Humidifiers help to maintain the humidity levels in homes within optimal levels. During winter, cold and dry air may cause health problems for people. Breathing cold air can irritate your lungs and cause related respiratory issues. Also, when the humidity level in the home is too low, your skin may begin to itch.
If you are living in a two-story house, the relative humidity may be low in some areas. Whole-house humidifiers help by providing humid air in the home. Yet, for any type of humidifier to help, you need to place it in the right position.
So, humidifier placement is an important decision. In this post, we will answer the question of the best place to put a humidifier in a 2-story house or any other premise.
What is the Best Place to Put a Humidifier?
You should place a humidifier on a piece of wood. The humidifier should be at least two feet above the ground. Also, put your humidifier in a position where it will maximize the humidity levels in the house. This advice applies to all types of humidifiers, including portable units.
General Humidifier Placement Factors
You can have the biggest humidifier but still, experience poor indoor air quality. This is possible if you do not place your humidifier in the room in the right position. You need to consider several factors to ensure that the humid air spreads around the house.
Here are some of the most important factors to think about when placing your humidifier.
Vicinity to Objects
Humidifiers function by producing either a cool mist or a warm mist. A cool-mist humidifier produces cool air that flows around the room. The cool mist increases the room’s humidity level. , the warm mist from a warm mist humidifier improves the dry indoor air. Thus, all types of humidifiers improve very dry air by adjusting humidity levels.
When there is an obstacle in front of the humidifier, the mist may not spread around the home. This may cause excess moisture to build up in some parts of the room. An obstacle may be a piece of furniture or even drapery. If you place the humidifier behind the furniture, the mist will not spread fast enough in the whole house.
Thus, it is advisable to place your humidifier in a central location in your living room, for example. It is unlikely that you will have obstacles at the center of your living room. Thus, the mist from the humidifier will spread in all directions in your house.
You may even leave the room doors open if you place the humidifier in a central location in your living room. This will allow the mist to spread around the whole house. The humidifier will then add moisture to the air all around the house.
Airflow
The type of humidifier that you use determines the amount of space and level of airflow. For example, a cool-mist humidifier requires proper air circulation to function well. If you place this type of humidifier in a small room, you should ensure there is enough air inside the room.
Most humidifiers work well when the windows and doors are open. You can also use a fan to ensure that the humidifier lowers the room’s humidity level. It is also important to place your humidifier away from air vents. Air vents produce streams of air. The air streams may interfere with the way your humidifier releases moisture.
Room Size
The size of your room is an important factor to consider when placing your humidifier. For example, if you have a large living room, place the humidifier in a centralized location.
This applies to a whole-house humidifier as well as an ultrasonic humidifier. If you have a small room, it makes sense to place a humidifier in the best location. The mist from the humidifier will humidify dryer air in all parts of the room.
What Room should you Place your Humidifier?
On the surface, place your warm mist humidifier or cool mist humidifier in the room with dryer air. The humidifier will improve the relative humidity level of the air inside the room. But, in practice, the decision on where to put your humidifier goes deeper than this.
If you have a big and noisy humidifier, you may consider placing it as far away as possible from where people are. This is important if you need to use a humidifier in an office. But, if you intend to use your humidifier in the home, place it in the room where people sit most of the time. This will help the people enjoy air that has enough moisture.
If you are unsure of which room to place it in, use a hygrometer to determine the humidity levels. Portable units do not have an inbuilt humidistat. Thus, they lack the feature of adjusting humidity levels when they are running.
You can use a hygrometer to determine the actual relative humidity levels in all rooms in your home. You can then choose the room with the lowest levels and place a humidifier inside.
Should you Place the Humidifier on a Table or on the Floor?
You can place the humidifier either on a table or on the floor. Where you place your humidifier depends on the type of humidifier as well as your needs. It is a good idea to place your humidifier at least 2 inches off the ground. At this height, your humidifier will distribute the moisture around the home.
Where you place your humidifier determines how well it works. If you place your humidifier in the wrong position, you will not control the relative humidity in your home. Whereas some humidifiers should be at the top of an object, some should be on the floor.
