Humidify a Room

I thought I'd share this useful information that I learned in thermodynamics as a hub, especially since I think it's reasonably common for many people to come across this situation in their day to day lives. Of course, the humidifier part is much more obvious, and a lot more people know about it. Check out my other hub on ice, the natural dehumidifier for a less obvious tip.

First of all, humidity in your living space is one of those things that can cause a lot of discomfort that you might not even realize (skin, eyes). As we are primarily water-based beings, humidity ratios are one of the most important aspects of comfort level, and living at the right humidity level can significantly improve your living conditions and your general well-being. That being said, I'd urge everyone to go get a humidifier/dehumidifier (especially one that cleans the room as well).

However, this hub is about the quick and easy (and free!) solution to help humidify your room. And the answer is...water! It's quite amazing, but water contained in bucket evaporates faster when the humidity in a room is low. This literally increases the amount of water (in gaseous form) floating around in the air, which increases the humidity of the room.

Try this out on a dry day when you can really feel your skin itching. Also, as is the case with ice, you can easily do this in a hotel, except fill a the ice bucket with warm water. If you have a bucket of ice already, make sure to leave the top open. As referenced in my other article, leaving a bucket of covered ice will dehumidify the room slightly, but leaving the cover off will begin to rehumidify the room once the ice starts to melt.

This water evaporation method works especially well for smaller rooms/living space, and larger exposed container surface areas. Also, having some sort of fan action definitely improves the effectiveness of this method. The effects may not be immediate, but it doesn't take a large change to feel much better. This is because 100% humidity (at 80 degrees fahrenheit) means that the amount of water is roughly 1% of the total weight of air. Thus, to go down to 90% humidity, you only have about remove a tenth of a percent (0.1%) of the weight of air in the room on your container. Hope you can take comfort in making your living space more comfortable!