006, William Sutton wrote:
It's usually 20-something percent humidity
too low. You're really interested in the dew point, not the
rel humidity. At 70deg you'd want 40% or so. Since you
aren't bothered by skin problems, just increase the humidity
till the sparks stop. The problems will all go away by
Memorial day when the humidity goes through the roof and
won't be back till Nov.
So does this require buying distilled water?
yes.
Can I get away with tap water or is that filtered?
do not use tap water - it has dissolved minerals (eg silica,
CaS04). The current generation of humidifiers are ultrasonic
and spray whole water droplets into the air, which then
evaporate leaving sharp edged micro-rocks in the air to
settle into your lungs. (The previous generation boiled the
water for you and you could use tap water - except that the
heating element wound up covered with and the tank filled
with hard boiler scale). I doubt if there's been any studies
one way or another on the matter, but since the lungs seem
to have problems with anything but air with a little water
in it, I'll take the safe route. I use about $50 worth of
distilled H2O (in 2.5gal jugs) in a winter. It's cheaper
than the medical bills I used to pay each winter to look
after my skin.
Most of the humidifiers seem to have been designed by people
trying only to make them look attractive - they're hard to
fill, control, too small a tank etc. I have a ReliOn
H-0565-0 with about a 2 gal tank that I use in about 2-3
days (2000sqft house) that I got at WalMart. It's OK apart
from needing to carefully line the top and bottom halves
after filling or they won't mate (oh and the filler cap
cross threads by default - unless you are careful putting it
on). This is better than the previous one.
Joe
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