Healthy Humidity Levels In Your Home

How much humidity should be maintained in the house during winter?
When the outside temperature is at freezing (32° Fahrenheit or 0° Celsius) or above, indoor air should be kept at a humidity (amount of moisture in the air) of 35 percent to 40 percent. When the outside temperature decreases to 150 Fahrenheit (9° Celsius), indoor air humidity should be maintained at 30 percent. At 0° Fahrenheit (-180 Celsius), indoor air humidity may drop to about 20 percent.

To determine if the humidity in your home is adequate, place three ice cubes in a glass of water and allow them to stand for five minutes. If the room has adequate moisture in the air, then plenty of condensation—beads of water—will form on the outside of the glass. If condensation does not occur within 5 to 15 minutes, the room is too dry.

Sources: Heloise. All New Hints from Heloise


How to improve winter humidity in your home

When the cold winter winds blow outside, people indoors jack up the heat to a higher degree. While this may allay the chill seaping into the house, it also robs rooms of valuable humidity. As the air inside dries, skin, hair, and nails dry along with it, potted plants suffer, and health is affected.

How can you add humidity to a home in Winter without the use of a central humidifier appliance? There are several inexpensive and simple ways to maintain or increase moisture levels for maximum comfort. Not only can these basic methods increase humidity, they can actually help you save money by reducing problems associated with low humidity levels.

Add Humidity Indoors - Use Humidifiers

Electronic humidifiers are not only useful for babies and children with chest colds. Use either a warm or cool air humidifier in the main rooms of your house as well as the bedrooms to increase moisture content in the air. Be careful when running a humidifier. The steam vent should be pointed away from walls and furniture and the water level must be maintained properly.

Add Humidity Indoors - Water House Plants Well

Not only will your thirsty houseplants thank you for watering them more frequently in the dry indoor winter air, the moisture in the soil can help add humidity to the room as well. Plants constantly realease water vapor through their leaves, and the soil and tray under the potted plant can also be a source of evaporated humidity.

Add Humidity Indoors - Dry Laundry Indoors

While hanging out socks from a rack in the living room might not be in line with "House Beautiful" standards, it will help add humidity to a home in winter. Put pressure bars in doorways or hang shirts on hangers hooked to doorframes. Not only will you add moisture to the air, you will save on electricity costs by not running your dryer.

Add Humidity Indoors - Direct Water

To add even more humidity to your home in winter, set out shallow dishes filled with water here and there throughout the room. Especially put one wherever the hot air vents blow air. This will speed up the evaporatiion and circulate more moisture. You can also purchase a small spray bottle that creates a fine mist. Fill with clean water and spritz the air for a quick burst of humidity. You can even lightly spray curtaiins or furniture that can not be damaged by water.

Adding humidity to your home in winter will not only make the rooms more comfortable, but can help prevent painful dry skin, eyes, and nasal passages

Winter "Tune-Up"

A Winter ‘tune-up’ for your home

Winter is a time of year when many of us resolve to get ourselves in trim, whether it’s joining the gym or a dance class, or perhaps buying some exercise machinery for our home. We devote a lot of attention to our cars too, putting on the snow tires, changing to winter anti-freeze, loading a bag of salt in the trunk. But what about a ‘tune-up” to get your home operating at top efficiency? While we’re snuggled in at home during the winter months, its a good time to make a few home ‘tune ups’ that could save you money while helping your home to run more efficiently.

A good place to start is by making your home more energy efficient. There are many ways to do it for very little expense. For a modest investment in the $50 range, a thermostat timer will allow you to pre-set your thermostat to turn itself down a few degrees after you go to bed each night, and turn the temperature back up before you get out of bed each morning. If you’re normally out of the house all day, you can achieve even greater savings by repeating the process when you leave your home each day.

Another simple and inexpensive way to improve energy efficiency is to wrap your water heater in insulating material to reduce heat loss. This small task can deliver savings that will really add up over the course of a year. You can also reduce heat loss by installing small pre-cut insulating pads under the cover plate of wall plugs and switches on the walls around your home’s perimeter. Dimmer switches, and the energy-efficient light bulbs will also reduce energy and save you money too.

Your home ‘tune-up’ should include a check of the fire alarms and carbon monoxide detectors throughout your home. You should be sure that you have a working smoke alarm (and that means testing the batteries at least twice a year). installed on every floor of your house. Also, clean the air filters on your furnace. You should also consider having a furnace inspection to ensure its running safely and performing at top efficiency. Again, your energy savings may even cover the cost of the inspection, and the peace of mind it delivers is priceless.

Want to know more about keeping your home running at optimum levels, and preserving its future resale value? Contact me, and let’s talk real estate.

To Negotiate or Not Negotiate Price.....That Is The Question

When the price is right...act quickly!

Should you always negotiate the price of a home you’re interested in? That’s a question more and more Canadian homebuyers are asking these days. While every transaction is different, some buyers may be surprised to learn that there will be times when it is appropriate -- and even desirable -- to go in at the asking price. This is where the expertise of your real estate professional really proves its worth. One of your sales representative’s most important duties is to provide you with the appropriate research to help you make sound decisions. They can tell you when a home is well priced, and whether or not there are comparable alternatives on the market. And they can also tell you if there are likely to be other offers competing with your own.

If you’ve found a great property that meets all your criteria, the asking price is attractive, and there aren’t any other comparable homes available, you may be well served to go in at the asking price. Buyers should take into consideration that negotiating the price extends the timeline when the home is still open to offers and during this time, other buyers may enter the process. Sometimes the best course of action is to go in at the asking price and bring negotiations to a swift conclusion. This is especially true in a hot market with low inventory.

But what happens if you’re interested in a home but think it’s overpriced? If everything else is right about the house, don’t just walk away...negotiate! You have nothing to lose and everything to gain by making an offer. If it’s not accepted exactly as submitted, then you are under no further obligation.

One word of caution -- be sure that you have your facts straight before you assume that a property is overpriced. Before you decide on what price to offer, your real estate representative can show you recent sales and also active listings of comparable properties, as well as advise you about local market trends and conditions. All this will help you to estimate what price range the home will likely sell for in the current market. And this same information can also help your sales representative to negotiate from a position of strength.

Want more advice on negotiating a fair price in today’s market? Contact your local real estate professional and get a better perspective.