Are you considering investing in a commercial humidifier? Do you want to learn more about them and how they can specifically benefit you and your industry?
Understanding the numerous benefits that commercial humidifiers can bring you may help make it easier for you to make the investment. So, here’s a list of fantastic benefits to show you just how beneficial humidifiers can be for your home and workplace, no matter which industry you work in.
Before you invest in one, remember to talk to your supplier about what kind of humidifier would be the best for the intended application, as there are many to choose from. They won’t solve all your problems just like that, but they can have more positive effects than you may realize.
General Benefits
1. Health Benefits
Low humidity and poor air quality can do more damage to your health than you may think. For instance, some problems that they can lead to include coughing, dry throats, irritated eyes, problems with contact lenses, excessive runny noses, nose bleeds, cracked lips, irritated skin, headaches, dehydration, colds, and flu. They can also lead to breathing problems, and aggravate existing problems such as asthma, eczema, arthritis, and allergies. Too much humidity can also cause problems, such as a build-up of mold that can be harmful to your health.
But, humidifiers can help solve these problems by keeping the relative humidity at a comfortable level between 30% to 50%.
Here are various ways that humidifiers can benefit your health:
- Improve indoor air quality
- Eliminate dust
- Reduce the risk of mold with non-wetting humidification solutions
- Improve your sleep, mood, energy levels
- Reduce the risk of causing and aggravating health problems
- Reduce the risk of spreading bacteria and viruses (e.g., reduces the risk of catching colds during winter)
- Lead to healthier and happier employees, which is conducive to a positive and productive work environment
2. Save Energy and Money
Considering the amount you may already spend on heating and cooling, you may think it’s not worth investing in a humidifier; however, you can save energy and money by using energy-saving humidifiers that use newer technology. They have low energy and water consumption, and don’t require frequent maintenance.
They help avoid problems that can be quite costly, such as damage to woodwork, electronics, and expensive equipment. Balancing the temperature and humidity in your building also means that you can use both the humidifier and heating system more efficiently.
3. Protect House Furnishings and Belongings
Not only can adjusting the humidity in your house help make it a healthier environment for you and your family, it can also prevent your house’s furnishings and your belongings from being damaged by poor indoor air quality. Some humidifiers even have built-in sensors that keep track of how much moisture is in the air and adjust automatically, so you don’t have to worry about water collecting on your belongings. It’s important to find a balance in humidity, because both too much and too little humidity can cause problems.
Not having enough humidity can cause these problems in your house:
- Damage to electronics from static shocks
- Damage to furniture
- Peeling wallpaper
- Dry and cracking paintings, wallpaper, woodwork, and wooden musical instruments
- Shrinking and cracking wooden floors and door frames
Too much humidity can also cause problems:
- Build-up of mold on curtains, carpet, furniture, and wood
- Warped and rotting wood
- Swollen wooden framing
4. Prevent Static Electricity
You may not think that shocks from static electricity are anything to worry about, aside from annoying you, but they can cause more harm than you think, especially if your workplace uses electronics or flammable chemicals. Excessive static electricity from overly low humidity can cause serious damage to expensive electronics in your building. Although you can’t completely remove static electricity, controlling the humidity in the air can greatly reduce the risk.
5. Eliminate Dust by Commercial Humidifiers
Dust suppression is another great benefit of humidifiers. With humidifiers, you can protect yourself and your employees so that you don’t regularly breathe in large amounts of dust that are harmful to your health. Here are some of the benefits you can enjoy with the Smart Fog MS100 Fogger’s dust suppression systems:
- Custom installations can reduce dust to required levels for environmental and worker safety standards
- The smallest droplets allow for maximum dust control
- Low water and electricity consumption save running costs, so it’s inexpensive to operate
- The Smart Fog MS100 Fogger System’s large 0.1″ orifice prevents clogging
- Years of reliable, low-maintenance operation
6. Maintain Optimal Humidity Levels All Year
Constant humidity control is the main reason why commercial humidifiers are so beneficial, as they allow you to maintain optimal humidity levels all year, so you can enjoy all of the benefits inside regardless of the weather outside.
Industry Benefits
Along with all the general benefits, commercial humidifiers can also bring numerous benefits for different industries.
7. Benefits for the Woodworking Industry
If you work in the woodworking industry, then you know how overly low humidity can negatively affect wood, causing problems that lose you money. With humidifiers, you can avoid these problems:
- Wood that is dry, warped, cracked, and shrinking
- Wood that resists paint and glue
- Build-up of static electricity
- Build-up of dust and mold, damaging your inventory
- Damage to machines
8. Benefits for the Printing Industry
The printing industry can reap many benefits from using commercial humidifiers, as they can help solve problems such as damaged paper, excessive amounts of dust, electrostatic build-up, and web breaks. With humidifiers, you can keep the humidity at an optimal level for printing, which is around 50% to 60% in an average printing facility.
