Increasing the humidity levels in your home can reduce infections, prevent dry skin, and can save you on energy bills by making the air feel warmer.
You have a few choices to raise the humidity in your home including purchasing a whole house dehumidifier, adding house plants, and all the way air drying clothes inside.
Below you’ll find 9 different ways to increase the humidity in your home.
Let’s get started.
Benefits of Increasing Your Home’s Humidity Level
- Higher humidity levels in your home will make the air feel warmer, which will reduce energy bills during the winter
- Low humidity can dry skin leading to red, rough, cracked, and itchy skin
- Low indoor humidity can damage furniture and wood by causing fibers in wood to shrink
- Reduces the likelihood of infection
- Eliminates airborne pollutants and dust
- Reduces electrostatic shocks
9 Ways to Raise the Humidity In Your House
1. Whole house humidifier
The best way to raise the humidity levels in your home is by adding a whole-home humidifier to your warm air supply or returning air duct of a heating system.
This way, you’ll be able to add moisture to every part of your home without having a bulky humidifier in the way.
One downside is that you will not only need to buy the whole home humidifier, but you will also need to pay for installation(as well as the energy bill).
You can opt for a portable version for your house, but you’ll need to replace the water tank every so often.
Placing your humidifier is important, so make sure you read our guide on how to do so.
2. Add houseplants
Houseplants can add moisture to the air in a natural way.
Plants raise the humidity levels in your home by undergoing respiration and photosynthesis.
To make food, they absorb moisture which will then later be released back into the air as moisture.
Plants continuously release moisture in a process called transpiration.
Here are some plants that are known to increase humidity levels:
- Spider plants
- Areca palm
- English ivy
- Rubber plant
- Peace lily
- Boston fern
- Jade plant
3. Boiling water
One way to increase the humidity levels is to boil water and release moisture into the air.
As the water boils it creates water vapor, and you will increase the relative humidity levels in your home.
If you’re cooking, try to leave the lid off of pots and pans while cooking so that the moisture released goes back into your home’s air supply.
4. Leave a bowl of water out
During the winter, you can place bowls of water on top of radiators and near heating vents.
As your heat sources warm the room, the water left in the bowls will evaporate into the air slowly.
You can imagine that leaving out a bowl of water isn’t a practical long-term solution, but it can work in a pinch.
Consider purchasing an aesthetic vase and even consider adding essential oils to make your home smell amazing.
If you don’t feel like leaving water out, you can use a spray bottle and spray the rooms that you want to humidity.
This isn’t going to be an optimal solution as it can damage furniture and wood flooring, but it can work in a jiffy.
5. Purchase a humidifier
If you only need to humidify one room in your home and not the entire home, it may make sense to purchase a standalone humidifier.
They work by spraying fine mist into the air and adding humidity to your air.
If you decide to go with a single room humidifier, I would suggest going with the Levoit Classic 300S Smart Humidifier.
It comes ready with smart features like Alexa Control, has a 6-liter tank requiring less maintenance, and will do a great job to increase humidity levels in your home.
6. Upgrade your insulation
By taking care of the insulation in your home, you’ll have much better humidity control.
During the winter, the dry air can seep into your home through poor insulation reducing the humidity levels.
By making sure your insulation is installed properly, less air will make its way into your home that could alter the humidity level in your home.
7. Leave the bathroom door open
While it may seem silly, leaving your bathroom door open while taking a hot shower can increase your indoor humidity levels.
The moisture released from the hot shower will make its way back into the air, leading to higher humidity in your home.
Using the same concept, you can leave your dishwasher door open as well after a cycle has finished.
The heavy steam will release and increase the ambient humidity.
8. Lower the heat
HVAC systems use forced air to heat your home which will increase evaporation rates, drying out the air in your home faster.
You can slow down this process by lowering your heat to 68F while you’re awake.
You’ll not only increase the humidity in your home but save on electric costs.
9. Air dry clothes inside
Instead of drying your clothes in a dryer, you can dry your clothes inside.
By hanging up the clothes, you’ll be able to release moisture back into the air of your home.
It may not be ideal to line dry your clothes, but it can be an alternative solution. It’ll also save you money on energy bills that you may incur from your dryer.
5 Ways to Reduce Humidity Levels In Your Home
1. Fix leaks
If water is coming into your home, you’ll be increasing your home humidity levels.
If you’re finding that water leakage is a common problem in your home, you should hire a professional to take a look at the problem.
Click the button below to speak to our HVAC specialists who are ready nationwide to assist you.
2. Install a whole home dehumidifier
A whole home humidifier is a great way to lower humidity levels.
They can aid in preventing bacteria growth, respiratory problems, and any structural damage that may come from high humidity levels.
I recommend looking through our list of best whole home dehumidifiers and finding one that can hook into your HVAC system.
This way, it’ll be out of sight and out of mind.
They’ll also help regulate the temperature in your home and can work during the cold months with their auto defrost features.
If you’re not interested in a dehumidifier, you can try these methods of dehumidifying your home without a dehumidifier.
3. Turn off humidifiers/kerosene heaters
If you’ve left your humidifier on and you’re finding condensation around your home, it’s a sign that there is more humidity in the room than necessary.
Kerosene heaters can also produce water vapor if they’re unvented.
While not many homes are using kerosene heaters these days, it can still be an issue if you’re unaware.
4. Use exhaust fans
Trapped steam from your shower can cause mold and mildew growth.
By using an exhaust fan, you can remove any excess moisture in the air and release it back outside.
If you have a garage, you can check out the best garage exhaust fans.
5. Ventilate crawl spaces
According to the EPA, you can prevent excess moisture by putting plastic covers over dirt in your crawlspace.
Final Thoughts
Increasing humidity in your home can be vital to reduce any damage to skin, damage to furniture and can make the air feel warmer in your home.
If your problem is severe, then it’s recommended to look into a whole house humidifier to ease the humidity problems you’re having.
You can also try alternative solutions like drying clothes inside, leaving bowls of water out and even taking more hot showers to increase humidity levels.