The question of whether you should place the humidifier on a table or on the floor is very important. You need to consider the type of humidifier that you are using before deciding where to put it. Some humidifiers’ designed capacity enables them to work well when they are on the floor. For others, you should place them on the table for the greatest performance.
An ultrasonic humidifier works from an evaporative humidifier. If you have an ultrasonic humidifier, it is a good idea to place it on a wooden object. This type of humidifier works well when it’s off the ground. Placing ultrasonic humidifiers on the floor may not be a good idea. The humidifier may cause excess moisture. Excess moisture on the wood floors may create mold.
Also, if you have a large humidifier, it may be good to place it on the floor. The large humidifier may be too heavy to be safe on a wooden surface. Placing such a humidifier on the floor will ensure that it does not fall down if one knocks it by accident.
Humidifier Placement for Bedrooms
Bedrooms are the most common places where people place humidifiers. You always spend a lot of time in your bedroom while sleeping. Using a humidifier at night is important to help maintain the humidity levels.
Yet, how you place your humidifier in your bedroom is important. You do not want to wake up with a moisture air-filled floor in the bedroom. Also, you do not want to wake up with respiratory problems.
The rule of thumb is to keep your humidifier at least three meters from the bed. You should not breathe the mist that the humidifier produces when it is working. The mist may interfere with the way you breathe. Also, ensure that there is no object in front of the humidifier. Having such obstacles may prevent your humidifier from working well.
Some people place the humidifier on a plastic tray. The tray prevents the water from the humidifier from reaching the floor of your bedroom. Some humidifiers may leak. Thus, placing them on a plastic tray at night is a good idea.
Avoid placing your humidifier in the bedroom near windows. Direct sunlight may promote bacterial growth in the humidifier. When there is too much bacterial growth, your humidifier will produce contaminated mist.
This may interfere with your health by causing skin problems. Also, the white stuff in the mist may cause breathing problems in some people.
Humidifier Placement for Living Rooms
One of the key factors to consider when making humidifier buying decisions is the room size. In most homes, the living room is the largest room. People congregate at different spots in the living room. Thus, you should ensure that you place the humidifier at the appropriate place.
If you place the humidifier too close to the people in the living room, the people may inhale the mist. If you place it far away from where people are, house humidifiers may not serve you well.
If you have a whole house humidifier, place it at a central location in the living room. Similarly, cool mist humidifiers work well when you place them in a central location in a room. Also, warm mist humidifiers will also produce warm mist around the whole living room.
Humidifier Placement in 2 Story House
Many people are not sure about the best place to put a humidifier in 2 story house. Yet, this should not be a problem if you understand a basic principle. Always place a humidifier in the area with the coldest floor. This area may be high humidity areas like the downstairs basement or even the laundry room.
Humidifier Placement in Baby Room
You should consider the safety of the baby when placing a humidifier in the baby’s room. If you would like the humidifier to run in the baby’s room for the whole night, keep away from the bed. A humidifier can cause a serious fire hazard if the baby accidentally steps on its cords.
Also, consider using a cool mist humidifier in the baby’s bedroom at night. The cool mist humidifier will maintain the humidity levels at the right range. Also, cool mist humidifiers are safer than warm mist humidifiers for children’s rooms.
Humidifier Upstairs or Downstairs
If you have a storied house, place your humidifier in the area with the lowest temperature. Ideally, place the humidifier in rooms downstairs. The temperature and humidity level on the second floor differs from that of the first floor.
This difference is because of the activities that you carry out in the house. But, you should ensure that you do not have excess moisture upstairs.
Where should I put a Whole-House Humidifier?
Put your large humidifier or whole house humidifier in a place where the mist will spread. Always place your larger humidifier on the floor to prevent it from falling. Keep objects away from the humidifier so that the mist spreads well.
Conclusion
Where you place your humidifier depends on many factors. The main goal is to ensure that the relative humidity in your home is at the right levels. You should avoid having excessive moisture in the air even with the door closed.
If you have a two-story house, place the humidifier in the room with the coldest floor. If you have a large living room, place the humidifier near the center of the room.
For bedrooms, ensure that the humidifier is at least three meters from the bed. This also lowers the chances of a fire hazard at night.