Here are some of the ways that humidifiers can benefit those in the printing industry:
- Reduce paper damage, which means reduced waste
- Eliminate paper curling and cracking
- Prevent static build-up and paper sticking together
- Prevent faded ink
- Eliminate dust
- Reduce web breaks
- Reduce machine downtime
9. Benefits for the Textile Industry
Humidifiers are also beneficial for the textile industry, as they help create a more enjoyable and productive work environment. Here are the benefits of commercial humidifiers for the textile industry:
- Improve yarn quality and reduce shedding, which means reduced waste
- Improve weaving efficiency, as stronger yarn means reduced breakages, which means reduced machine downtime
- Prevent static build-up and reduce the risk of machine jams
- Stop textiles from losing moisture
- Prevent damage to your inventory from a build-up of dust and mold
10. Benefits for the Automotive Industry
You may not have considered this before, but commercial humidifiers can even be beneficial for the automotive industry. Here are some of the benefits:
- Prevent dust and static build-up from hindering the sanding process
- Improve painting quality, resulting in better quality bodywork
- Allow for more accurate results when testing exhaust emissions
Other Benefits
11. Benefits for Office Environments
Simply investing in a humidifier can dramatically affect your office environment. Here are some of the benefits:
- Prevent the build-up of dust, mold, and static electricity from damaging electronics and other office equipment
- Reduce the chance of illness and increase comfort for employees
- Bring health benefits that help increase productivity
12. Benefits for Hospitals
Humidifiers can be incredibly beneficial for hospitals. Here are some ways that hospitals can benefit from them:
- Reduce the risk of causing and aggravating health problems from overly low humidity and poor indoor air quality (e.g., infections, dry throats, irritated skin, aggravated allergies, etc.)
- Reduce the risk of spreading bacteria and viruses
- Prevent damage to hospital equipment from a build-up of static electricity
13. Benefits for Museums, Galleries, and Libraries
Temperature and humidity control is essential for museums, galleries, and libraries. Here are the benefits of commercial humidifiers for these places:
- Preserve books, paintings, and rare artefacts
- Prevent damage from dry air and excessive dust
- Prevent materials from warping and cracking (e.g., wooden frames, paintings, other artworks, rare artefacts, fragile books, etc.)
- Reduce the risk of mold with non-wetting humidification solutions
14. Benefits for Greenhouses
If you want better control of the humidity in your greenhouse, commercial humidifiers are a simple solution. They can help you maintain the perfect environment for growing beautiful plants in a greenhouse. Here are some of the benefits:
- Keep plants hydrated and healthy
- Reduce water consumption
- Better chance of survival for plants that can’t survive in low humidity environments, especially during winter
- Non-wetting humidification solutions ensure that excessive amounts of water don’t collect on plants
15. Benefits for Schools
Commercial humidifiers offer a simple solution for schools. Here are the benefits:
- Improve air quality in school buildings
- Prevent students from regularly breathing in harmful amounts of dust
- Increase comfort for students, especially in winter (e.g., preventing dry, irritated skin)
- Reduce the risk of spreading the cold or flu
- Reduce the risk of causing and aggravating health problems from overly low humidity and poor indoor air quality (e.g., dry throats, aggravated allergies and asthma, irritated skin, etc.)
16. Benefits for Cold Storage and Ripening Rooms
Here are some of the benefits of cold storage humidification systems:
- Extend the life of fruits and vegetables
- Maintain produce quality, weight, and freshness
- Maximize shelf life and reduce waste
- Match the right humidity with the right produce
- Reduce the risk of mold with non-wetting humidification solutions, which ensure that excessive amounts of water don’t collect on food
Remember that some produce are best stored in low humidity environments, while other produce are best stored in high humidity. For example, produce that’s best stored at 90% relative humidity or higher include asparagus, apples, broccoli, cabbage, carrots, cauliflower, celery, collards, corn, grapes, kale, leeks, lettuce, parsley, pears, peas, radishes, rhubarb, rutabagas and spinach.
17. Benefits for Wine Cellars
Better humidity control can help create and maintain the best conditions for wine cellars. Using humidifiers can bring you these benefits:
- Reduce the evaporation of wine through the barrels during the aging process
- Raising the humidity to 70% can reduce losses to evaporation to under 1% per year
- Maintain wine quality
- Preserve wine barrels
- Eliminate dust, bacteria, and mold
- Decrease risk of sealing problems (e.g., dry and cracked corks)
- Reduce topping, which means less topping costs, less labor, and less chance of mixing batches
- Llessen the risk of mold with non-wetting humidification solutions, which ensure that excessive amounts of water don’t collect on the barrels
Click here for more information on wine cellar humidity!
18. Benefits for Tea Production
In tea production applications, increasing the relative humidity can bring these benefits:
- Prevent leaves from drying and breaking during the rolling process
- Provide the best conditions for the oxidation process
- Reduce waste by reducing leaf spotting and discoloration
- Prevent dust and static build-up during teabag production
19. Benefits for Clean Rooms, Laboratories, and Pharmaceuticals
Precise humidity control in clean rooms, laboratories, and pharmaceuticals is essential for maintaining high standards and quality. Here are the benefits that humidifiers can bring:
- Reduce static electricity build-up and damage to equipment
- Maintain consistency of materials
- Provide accurate and reliable humidity control at all times
- Reduce the risk of mold with non-wetting humidification solutions
Top 9 Websites on Humidification and Indoor Air Quality
If you’re looking for more useful information on humidifiers and improving indoor air quality before making your decision, here is our list of top 9 websites on humidification and indoor air quality, with recommended pages to try.
- Knowledge hub, and information on various humidification applications.
- Information and recommended articles on humidification for healthcare, printing, and museums.
- Useful resources, specifically the articles and case studies on humidification.
- Posts on humidification and air quality.
- Blog posts on humidity.
- Information on various humidification applications.
- Blog posts on humidity and indoor air quality.
- Reviews and articles on humidifiers.
- Information on the benefits of humidity control.